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Copyright Battle Over Nothing

An Anonymous Coward writes: "In this story reported at The Independent is "one of the more curious copyright disputes of modern times." It appears that the key question is "which part of the silence was stolen." If only this was April First. This is a lawsuit suing over the sound of nothing, no sound, silence, nada, zilch, bupkiss.

13 of 474 comments (clear)

  1. If a tree.... by websaber · · Score: 5, Funny

    If a tree falls in the forest..... is it liable for infringement?

    --
    "A good friend will bail you out of jail. A true friend will be sitting next to you saying, 'damn....that was fun!'"
  2. My copyright... by AmigaAvenger · · Score: 5, Funny

    I hereby copyright the sound of a tree falling in the middle of a forest when no one is around to hear it. This is in addition to my copyright on the sound of one hand clapping. These copyrights shall be persued by the fullest extent of the law.

  3. Let us all.. by MisterBlister · · Score: 5, Funny
    Let us all bow our heads for a minute of silence while we mourn the passing of common sense in the legal system.

    Ok...
    ...

    Done? Ok suckers, that will be $1000 per person for infringing upon the silence copyright made payable to FU Attorneys At Law. Pay up or else!!

  4. How.. by Renraku · · Score: 5, Funny

    How can the absence of something be called a copyright violation? Unless you're looking at the quantum superstate of blank media (which would mean that anything that can exist on blank media would exist on it until it was observed), which would further enrage the RIAA and push them to sue people who produce blank media.

    --
    Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
    1. Re:How.. by quintessent · · Score: 5, Funny

      Hey, maybe that's why the RIAA gets a payment whenever I purchase a blank CD. And I thought it was to pay for the music which they were planning for me to put on it after I bought it.

  5. I'll right your copy! by delta407 · · Score: 5, Funny
    #include <stdio.h>

    void main()
    {
    short silence[60*44100];
    memset(silence, 0, sizeof(silence));

    FILE * out = fopen("silence.pcm", "w");
    fwrite(silence, sizeof(short), 60*44100, out);
    fclose(out);
    }

    Music piracy at its worst, I tell ya.

  6. okay... my turn!!! by erroneus · · Score: 5, Funny

    As long as people are throwing out one-liners:

    "You don't have the right to remain silent. Anything you don't say will be used against you in a court of law..."

  7. My only comment is this: by gvonk · · Score: 5, Funny



    © gvonk, 2002, all rights reserved, etc.

    --


    El Karma: excelente(principalmente la suma de moderación hecha a los comentarios de los usuarios)
  8. I love that song... by BlueFall · · Score: 5, Funny

    The song (both versions) is one of my favorites. It's so catchy. I've had it stuck in my head whenever I didn't have another song stuck in my head... ;-)

  9. Blank media tax by G-funk · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hey, all you canucks out there - no need to pay blank media taxes on cd-rs... they're not blank. they're simply recordings of a cover of 4'33" :-)

    --
    Send lawyers, guns, and money!
    1. Re:Blank media tax by Grax · · Score: 5, Funny

      How come they're 74 minutes long then?

      It is the dance mix.

  10. Nixon by adam613 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Former US President Richard Nixon can claim prior art on this. He recorded 18 and a half minutes of silence back in the 70s.

  11. Re:MP3's? by Ralph+Bearpark · · Score: 5, Funny

    Watch out, the record company are probably distributing dummy mp3s with the first 15secs repeated over and over ...

    Regards, Ralph.