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Astronaut Sues Dido For Album Cover
An anonymous reader writes "Astronaut Bruce McCandless is suing Dido for her album cover that uses a famous NASA photograph of a tiny, tiny, tiny McCandless floating in space. McCandless doesn't own the copyright on the photo, so he's claiming it's a violation of his publicity rights ... except that he's so tiny in the photo, it's not like anyone's going to recognize him."
A NASA astronaut you've never heard of is suing a signer you've never heard of. We've launched investigations into both of these people and will try to explain who they are. Your Late Local News is next.
If there were a picture of you under a word closely resembling "Dildo" you'd be upset, too.
Airplane Photos, Airline News, Planespotting Guides
By suing, everyone will know it's him, regardless of how tiny he is in the picture, thus giving him grounds to sue. So if he doesn't sue, he has no grounds to sue, therefore he must sue!
That being said, the entire area of Right of Privacy law is fascinating. I was reading through this website and there's some really good meat there for discussion.
By suing, everyone will know it's him, regardless of how tiny he is in the picture, thus giving him grounds to sue. So if he doesn't sue, he has no grounds to sue, therefore he must sue!
I am familiar with the picture but I didn't know it was McCandless. Given that he actually got paid to do something which I will never be able to pay to be able to do, I don't have a lot of sympathy for him.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Traditionally trolls have lived under bridges, but it appears that they've infiltrated NASA and are now making their way into outer space!!!
BE....WARE.....OF....SPACE....TROLLS
(especially if you're a recording artist)
You have been warned. We will now return you to your regularly scheduled IP rights battle.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
By suing, everyone will know it's him, regardless of how tiny he is in the picture, thus giving him grounds to sue. So if he doesn't sue, he has no grounds to sue, therefore he must sue!
And what we can't see in the photo is that under the space suit, it's really Chewbacca. Which makes no sense.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
We know the submitter of this post is from a marketing agency by the blatant attempts made (several times in a short amount of text) to lead the reader to a conclusion.
We also know Slashdot has utterly sold out, as the said marking drone somehow circumvented the tradition of being called an anonymous coward: "An anonymous reader writes".
I suspect that Dido has cut a check to McCandless. This is great, and probably cheap publicity.
I could have sworn that was Buzz Aldrin....
I want to thank you
For giving me the best day of my life.
Sincerely,
Dido
Number of people who now know Bruce McCandless is an asshole: everyone who reads this story. If he wins the lawsuit, he'll still be an asshole.
If you look down at the Earth just below and right of McCandless, you can see me looking up shouting at him to get out of my sky.
I believe that Bruce McCandless is arguing that Dido is using his image to promote her album (like an endorsement). It would be like Pepsi taking a picture of Tom Cruise on the street and putting his picture in their advertisements.
I believe that the laws in the USA confer the right of the famous to control the use of their likeness in publicity for things that are not related to them or what they do, meaning that companies have to have a contract with the person before any endorsement or advertising can occur.
No, you're right on the money. I was looking for one earlier when I read this comment.
I think adding something along the lines of FB's "Like" button could salvage Slashdot's next-to-useless moderation system. You could tie it in with the existing relationship system. Maybe I see comments my friends or (optionally) friends of friends "liked" highlighted, while comments they disliked are buried. Failing that, let me choose to not see moderations by particular users. That could be done without necessarily identifying the moderator.
Of course it would be optional, and I would probably still browse at a low threshold, but it would offer a more refined experience for those who want it without the abuse the current system suffers.
I don't care why you're posting AC
the american justice system... score: 5 "funny because it's true"
Perhaps it is a plot from the record industry to get people to download the cover, so they can sue everybody who saw it and not only the bittorrent people. That way they can eliminate this pesky thing called Internet that screw over their business plan.
You might think it would be legal to see the picture and have it in your cache, but you also might think it is legal to have a copy of work you bought. They have the money, they make the rules.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
It's a bit hard to see and I'm hardly recognizable, but I'm somewhere down in the ocean on the deck of a ship.
Maybe he should pay back all the US tax dollars it cost to get him there in the first place? Then we can talk about publicity rights ...
Rich.
libguestfs - tools for accessing and modifying virtual machine disk images
Just wait until the ancient Carthaginians get in on the act and start suing for people misusing their founders name.....
Wait, you guys are siding with a RECORD COMPANY over an ASTRONAUT?
And the record company is SONY?
Is this opposite day?
I don't know if the particular image is copyrighted, but clearly the person in photo is not recognizable. You could put any person in that space suit for that photo and not tell the difference.
That's(TM) One(TM) Small(TM) Step(TM) For(TM) Man(TM)....
Table-ized A.I.