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Warner Bros. Sued By Meme Creators Over Copyright Infringement
Krazy Kanuck sends this quote from the BBC: "Warner Bros is being sued for the alleged unauthorized use of two cats that have achieved internet fame. ... The complaint alleged that the cats were used without permission in Scribblenauts, a series of games on the Nintendo DS and other platforms. Court documents alleged that Warner Bros and 5th Cell 'knowingly and intentionally infringed' both claimant's ownership rights. 'Compounding their infringements,' court papers (PDF) said, 'defendants have used "Nyan Cat" (designed by Christopher Torres) and "Keyboard Cat" (created in 1984 by Charles Schmidt), even identifying them by name, to promote and market their games, all without plaintiffs' permission and without any compensation to plaintiffs.' "
... How do you like them poptarts?
are the submarine patents of culture.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
This.
If the creators really wanted to protect their creations from such use, they should have trademarked them.
Of course, trademarked stuff can't really become a meme in the first place, since the trademark must be actively defended at all times. And not becoming a meme would have meant it probably wouldn't have been found in allegedly "unauthorized" works anyways.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
These media conglomerates salivate in their sleep while dreaming of litigating the crap out of anyone they can get away with so that they can maintain a stranglehold on culture.
I am totally in favor of culture biting them in the ass, using the very laws they weas^H^H^H^Hchampioned.
Doesn't Nyan cat use the image of a Pop Tart as the body of the cat?
"I was under the impression that once something becomes a meme, it is essentially public domain since it's extensive public use would forfeit any intellectual rights the creators may have had.
"
You don't seem to understand copyright at all then, sadly. Everything you just said is wrong. .
Fair Use.
Can we all just agree that carrying forward the ancient concept of copyright is ridiculous in a world where it cannot be enforeced without draconian measures?
We should learn what we need to know about issues, before we decide what we need to feel about them.
Clearly the creators are confused. When big media takes something and uses it, that is just fine and everyone should look the other way. But if they (the big media maffia) even accuse anyone of taking something of theirs (or even that they would like to be theirs but really isn't) then that person is guilty and owes them irrational amounts of compensation.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Yeah, I think it's not that it's being used, per se. That happens all the time and people do these and share them for fun. What happened here is that it slapped onto a product that was sold for profit without the original creators permission. In other words, they were actually making money off of someone else work without compensation.
Then why were those trademarks not defended when they started being publicly used without authorization in the first place? There is an abundance of historical precedent that if you fail to defend your trademarks, you lose them.
Of course, if they had defended them in the first place, then by very definition of what a meme is, they never would have become one.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
they were actually making money off of someone else work without compensation.
Which is irrelevant in determining fair use.
How so? The first factor in a fair use determination under U.S. law (17 USC 107) involves whether or not the "purpose and character" was commercial.
True, but fair use does not require any use not make money for the person claiming fair use; for example you can use a clip in a critique of the that is published in a for profit magazine.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.