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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.' "
That escalated quickly.
Well -- we all knew they were up to something -- now we now it really was world domination, just not the way we all expected.
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.
Frosted breakfast toaster pastries aren't an exclusively owned intellectual property. Nyan Cat doesn't have a "Pop Tart (tm)" label on the image; just an image of a food (?) product of which many generic variants are available.
So, you're saying that WB infringed the memes, knowing they'd be sued, just so they could lose the case and set a precedent which they could then turn around and use against 4chan?
I think your tin foil hat is borken.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
From the article:
"Both Mr Torres and Mr Schmidt own copyrights and trademarks of the characters."
This space available.
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.
No, in fact, they're not public domain. Declaring them public domain based on their pervasiveness would mean that Mickey Mouse is also public domain-- and we all know that isn't true.
Pretty sure Fatso the keyboard cat was simply posted on YouTube and the meme snowballed.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
That's Pop-Tarts®. You'll be hearing from our lawyers shortly.
Sincerely,
Kellogg Company Special Counsel for Intellectual Property Issues
"Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
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.