Copyright and art law through the eyes of a novelist (and a legal scholar):
Gary Pulsinelli, Harry Potter and the (Re)Order of the Artists: Are We Muggles or Goblins?
Excerpt:
Unshelved Comic Strip (published Sunday, September 27, 2009) features the book “Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing and Ethical Guidelines, 12th edition.”
Don’t you love it when you learn from comic book? (And, how about a comic book on copyright law, which I blogged about here.)
This program is part of the UO Portland Summer Spotlight series.
“Interested in how copyright law affects creative work? Itching to write your own version of copyright law? Curious to know how musicians and artists might talk to an entertainment attorney, and vice versa?
Join the UO Portland Library and Learning Commons at 6:30 pm on Thursday, July 16 for “Free Culture: Creating Copyright and Copyrighting Creation,” a lively discussion of copyright and the arts. UO alum and entertainment lawyer Peter Shaver will talk with Portland-based electropop trio YACHT, and will engage the audience in a real-time redraft of copyright law.
If you think the news is all about Presidential (so to speak) elections and economic meltdowns – think again!
A pooch to protect: Rin Tin Tin’s latest film doesn’t sit well with Daphne Hereford, and if she has her way, the star’s next drama could be in court, by MARY FLOOD, Copyright, 2008 Houston Chronicle, Oct. 6, 2008, 11:26PM, excerpt:
“… . Rin Tin Tin is important to me and to other people,” said the owner of www.rintintin.com, author of a fan club newsletter, seller of furry memorabilia and holder of seven Rin Tin Tin federal trademarks. “I had the choice to let the Rin Tin Tin legacy go by the wayside but, to me, it stands for honesty, goodness and integrity.”
Yes, Virginia, you can trademark a font (no, not a fount, at least not this kind of fount).
See story at BlueOregon and What The FOnt? The Great GOrdOn Smith LOgO Mystery (at DuckSportNews).
More:
What are Orphan Works and why does anyone care about them? (No, this is not a post about Charles Dickens and the working orphans who populate his novels. I’m an Our Mutual Friend fan myself – see here about these digressions. Sorry.)
1) “Orphan works” described here and here.
2) Why does anyone care? The usual: Life, art, money, legislation, and Justice, Truth and the American Way.
3) A sampling of websites on the subject, though there are, as you would expect, zillions of others:
One of the latest course books we received from OLI is, “Licensing Intellectual Property: Basics and Applications in Media and Technology Transfer,” from a June 1st, 2007, program. This sounds horribly dry and specialized, but it’s not! The contents are funny, informative, well-organized, and cover everything from, if not soup to nuts, then at least from Patent Pitfalls to My Space to “Open Sourcery.” There is even a Checklist (lawyers and librarians love Checklists!) on “Copyright Tips for Using Content of Others,” by attorney Gary Glisson.
My library purchases many course books from the OSB, OLI, and MBA courses that Oregon attorneys are required to take. Some of these course books are terrific stand-alone research tools. Not every attorney/teacher does a good job with printed teaching material, but those who do – well, we thank them!
The other attorneys who participated in this particular CLE include, Julie Reed, David McFeeters-Krone, Paula Holm Jensen, Jeff Pitzer, Michael Heilbronner, Kohel Have, and Brian Jamison.
What do local artists do if they need legal or business advice? They do what everyone else does, they read, research, organize, schmooze, and of course, check out what their local libraries have on tap.
I’ve compiled this list of resources for Portland-metro area (and some for further afield). If you know of others that would be useful referrals, let me know. Art law encompasses a vast range of subjects including copyright, property law, international law, censorship, environmental law, sales, taxation, etc., etc., etc., and I couldn’t begin to cover most let alone all of these subejcts. But you have to start somewhere, so, with apologies to Jackie Gleason, “And away we go!” …
Primary Sources of Law, e.g. statutes and case law:
If this isn’t wonderful, “Ecstasy of Influence,” by Jonathan Lethem, I’ll bite my blog. (Linked to via Library Link of the Day, 2/14/07). An excerpt is below, but read the whole thing. You’ll smile at the logic, the flaws, and the humor, but will also be provoked beyond measure. And it is only by chance that I posted a couple of days ago to Posner’s book on plagiarism. Enjoy:
“The idea that culture can be property—intellectual property—is used to justify everything from attempts to force the Girl Scouts to pay royalties for singing songs around campfires to the infringement suit brought by the estate of Margaret Mitchell against the publishers of Alice Randall’s The Wind Done Gone. Corporations like Celera Genomics have filed for patents for human genes, while the Recording Industry Association of America has sued music downloaders for copyright infringement, reaching out-of-court settlements for thousands of dollars with defendants as young as twelve. ASCAP bleeds fees from shop owners who play background music in their stores; students and scholars are shamed from placing texts facedown on photocopy machines. At the same time, copyright is revered by most established writers and artists as a birthright and bulwark, the source of nurture for their infinitely fragile practices in a rapacious world. Plagiarism and piracy, after all, are the monsters we working artists are taught to dread, as they roam the woods surrounding our tiny preserves of regard and remuneration.” [from Harper’s Magazine, Lethem, “Ecstasy of Influence”]
Oregon Legal Research Blog