The fourth and final part of Kirby Ferguson’s outstanding video series Everything is a Remix was posted yesterday. Click here to watch the whole Everything is a Remix series. Click here for Part 4 of Everything is a Remix, which focuses on the history of copyright and patents and some current issues in these areas of law. Trust me – these videos are fascinating and are certainly much more entertaining than my descriptions make them out to be.
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Keep it Legal Blog
EA Takes on the Military-Industrial Complex
February 8, 2012
Electronic Arts (EA) is well known for the lifelike characters and realistic imagery found in its video games. While their state-of-the-art graphics has made them successful, EA is now entering a real-life court battle. Their opponent: Bell Helicopter’s parent corporation Textron. The case involves EA’s use of images of real world helicopters in the game Battlefield 3.
Banana Battle: Velvet Underground & Warhol’s Common Law Trademark Dispute
February 1, 2012
The Velvet Underground, a seminal underground rock band from the 1960s, recently filed a trademark and unfair competition lawsuit (link opens to a PDF) against the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. The Andy Warhol Foundation has been licensing an image, which Andy Warhol drew in 1966, for use on various products – the same banana image that was on the cover of the Velvet Underground’s first album, The Velvet Underground and Nico. The complaint by the band demands damages for trademark infringement and unfair competition and a declaratory judgment that states the Warhol Foundation does not have a…
Can I Use a Coldplay Song in my Wedding Video? Ask Tony Romo…
January 25, 2012
When the Dallas Cowboys’ quarterback Tony Romo’s wedding video, set to Coldplay’s song “Fix You,” went viral on YouTube, the videographer, Joe Simon Wedding Films, thought it would be great publicity for his business. Instead, Joe Simon was threatened with a $150,000 lawsuit for not having purchased a license for the music rights. He quickly and quietly settled the lawsuit. His company and many other wedding videographers proceeded to take down their work from the Internet for fear of similar lawsuits. From a technical standpoint, it’s clear that Simon violated a basic principle of copyright law by using the song…
