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Full-Text Articles in Law
Literature’S Idea-Expression Distinction: Drawing A Line With Distinctive Elements Of Alternate Worlds, Joshua Jeng
Literature’S Idea-Expression Distinction: Drawing A Line With Distinctive Elements Of Alternate Worlds, Joshua Jeng
Joshua Jeng
The line between ideas and expressions in copyright law has never been particularly clear. We want to protect what authors create so that they are motivated to create more, but we want broad concepts to remain free so that others may produce even more works. The distinction concept and an author's take on a concept has always been very difficult to define, even among legal scholars, and has largely remained misunderstood by the average author. However, as derivative works increase in prevalence and economic importance, the need for workable framework for understanding copyright that the lay author can understand is …
Gotham Skylines: The Intersection Of Scènes À Faire And Fictional Facts In Comic Books, Graphic Novels, And Their Derivative Works, Gavin M. Strube
Gotham Skylines: The Intersection Of Scènes À Faire And Fictional Facts In Comic Books, Graphic Novels, And Their Derivative Works, Gavin M. Strube
Pace Intellectual Property, Sports & Entertainment Law Forum
In just a decade and a half since the modern superhero film exploded onto the scene, the comic books and graphic novels that have long been the very definition of a fringe or niche interest, have morphed into a multi-billion dollar film, television and video game empire. The two main players in this industry, Marvel and DC, are owned by juggernauts in the entertainment industry. More importantly, some of these characters have been around for over three-quarters of a century. Readers keyed into intellectual property law, particularly copyright, should begin to see the issue. The copyright protection on these characters …
Derivative Works 2.0: Reconsidering Transformative Use In The Age Of Crowdsourced Creation, Jacqueline D. Lipton, John Tehranian
Derivative Works 2.0: Reconsidering Transformative Use In The Age Of Crowdsourced Creation, Jacqueline D. Lipton, John Tehranian
Articles
Apple invites us to “Rip. Mix. Burn.” while Sony exhorts us to “make.believe.” Digital service providers enable us to create new forms of derivative work — work based substantially on one or more preexisting works. But can we, in a carefree and creative spirit, remix music, movies, and television shows without fear of copyright infringement liability? Despite the exponential growth of remixing technologies, content holders continue to benefit from the vagaries of copyright law. There are no clear principles to determine whether any given remix will infringe one or more copyrights. Thus, rights holders can easily and plausibly threaten infringement …