Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with copyright

Technical/legal questions about a site that will parody a trademarked brand

Riki tiki — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 19:59:14 -0800

I'm thinking of creating a political parody website that may step on some toes and/or trademarks. I have a few technical and legal questions about how best to go about this. So I had an idea for lambasting a prominent political party in the United States. I was shocked to find that a really obvious domain name for that party was available, but it may infringe upon a trademark for that party.

I know YANAL and YANML, but a little guidance as to the prudent first steps here would be appreciated. I would assume (but correct me if I'm wrong) that free-speech protections of satire and parody may protect me from some of the trademark issues. But I also sense that those lines may become fuzzier if I ever appear to draw a profit from the site. Is there anything I can do to reasonably ensure that my site is on firm legal ground without the cost of consulting an actual attorney?

On more of a technical level, does anyone know of a good hosting company that could be relied upon to keep the site running even if they got big scary letters on legal stationery from that political party?

This idea is still in the brainstorming stages, so I'm probably imagining a bigger future for it than will realistically happen... but I'd rather be overprepared than underprepared.

Music for a good mourning

b33j — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 18:18:53 -0800

Copyright issues with memorial DVDs? I recently produced a DVD of photographs and music for a friend of a friend's funeral. None of the photographs were professional, but the music was from my personal collection of mp3s. As I was not paid for this, I didn't give it a second thought. Now, however, the funeral director has contacted me asking whether I can provide this service to his clients. What issues are there with scanning professional photos (there's bound to be a couple in every set) and buying music to use as a soundtrack? Where do I start to look for this information? If the client provides me with the mp3s to embed, is that okay?

I'm in Australia and I have read the 31 music + copyright questions

Help me find a region free blu ray player.

digividal — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:13:01 -0800

Help me find a (US market) Blu-Ray player that can be converted to play dvds from any region. I have a large collection of dvds from around the world. Some of them are region encoded for other regions than the US.
I have had various dvd players that can be modified in one way or another to play dvds from any region.

(I am not worried about the PAL/NTSC difference)

I recently got a blu ray player, and I love what the upscaling it does on most of my dvds. However it refuses to play non region 1 dvds.

(Note I am here talking about regular dvds, I am as of now not worried about the blu ray region encoding).

In an effort to keep my life simple, I would prefer to have one unit that could play my blu rays, my dvds and my foreign dvds.

I did some searching on the internet and went out and bought a LG 370 blu ray player, since I had seen a file to hack it on the internet. It turns out after much sweat that the us model I got with the latest firmware is not modifiable.

So, what I am looking for, is a blu ray player, available on the US market, preferably some large chain store, that either out of the box, or with an available mod, will play dvds from any region.

There are several parameters to that,
1) Its currently available
2) The current hardware and firmware versions are still modifiable.
3) The mod or hacks is easy to find and works.

If someone has been able to mod a LG 370 US model successfully I would have to hear about that too.

Will I get in trouble for posting mp3s to my blog?

hagelslaag — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 21:33:22 -0800

i am (surprise surprise) into blogs. and before i was into blogs, i was into music. now i like to post mp3s to my blog. is it a bad idea to label which song/artist it is -- as in, are there really crazy music coppers who will show up on my doorstep to arrest me? my blog's host is tumblr, which makes it easy to share an mp3 a day. should i just forgo labelling which songs i post? or is it pointless to even worry about this at all? i have no idea how intense lawyers are these days about persuing folks who share tunes online, and i don't want to get sued just 'cause i want to spread my love for joe meek.

History of Copyright Symbol

cinemafiend — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:25:35 -0800

Can anyone point me to the origins/history of the © symbol? I've read that the symbol was first called for in U.S. Copyright Law in the 19th Century - but where does the symbol come from? My google fu is in "you suck" mode today.

I'm searching for information/articles on the origins of the copyright symbol (©) - and please don't tell me the answer is in the latest Dan Brown novel.

I'll accept answers that suggest databases and journals that I should research for this kind of information!

Once on youtube, always on youtube?

bumpkin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:53:31 -0800

How to remove a video featuring myself from Youtube or Myspace. Put otherwise: do I have any rights to this? I emailed Myspace to remove a video that profiles me and that was used for marketing for a college I used to work for. Their bot promptly responded with requests for information re: copyright. I did not create this video, but as far as I know, I did not sign away any rights to it (at the time, I cooperated with the making of this rather cheesy, now embarrasing work). Am I just going to have to live with this? I would link to the video in question, but I rather far too google-able as it is right now....

Copyright question

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:12:00 -0800

Copyright question: if I'm doing a report for school can I copy and paste someone elses graph into my report if I cite them? Someone made up a really good chart and I want to make sure I wont get in trouble for using it. I took it off their website but I am crediting them as the source. Anon because I'm embarrassed to have to ask.

Copyright filter

quidividi — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:42:34 -0800

Copyright filter: Do publishers of books like Richistan, Microtrends and The Ascent of Money—all of which use stories from newspapers, magazines and wire services as source material—have to pay the periodicals for the use of their material? Thanks!

I just want everyone to hear my Nickelback covers.

robotot — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 01:50:28 -0800

Why are there so many covers songs on youtube? I've searched for "acoustic covers" on youtube, and read youtube's policy and I can't reconcile the two.

Obviously, performing a cover on youtube is copyright infringement. Do the majority of these youtube users get away with it 'cos the rights holders don't care, or would they all have got permission?

Where to find copyright free historical images?

LarryC — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:21:27 -0800

What are the best searchable sources for copyright-free historical and other images? I know about Wikimedia Commons, about searching for Creative Commons licensed material on Flickr, and about some regional repositories such as the Washington State Digital Archives (where I work). What other good sources are out there? Google searches lead me to subscription databases of stock photos.

What exactly is "fair use"?

Eumachia L F — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 19:16:05 -0800

What are the legalities of mentioning copyrighted characters in a work of fiction? I'm editing a novel for someone who has used well-known characters from several classic books as descriptors. They take the form of "they looked like [classic characters]" and "I had to wear my [character] t-shirt." This second one gets tricky, because it also carries over into trademark issues with character-related products that do exist. Does something like this require official permission from the copyright/trademark holders? (I'm guessing it does, but I want my ducks in a row when I tell her to change it)

Added wrinkle: what if the references are *slightly* incorrect (as in, a possibly intentional misspelling), but still close enough to be a clear reference to a specific character? Is this a loophole she could exploit if she really wanted to? Note, this is not my suggestion to her, but how it's presented in the text I've been given to edit.

How do I protect a card game invention?

velvetsmog — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 15:51:34 -0800

I have invented a card game and would like to protect it before I start large-scale game testing. I can't find useful information about the laws surrounding protecting this kind of intellectual property. First, what kind of protections should I be seeking for a card game? Second, any recommendations on reputable, ethical lawyers in Seattle who can help me protect my game?

Pimpin' the Public Domain?

AzraelBrown — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 05:41:38 -0800

Someone wants to license a public domain photo from me - does that even work? I am one of those guys who likes to scan old photos and magazines and put them online. The stuff from Popular Mechanics, nobody emails me about. The 19th century cabinet photos, a little moreso: about once a month or so, I get an email from an advertising agency or other company, requesting information and rates on licensing these photos. In the past, my attitude has been to say, just credit me, or ignore them if they feel spammy.

I understand that, in a rough gray area, converting these photos by digitizing them might kinda possibly make them a derivative work, but not really. Beyond that, they're old enough to be public domain, and really, since I'm not the original artist, I wouldn't have any copyright ownership of the originals anyway. I "own" these images in that I've got the physical copy, but I have no claim to the copyright...which doesn't exist for these in the U.S. anyway.

Still, since I'm the only person with this image, I'm still a gatekeeper of sorts, and I put a high enough resolution version of the images online that they wouldn't have to go through me, but they're covering their butts and they are required to ask, and if there's a revenue stream here I'd hate to ignore it. On the other hand, the AP got a crapstorm for expecting licenses to be paid for public domain things, so I don't want to be "that jerk with the old photos," either. The reason I didn't find anything related in previous AskMetafilter searches is usually people are asking copyright questions to stop somebody from duplicating their stuff, or use something without securing rights. YANAL, yes, but my question is: is it possible, legal, ethical for me to set up a form and a rate sheet on my website, and expect people to follow it when licensing these public domain photos?

How to track down public performance rights for films?

muscatlove — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:29:55 -0800

What happened to the US public performance rights for many Studio Ghibli (home of director Hayao Miyazaki) animated films? I'm trying to set up a film festival and no one seems to know who owns the rights.. is there any way to find out? I've been trying to get a series of 4 films to show for a Japanese film series for about 3 months, and I'm at the bang-head-on-desk stage of things as I wonder why companies make it so difficult to find out how to legally screen their products. After giving up on a number of films with no US rights holder due to companies that are seemingly impossible to get a response from, I thought that it might be much easier to deal with US rights holders with clear policies instead.

So I turned to Swank Motion Pictures, distributor for Disney/Buena Vista Home Entertainment, who owned the US rights for several Studio Ghibli films. However, I went through their catalog and was surprised to see only 4 films listed, when there used to be many more. After talking to them on the phone, they told me that recently they had been excited to expand their animation offerings by several orders of magnitude, only to receive warning that the rights were no longer valid for a large percentage of films not long after, forcing them to pull many titles from their catalogs, including most of the Studio Ghibli films I wanted to show.

Thinking this was odd, I searched online (Google, Variety.com, etc.) for a few hours trying to see if the US rights moved elsewhere instead.. no dice. Then I got a phone number for Walt Disney/Buena Vista's reception from a reference librarian, and the staffer said I'd have to talk to the legal department for information, and that phone transfer lead me to a message that the voice mail for the number was not valid and it hung up on me. Calling back hasn't worked so far..

I'm starting to wonder just what happened to the screening rights for all of these films (specifically "Whisper of the Heart" and "Porco Rosso"), as the DVDs are still for sale and I can't find a single reference anywhere to legal difficulties.

Anyone know what might have happened, or how to find out? My eternal gratitude if you know of some centralized database where one can find out who owns the rights (and how to contact them!) for films that ISN'T the Internet Movie Database..

Do I really have to blur out every coke can?

yellowbinder — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 09:02:58 -0800

What are the rules regarding logos captured incidentally in documentary? I'm working on a documentary webseries with a corporate sponsor, and was curious what the rules are regarding other corporate logos. Obviously we are clear to use our sponsor's logo wherever it appears, and we're going to blur out competitors' logos (not so much on our sponsors request, more because these are alcohol products shown being used by underage people and we don't want any potential issues).

So that's clear, but what about other logos, like clothing brands, coke cans, etc? Do we have to blur all logos wherever they appear?

This is in Canada, if relevant. Thanks for any help you can provide!

Is including a movie poster image in a blog legal?

t-rex — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 06:30:14 -0800

Question about copyright of DVD/CD cover images, and movie images/posters, and posting them on a blog. I have a blog, where I discuss movies I see (not necessarily "reviews", but just discussing what was interesting, and linking it back to real life experiences/thoughts).

I'd like to include an image with my posts, such as the DVD cover, or movie poster. However, I would first like to know what the copyright situation of this is, and whether posting these images is legal.

Additionally, what about screencaps from a movie?

We want shirts, but don't want to infringe on any trademarks or copyrights.

IndigoRain — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 19:07:03 -0800

I run a website dedicated to vintage PC games (that is, games from the late 80s, early 90s). Ad revenue has been declining, and a co-admin suggested making t-shirts to sell to support the site. I have questions about what art/words we can use on the shirts. Obviously we can't use actual screenshots or art from the games or boxes. We'd also stay away from using the company's logos and the names of the games, assuming that those are also trademarked.

1. Can we use the game's character's names as a t-shirt slogan? (e.g. "Long live King Bob!") What about the names of the fictional lands within the games? (e.g. "I went to the Land of the Purple Isles and all I got was this lousy t-shirt!")

2. My website domain name contains the name of the company who created these vintage games. It's still okay to use my domain name on the shirts, isn't it?

3. Can we use fan-art on the t-shirts that depict the characters or scenes from the games? How different does the fan-art have to be from the actual art from the game?

4. Can we use any quotes from the games?

Logo No Go?

weapons-grade pandemonium — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 18:09:23 -0800

Paging the MeFi Counterfeit Brigade. Two logos are suspiciously similar. How likely is it that the more recent design was copied? The new City of Kelowna logo, for which they spent $80,000 (consultation, research, design, etc.) is about to be adopted when, whoops! an astonishingly similar logo (designed two years previously) surfaces. What are the odds that this is a coincidence, especially considering that the first one was published on logolounge.com (scroll down)? Is there a computer design program that would spit out similar Spirograph designs with similar color combinations? Can/should the city copyright a design that is so similar, even though the original may not have a formal coypright? Give me your best sleuthing analysis.

Help Me Figure Out the Legality of Having Beer Labels in a Bar Advertisement

rmrudy — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 10:55:38 -0800

Do print ads for bars/restaurants have to blur the labels on the beers they carry in pictures? Our bar is putting out an ad in a magazine and the picture we're planning on using has a lot of the beers we carry in it. Do we have to censor the labels of beers we carry at our bar for the print ad for any reason? I know it seems like a silly question, but I'm genuinely clueless. Copyright, the magazine taking issue with free advertisement for the beers, etc? I'm not turning up many helpful things in my errant Google searches. Thanks hive-mind.

Does off the monitor mean off the hook?

Morpeth — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 13:21:54 -0800

About 15 years ago I was told that still images shot off a video monitor fall under fair use provisions for print publications, as long as the frame of the console is clearly visible in the shot. Is this true? The images I'm planning to shoot are not Hollywood films nor commercial TV programs but rather educational and industrial films from the 1950s. I still plan to get permissions for those works whose copyright holders I can identify, but in many cases this will be difficult or impossible.

Cover Your Tracks / Copyright Law

jfrancis — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:25:58 -0800

Does a principle called 'Cover Your Tracks' exist in copyright? When I was a young artist in the 80's, I dimly recall reading a book (title and author unknown) that discussed, among other things, copyright law for artists. The book, if I remember correctly, said that it was okay to start with someone else's work as a basis for your own, as long as by the time you were done you had transformed it to the point where you 'covered your tracks' and disguised your work's starting point.

The book was not talking about the mythical '30% rule,' it didn't offer a 'percentage,' it used the phrase 'cover your tracks.' I seem to recall the book saying that a court had ruled that to 'cover your tracks' was permissible.

My question is: does such a concept, and phrase, exist in copyright law?

---

btw: I'm not looking for advice, legal or otherwise on some pending project of mine, I just want a chance to know if that vague memory of that book is correct or not.

Can I use the Time Management Matrix in my software?

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:07:18 -0800

Can I use the "Time Management Matrix" in a commercial software product without any legal repercussions? (If you're not familiar with the Time Management Matrix, you can find a good primer here.)

My understanding is that the Matrix was popularized by Stephen Covey's book First Things First, and was later featured in some of his other books. Since then it has been widely used in motivational and leadership books and seminars. There are dozens of articles and pages about it online. It very likely existed in other forms, at least in concept, before Covey wrote about it.

I am interested in including a visual representation, description, and interactive version of this Matrix in a piece of commercial software I am writing. Without giving away too much of the application's functionality, essentially a user will be able to click one of the quadrants of the Matrix to assign a task to it, view a list of tasks sorted by quadrant, etc. The software would also include a brief description of the Matrix and its quadrants, with no direct quotations from Covey's book or any other sources. In fact, I don't plan on mentioning Covey at all (unless I must for attribution) in order to avoid any implications of endorsement.

Would I run into any legal issues if I do this? I can't find any solid evidence on whether Covey invented the concept or the term, so that's the first thing I need to find out. After that, I need to know what I can do if he does have some claim of ownership to it.

Do I need permission to stage this play?

Lutoslawski — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 10:32:14 -0800

Can I legally stage an original play based on a short story I didn't write? Copyright filter:

There are similar previous posts, but I'm wondering about this piece specifically, etc etc etc.

MeFi's own JaMahodara and I wrote a play/opera/theater piece based on Robert H. Heinlein's 1958 short story All You Zombies.
While its quite a bit different, and we've rearranged the entire narrative, the concept is still pretty rooted in the short story.

We'd like to stage it in Portland, and people would probably be paying to see it. What are the legalities involved here? Do I need permission from his estate? How would I even go about doing that? And is it likely that we could get permission?

Thanks Hive Mind!! You're the best!!!

Help an indie rock dive show Troll 2 on a Friday night without being sued

donabean — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 22:08:58 -0800

I want to start a midnight movie night at the bar I work at. I would like to have a cheesy fun movie play(Flash gordon, troll 2, barbarella, heavy metal, etc.), and then have a band play. How can I do this legally? Who do I go to get permission from ? I need to do this as cheaply as legally can be done. Do I have to hop thru all the hoops that a real cinema has to, to show cult films from the 70's and 80's if there is a cover at the bar? I would also like to know-what movies would mefites be driven to go to a bar to enjoy with all the other party animals at an indie rock dive?-

What is the legality of making a site like www.instantboss.org or a movie sound board in the state of PA?

xdeliriumx — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 08:16:03 -0800

What is the legality of making a site like www.instantboss.org or a movie sound board in the state of PA? I am wondering whether it is actually legal to use sound clips, pictures, video clips, etc. From a TV show like SNL, movie, or otherwise to make something like a website or soundboard?

Are the makers just hoping no one will say anything? Are they protected in some way? Can they make a profit from their site/soundboard? Are they just counting on the fact that the big corporation will not come after them?

Is there a certain length of a clip or how the clip is used that CAN make it legal? Is their anything with fair-use that makes it okay? Do the clips have to be copyrighted? How can you tell if they are?

Sorry if this is a lot of questions but I am trying to figure out how so many people can make things like this and not fear the wrath of big corporate money and lawyers. Also, if the state where it is being made matters, I am specifically wondering about PA.