Continuing in the thread of an extremely off topic subject...
This is regarding some intellectual property nits that can apply to
all Trademarks, Microsoft, IBM, and RedHat included. Based on THAT
stretch of the imagination, here we go...
On Sun, Nov 28, 1999 at 02:28:11PM +0000, John Meyer wrote:
> At 01:44 AM 11/28/99 -0500, you wrote:
> >copyright infringement on who?
> >--
> >Michael S. Dunsavage
> Microsoft, specifically, misrepresentation of their product. You can do a
> satire of McDonalds, but you had best beware that nobody could get the
> impression just looking at the article that Microsoft specifically endorsed
> it.
Hmmm... Time to brush up on your IP (that's Intellectual Property,
not Internet Protocol) law. What you describe is NOT copyright infringement
but Trademark infringement. They are NOT the same thing (not even close).
You should also look up issues regarding "Fair Use Doctrine"
vis-a-vis copyright infringment before making such a claim.
The authors could very well claim it to be a "satire", "spoof" or
"parody" which gives them virtual license to kill in spite of copyright and
trademark issues. I recently learned that old "Weird Al Yankovitch" (sp?)
spoofed a rap singer's song after Al's people were told he could not by the
singer's people. Al claims that he was told he could and apologized
profusely for the misunderstanding. Bottom line was that he DIDN'T NEED
permission to spoof or parody something. He was asking permission as a
professional curtesy and some wires got crossed in this case. Da Rapper
didn't have a leg to stand on in the way of objections.
Satire is best when it is "almost believable". When you read the
whole $#@$#@ thing thinking "Oh wow!" only to get to the end of the track
and discover that you've been had, it's great and the law recognizes that
fine line. Others have pointed to the fact that there are plenty of obvious
clues that this is a spoof. You've been had, and the infringement is out
the window on the grounds that they made it clear to those of reasonable
intelligence (those of the humor impared persuasion, not withstanding).
In the works of Foghorn Leghorn... "It's a joke, son! It's a joke!"
You lose.
Mike
--
Michael H. Warfield | (770) 985-6132 | [EMAIL PROTECTED]
(The Mad Wizard) | (770) 331-2437 | http://www.wittsend.com/mhw/
NIC whois: MHW9 | An optimist believes we live in the best of all
PGP Key: 0xDF1DD471 | possible worlds. A pessimist is sure of it!
--
To unsubscribe: mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe"
as the Subject.
