US Copyright law is a really vast topic, but here are a few articles I have read recently about copyright and its implementation.
Many people may have heard that "Happy Birthday to You" was a copyrighted song and couldn't be included in movies or performed in restaurants. This was recently overturned. Ars Technica had an interesting article about it.
Copyright law, at least in the US, continues to change. The copyright protection program continues to increase in length, primarily so Disney won't lose the exclusive rights to Mickey Mouse.
Google, through YouTube, has been able to greatly limit copyright infringement, even to the complaints for some users. Maddox, one of the internet's first professional bloggers, explains the benefits to Hollywood in this article. (Warning: This article includes explicit language!)
Bruce, Its funny you mention the Happy Birthday song being copyrighted and not being able to be used in movies. I recently came across a fact that said Warner Brothers at a point in time paid something crazy like $20,000 to be able to use the song. I can not recall for what movie but I'm hoping the movies was all about birthdays because that is a cray amount.
ReplyDeleteI love that you mentioned Mikey Mouse when it comes to copyright because he is such notable character. I think it is also important to note that Disney was pushed out from using Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Had he copyrighted the little guy maybe he would be more popular than Mickey.
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