Just curious.
I saw this by tag line by Snowboarder Bo from one of his posts
“My goal as a guitarist has always been to sound as if I have Satan trapped under a lawnmower.”
and thought what a great one liner that would make for a T-Shirt. Could a businessperson with (say) T-shirt or bumper sticker type messages in mind take anything posted here by SDMB members with impunity?
From the bottom of this page:
“No material contained in this site may be republished or reposted without express written consent of the Creative Loafing Media, Inc., except that message board users retain the right to republish or repost their own work.”
Seems pretty straightforward. And it seems to permit Creative Loafing to deny Snowboarder Bo the right to give his blessing to astro’s T-shirt/bumpersticker idea.
Of course, there could always be the figleaf of Bo having (even if only on paper) an active interest in astro’s business. Be interesting to know if Creative Loafing would, as a matter of policy, insist on at least this formality as necessary to protect their intellectual property rights.
Might be a question that makes this thread more suited to another forum.
One of my favorite quotes - which came about in a discussion he and I were having in a guitar thread. I quote it liberally to my guitar friends (rest assured Bo, I give you credit - if you accept “this line I got from this cool guy on my message board” as giving you credit ;)).
I would buy the t-shirt!
The law is unclear on precisely how short a quip has to be before it’s uncopyrightable, but Ashleigh Brilliant has successfully sued for unauthorized usage of quotes shorter than that.
We have thought of that possibility, and have copy-protected a random selection of humorous quips posted on this board. If you attempt to use certain sayings without the proper passkey the humor will self-destruct, and people will stare at you as if you’re crazy.
Great line, Czarcasm! I think I’ll put it on a t-shirt.
In all honesty I think it’d be difficult beyond the ability of words to discuss to enforce that copyright on T-Shirts and the like. It’d be interesting to see them try.
Nah. That wouldn’t look as good on a T-shirt.
That’s nice and all, but that doesn’t have any greater power than general copyright law, which would protect everything on the site to the exact same degree (unless there were some kind of EULA that contracted users to less protection*).
I don’t think most fair use would really apply. Length of quotation probably matters. Trademark would also come into play separately, should the user trademark their quote, but that requires special effort whereas copyright is automatic. I suspect that although innovation isn’t officially a factor, it would come into play, since the likelihood of true ‘first dibs’ would depend on how unique the phrase is. And of course, when it was first said could put it out of copyright if it was first written long enough ago. SO many factors…
Strictly speaking, the answer to “no impunity” is a big NO. It’s in a gray area, so even if you win in the end, a lawsuit would still cost you money, and because the lawsuit wasn’t frivolous it’s unlikely you would recoup lawyer’s fees. You’re probably only safe if it’s a really really obvious quip, in which case you can probably find enough other example on google to prove non originality.