In “The Arts” section, page E3 of today’s (9/16) NY Times there’s a comic strip (yes!) entitled “The Revenge of the Copyright Cops” that takes a swipe at all this illegal copying.
It’s worth a look. Here are some excerpts:
According to a more thorough examination of copyright law, if you are engaged in any of the following acts. lega action could be brought against you.
Whistling a song wile riding a subway.
Walking dooor-to-door singing copyrighted Christmas carols like “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
“In a lot of these examples, copyright owners may not be able to win the lawsuits, but theye are all plausible cases that you wopuld need to come up with a defense for.” -Fred Von Lohmann, Esq. Intellectual Property Attorney
Singing “Happy Birthday” to your child in a restaurant.
Making a mix CD for friends, lovers or wedding guests.
Displaying posters of your favorite pop stars in your school hallway.
Blasting music out of your car window…
…some wish the record industry would actually crack down on this behavior instead!
If all this seems preposterous, let’s not forget that ASCAP* decided it was a violation to sing copyrighted songs around the fire at overnight and girlscout camps…
…and they WON.
“The application of copyright law in the new technological environment has been a challenge for everyone, but the complexity of the law can’t mask right versus wrong. Taking something that doesn’t belong to you is wrong.” Amy Weiss, RIAA** spokeswoman commenting on these scenarios.
I am going to try scanning this little gem.
If you want to see it, but don’t get the Times, or can’t view it at nytimes.com, and you have one of those safe places to email to, just say so, I will send it to you as an attachment.
If instead (and if it is okay with SD Management), you can tell me how to send it here as an attachment, I’ll do that, too.
*American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers
** Recording Industry Association of America