Re: Lucasfilm to Strike Back March 7th
I really think you are overstating this.
Any future case will be assessed on its own merits, and can easily be distinguished from this one.
I certainly don't foresee a rush of speculative litigation in an attempt to liberate copyrights from their owners. I'm not sure exactly how one would go about doing that anyway, you generally need an accepted cause of action in law or equity to bring suit, and I can't think of any that fit.
Again who would bring such an action? Copyright cases are brought by those who claim to have it, against those they claim are infringing upon it: not the other way around. For someone to fund lawyers to raise and fight a case where there is no real personal upside seems unlikely to me.
If anything it might make the rights holders less bullish, which I'm not sure is such a bad thing.
I wholeheartedly agree to the first part. We just don't know what the full implications will be. For all we know the Supreme Court could overturn it and all this discussion will be rendered moot. I don't expect it will be, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was.
I seriously doubt that if the decision is left standing it'll have any great impact.
As for the second part, that door has always been ajar, even in the US. Who'd have thought that DC would have their hold on Superman weakened before it happened?
In any case copyright is quite weak from a commercial perspective; the trademark is far more valuable, and more easily defended.
Actually it goes deeper than just a 'could', a ruling against LFL almost certainly puts the validity of existing Copyright in question for any such similar items, and opens them to challenge with a valid precedent behind being able to shorten the assumed Copyright... That isn't a 'could' but a 'will'...
I really think you are overstating this.
Any future case will be assessed on its own merits, and can easily be distinguished from this one.
I certainly don't foresee a rush of speculative litigation in an attempt to liberate copyrights from their owners. I'm not sure exactly how one would go about doing that anyway, you generally need an accepted cause of action in law or equity to bring suit, and I can't think of any that fit.
For example an open challenge to say the Dr. Who Cyberman or Dalek (or other vintage UK creature/monster/robot) design is certainly wide open for interpretation if this goes against LFL...
Again who would bring such an action? Copyright cases are brought by those who claim to have it, against those they claim are infringing upon it: not the other way around. For someone to fund lawyers to raise and fight a case where there is no real personal upside seems unlikely to me.
If anything it might make the rights holders less bullish, which I'm not sure is such a bad thing.
Truth is that until further litigation and challenges the full implications will not be known, but what is known is that it will open a door to void long assumed Copyrights...
I wholeheartedly agree to the first part. We just don't know what the full implications will be. For all we know the Supreme Court could overturn it and all this discussion will be rendered moot. I don't expect it will be, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was.
I seriously doubt that if the decision is left standing it'll have any great impact.
As for the second part, that door has always been ajar, even in the US. Who'd have thought that DC would have their hold on Superman weakened before it happened?
In any case copyright is quite weak from a commercial perspective; the trademark is far more valuable, and more easily defended.