Age of the Geek

Denial In Action
     Welcome to part three of my two-part series on copyright.
     Last week I went over how copyright extensions seem to get extended every time it seems like the copyright on Mickey Mouse is about to expire, but protecting a copyright means more than just lobbying Congress.
     You might have heard about the time Disney threatened legal action against a number of daycares that had painted drawings of Mickey Mouse on their walls.
     “How typical of a heartless corporation,” you might say. After all, how could the Disney empire possibly be negatively affected by a daycare of all things?
     Well, here’s the thing. Disney would probably agree with you. They probably didn’t want to step into the PR nightmare of taking the sight of Mickey Mouse away from a bunch of four year olds either. Particularly since it gave Universal Studios and Hanna-Barbara Productions to swoop in with offers to allow the daycares the use of their own characters.
     But that’s the catch with copyright law. If you don’t defend it, you risk losing it.
     Part of the reason that “Happy Birthday To You” no longer has a copyright is that the Hill sisters didn’t attempt to claim credit for the song until forty years after supposedly writing the lyrics. As the judgment says…
     “For decades, with the possible exception of the publication of “The Everyday Song Book” in 1992, the Hill sisters did not authorize any publication of the lyrics. They did not try to obtain federal copyright protection. They did not take legal action to prevent the use of the lyrics by others, even as “Happy Birthday” became very popular and commercially valuable.”
     And that is why Disney sent a legal threat to a daycare 1989, and continues to send similar threats to this day, whether they are legitimate violations or not.
     Of course, there’s legal threats and then there’s legal action.
     Typically speaking, copyright violations often involve a sort of “it’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission” situation. In fact, from what I understand, many companies take an “ignorance is bliss” approach, letting whatever they can slide until they can’t ignore it anymore.
     For those that do get caught, it rarely amounts to more than a simple cease and desist letter, which is the legal equivalent of nudging somebody while loudly coughing.
     After all, nobody wants to sue a daycare.
     Sue a party organizer, on the other hand, that apparently is fair game. Which is what happened to Ramar Larkin Jones earlier this year.
     Jones was the organizer for the 5th Annual Unofficial Pokemon PAX Kickoff Party, which, as the name implies, has been a relatively longstanding tradition to celebrate the start of the PAX gaming convention.
     Obviously such a party is going to violate some copyright laws. Specifically, in this case, the use of the Pokemon Pikachu and Snivy on a poster advertising the event.
     According to Jones, he was in the midst of planning this year’s event when he received word that he was being taken to court by The Pokemon Company for copyright infringement.
     Again, according to Jones, there was no cease and desist or simply asking to stop doing the party. The Pokemon Company went straight to filing a lawsuit.
     Now Jones was clearly in violation of copyright law and it’s not at all unusual that The Pokemon Company would not be thrilled about the notion that their child friendly intellectual property was being associated with a party that featured “no cover all night” and had music provided by “DJ Dirty Bit.” And while Jones says that he’s never made money on organizing the party, this year he did ask for $2 tickets, which he says were to go to prizes and giveaways.
     The Pokemon Company was clearly within their rights to shut the party down, and one might say would be irresponsible if they didn’t do so.
     That said, it is very unusual to skip the polite stage and go straight to the court.
     I’m not sure what The Pokemon Company thought they were going to achieve with this action. They may be on the legal high ground, but suing the guy that creates parties for people who like your product is not a great way to gain good PR.
     Particularly if it’s true that they didn’t make a good faith effort to resolve the situation before racking up thousands of dollars in legal fees, which Jones may now be expected to pay.
     Of course, if The Pokemon Company is anything like their parent company, Nintendo, that shouldn’t be surprising. The Big-N’s ability, or lack there of, of tactfully interacting with their fanbase is legendary.
     And yes, apparently I have even more to say on the topic because I haven’t even gotten to Fair Use yet.
     So, tune in next week for part four of this two-part series where I really explain Fair Use and share some of my own personal adventures with copyright.
 
     Travis Fischer is a news writer for Mid-America Publishing and promises he’ll run out of words on this subject one of these days.