Current Copyright Laws Suck
Published July 03, 2004
I got this one via Maud Newton. In St. John's Dustin Harvey and Elling Lien wanted to do "Waiting for Godot" with wind-up toys. They called it Winding Up Godot. Samuel French (Canada) Ltd. sent them a letter accusing them of copyright infringement.
Read the review of the performance that did happen here. Does it sound like infringement to you?
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Posted by Zeke from Zeke's Gallery to Zeke's Gallery at 7/3/2004 02:53:03 PM
- Current Copyright Laws Suck
- Published: July 03, 2004
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- Section: Culture
- Writer: Zeke's Gallery, Montreal
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- Zeke's Gallery, Montreal's personal site
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Answers:
1) Yes. And Samuel French manages a huge majority of stage scripts worldwide -- and they're not known for being liberal, compassionate, or friendly with potential producers.
2) One would think wind-up toys = parody.
BTW: US artist Tom Forsythe recently won his five-year legal battle with Mattel Inc. over his photographs of Barbie dolls doing odd and often nasty things. (Gee, who hasn't done that?!)
This was a HUGE blow to these arrogant corporate facist pricks who think they can control cultural icons and protect them from parody.
Fuck Mattel and fuck Samuel French.
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Big Al, are we gonna have to suffer a few months of you posting links to elsewhere that say "This is my official opinion" --?
Feh.
Post yer opinion or get off the pot.
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/17083)
I'm not a copyright lawyer, but two things come to mind:
1) Do theater groups have to ask permission to perform a copyrighted work?
2) Does the wind-up-godot production fit under the category of parody?