Protecting Creativity: 40 Essential Facts About Copyrights

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1It’s A Wonderful Life

It’s A Wonderful Life

In 1974, the 1946 movie “It’s A Wonderful Life” fell into the public domain because the studio failed to renew its copyright. As a result, it was aired a lot, which explains why it became so popular even though it flopped in theaters. The studio got rights to the movie back in 1993.


2. Because the USA is unlikely to extend its copyright term again for Mickey Mouse beyond 2023, Disney has been extensively using the “Steamboat Willie” Mickey Mouse in its marketing to keep the character indefinitely protected under trademark law instead.


3. Clowns paint their faces onto eggs to copyright them so that other clowns can’t use the same face. There is a registry of egg faces in both Europe and in the United States.


4. The Guy Fawkes mask used by a number of activist groups (including anti-capitalist groups) is copyrighted and owned by Time Warner. Every time a Guy Fawkes mask is purchased, Time Warner gets paid.


5. Family Guy once used footage from a 9-year-old YouTube video in one of its episodes without permission from the owner. The owner’s original clip was then removed from Youtube for copyright infringement.


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6Star Wars Original Cut

Star Wars Original Cut

The Library of Congress in the US has the unadulterated 35mm print of “Star Wars” submitted to them in 1977 for copyright, and anyone can watch it by prior appointment.


7. The people who falsely claimed the copyright on the song “Happy Birthday to You” made $2 million a year for decades until a court ruled the song to be in the public domain in 2016.


8. In 1982, Universal Studios sued Nintendo on the grounds that Donkey Kong was an exact copy of Universal owned King Kong. In fact, up until that point, Universal sued anyone who tried to use King Kong. Nintendo then counter-sued by presenting findings of an earlier lawsuit where Universal themselves fought to defend the position that King Kong was in the public domain for making the movie King Kong (1976). Nintendo won $1.8 million.


9. Getty Images has repeatedly been caught selling the rights for photographs it doesn't own, including public domain images. In one incident, they demanded money for copyright infringement from a famous photographer when she used one of her own pictures.


10. The copyright battle between the owners of Hello Kitty and Miffy ended after the Japanese Tsunami when their copyright owners agreed to immediately settle the case and donate their anticipated legal fees to the Tsunami Relief Effort.


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11Rick James vs MC Hammer

Rick James vs MC Hammer

In 1990, Rick James sued MC Hammer for copyright when Hammer sampled his song “Super Freak” in Hammer’s hit “Can’t Touch This” without permission. They agreed to settle out of court and Hammer credited James as a co-composer. James won his first and only Grammy from “Can’t Touch This.”


12. Woodie Guthrie’s copyright claim to “This Land is Your Land” was for 28 years and he stated, “anybody caught singing it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don’t give a dern.” Today multiple organizations claim copyright for the song.


13. The USPS mistook a Las Vegas replica for the real Statue of Liberty when creating the Lady Liberty “forever” stamp in 2010, resulting in a $3.5 million payout to the replica’s sculptor for violating his copyright.


14. The reason the film Selma (2014) didn’t use MLK’s actual speeches was that Steven Spielberg got the sole film rights to all of MLK’s speeches in 2009. Ava DuVernay wrote speeches that were plausible, but different enough to avoid a copyright battle.


15. Thomas Edison produced a film called Fred Ott’s Sneeze, a 5-second film where Fred Ott, one of Edison’s assistants, sneezes. It is the oldest surviving film with copyright.


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16Golden Records

Golden Records

The Golden Records on the Voyager space probes include copyrighted material that aliens will be able to access and use completely for free, but we can’t.


17. Sony BMG used music CDs to illegally install rootkits on users’ computers to prevent them from ripping copyrighted music. The rootkits themselves, in a copyright violation, included open-source software.


18. Oxford dictionary inserted a fictitious word “Esquivalience” in order to protect the copyright of the publication. The fake entry was included in dictionary.com.


19. There are prime numbers that are illegal to possess or distribute. One of the first ones, found in 2001, was used to bypass copyright protection on DVDs.


20. John Fogarty was sued by Fantasy Records for copyright infringement because his song (the 1984 hit “The Old Man Down The Road”) sounded too much like CCR’s 1970s hit “Run Through The Jungle”, a song that Fogarty had himself wrote and produced.


21Bikram Yoga

Bikram Yoga

Bikram Yoga was invented in the 1970s by a man called Bikram Choudhury, who decided to copyright poses developed from those available for free for centuries. He also compares himself to Jesus and sues everyone who tries to "copy" his business.


22. Mr. Rogers testified before the Supreme Court defending the position that home recordings for personal use do not constitute copyright infringement.


23. Under the Indian Copyright Law, photocopying textbooks for educational purposes is legal.


24. When a French artist is killed during the war, the government has a “died for France” designation which extends their post-mortem copyrights by 30 years.


25. Singer-songwriter Alice Cooper pays yearly royalties to the members of the band, Alice Cooper, for the right to use the name commercially as it was originally the copyrighted band name before he adopted it as his own.

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