Another webinar and some other odds and ends

I hope the spring means that everyone is doing well. It has been a strange spring in New York City, meaning that it is blazing hot one day, and then rainy the next.

I was awakened last night by thunder that made a car alarm sound (obviously, it was a car alarm that needed to be moved).

We have another webinar coming up, next Monday, May 10.

Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/874334848

I am hosting it with Christine Gallager, a social media trainer and coach.

Brought to you by Anthony Verna of the Law Offices of Anthony Verna and Christine Gallagher, Online Marketing & Social Media Trainer & Coach for Small Business Owners, it's "Social Media: Practical and Legal Issues for Business."

Learn how to choose a good name (especially for use in social media), how trademark law affects that choice, how to create content, and how to control that content.

Title: Social Media: Practical and Legal Issues for Business

Date: Monday, May 10, 2010

Time: 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM EDT

Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/874334848

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar. All registrations will also enter you on the mailing lists of Anthony Verna and Christine Gallagher.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP, 2003 Server or 2000

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4.11 (Tiger®) or newer

Space is limited.
Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/874334848

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One series of user-made videos on YouTube is beginning to be removed. It is a scene from the German-Austrian film "Downfall" in which Hitler has a tantrum.

Of course, I like the clip where the subtitles in the film mock the new "Star Trek" movie and its reception. I am sure that will be removed sometime soon.

The issue is one of practicality vs. legality. Yes, parody is protected as free speech and then fair use under copyright law. (Those of us who remember the 2 Live Crew "Pretty Woman" case know that.) However, if I host a website that is mostly user-generated content, do I want to fight over each video in court or do I want to take advantage of the safe-harbor provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and just remove them?

That's right. It's just easier to remove the videos.

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A reminder for those of you who have trademark registrations: You have a duty to enforce them. So you need to do searches for your mark. You need to file extensions of time against those similar marks that go to publication. You need to file opposition proceedings against those similar marks. Your duty to enforce your marks means that your marks could be canceled for not enforcing them.

Call me at 917-348-0108 or send an e-mail to law@nyctrademarks.com to discuss trademark enforcement.

"Weird Al" Yankovic vs. Those Who Do Not Understand

According to a recent NPR story, James Blunt's record label, Atlantic Records has told "Weird Al" Yankovic that he cannot release a parody of Blunt's hit song, "You're Beautiful" called "You're Pitiful."

Can a record label do this (since it owns the copyright to the music and lyrics)?

Read what Yankovic himself said in the story.

"The legality in this case is somewhat moot," Yankovic writes
when contacted via e-mail. "James Blunt could still let me put it on my album if
he really wanted to, but he obviously doesn't want to alienate his own record
company... and my label could release the parody without Atlantic's blessing,
but they don't really want to go to war with another label over this. So really,
it's more of a political matter than a legal matter."

Yankovic is absolutely correct. Although he does ask permission of artists, he need not. The infamous 2 Live Crew case states this principle. The case is called Campbell, aka Skyywalker, et al. v Acuff Rose Music, Inc. 510 U.S. 569 (1994). Many people don't remember 2 Live Crew's parody of "Oh, Pretty Woman," the Roy Orbison hit song. (That's, frankly, a good thing.)

Luthur Campbell, lead rapper of 2 Live Crew, argued that their version of the song was not copyright infringement under the Fair Use Doctrine, which is defined in U.S. Code Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 107. A basic reading (for now) is that re-recording is allowable for criticism or comment. The United States Supreme Court agreed, stating that when a new piece of art is created in the parody, it can be seen as comment or criticism of the original work.

The problem with the Supreme Court's opinion (in my opinion) is that it does not help to define what comment or criticism is. How much of the new work has to hearken back to the original work? Using Yankovic as an example, many of his parodies are funny, but do not really comment on the original work (except to use the same music), such as his first professionally recorded song "My Bologna," a parody of "My Sharona" by the Knacks. Compare that to "(This Song's Just) Six Words Long," parodying "Got My Mind Set on You," which was recorded by James Ray in 1962 and George Harrison in 1987. Weird Al's version dissects the trite love song genre the original song belongs to.

It is settled law that any parody is Fair Use under the United States Copyright Statute (U.S. Code Title 17). Unfortunately, it appears as if Yankovic and his team are not willing to duke it out. Thankfully, they've gone the route of just putting the song on the Internet. Enjoy!