Re: family guy episode

mewthree wrote:
in this episode "Peter Griffin"writes a book called "Harry potter and the
half black chick". Don't know about you but i think they are in breach of
some copy write and dosen't sound like a PC correct tittle.

The name "Harry Potter" cannot protected by copyright. It's just a
name, and a fair number of people in real life have that name. Titles
in the form "Harry Potter and the . . ." may be protected by trademark,
but I doubt that they could be protected by copyright. What is
protected by copyright is the specific and distinctive content of the
book, such as sentences (at least the longest and most distinctive
ones), paragraphs, etc. Extracts from the copyright-protected content
can still be quoted with sufficient acknowledgement, but may not be
reused as if they were someone else's work. But even if the format of
the titles could be copyrighted, parody tends to be allowed (in the US,
home of The Family Guy) as "fair use".

As for protection by trademark, that means that someone who doesn't own
the mark can't use the mark to disguise their work as part of a line of
products that goes with the mark. It doesn't mean that you can't refer
to it in a joke.

Please don't be too quick to assume that such things are prohibited by
law. Modern intellectual property laws are bad enough without anyone
making up additional restrictions beyond those actually in effect.

--
Alex Clark

Mortal doom drivel (an anagram rejected by Tom Riddle)

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: family guy episode
    ... As for protection by trademark, that means that someone who doesn't ... own the mark can't use the mark to disguise their work as part of a ... Modern intellectual property laws are bad enough without anyone ... if it wasn't an obvious parody. ...
    (alt.fan.harry-potter)
  • Re: family guy episode
    ... As for protection by trademark, that means that someone who doesn't ... own the mark can't use the mark to disguise their work as part of a ... Modern intellectual property laws are bad enough without anyone ... if it wasn't an obvious parody. ...
    (alt.fan.harry-potter)
  • Re: top protected Apple II title?
    ... Microprose simulations and Wizardry series, ... -- Write to MS-DOS disks on the Apple IIgs? ... of those top protected titles. ... sector protection but with read/write capabilities and the Apple II ...
    (comp.sys.apple2)
  • Re: top protected Apple II title?
    ... of those top protected titles. ... sector protection but with read/write capabilities and the Apple II ... The hardest to crack are those which contain more than one protection ... I have the original in my stock of disks. ...
    (comp.sys.apple2)
  • Re: Does Quake 4 Support 1680x1050?
    ... of it so it is really hard thinking about buying a new PC ... This year the majority of FPS pc game titles i've bought ... The cost for copy protection licenses and ...
    (comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action)
Loading