[cc-community] [Icommons] Traditional music and IP research project

Eric Steuer eric at creativecommons.org
Wed Oct 3 18:36:58 EDT 2007


Your comments about copyright claims on derivative works based on  
public domain material remind me of a recent situation involving the  
logo for the rock band The Misfits.

The Misfits logo:
http://tinyurl.com/28oaot

Is a modified graphic based on a public domain image from the  
"Crimson Ghost" movie series of the 1940s:
http://tinyurl.com/yocn7u

The Misfits logo is a registered trademark that is licensed to  
companies for all sorts of products:
http://tinyurl.com/33stld
http://tinyurl.com/2orbdk
http://tinyurl.com/2phjnb
http://tinyurl.com/2kb5qy

Last year, two skate companies called Lush Life and Diamond Supply Co  
started printing shirts that used (unauthorized) modified versions of  
the Misfits logo, which depicted the Crimson Ghost wearing a gold  
mouthpiece/grill. Here's the Diamond Supply Co version:
http://tinyurl.com/38lsod

And since I'll take any chance to include a mention of Lil Wayne,  
here's him wearing the Lush Life version on the cover of Rides magazine:
http://tinyurl.com/2tujxh

The Misfits' legal team quickly sent the companies legal notice to  
stop making the shirts. They did indeed stop. Not surprisingly, the  
shirts have become a hot commodity -- originals sell for premium  
prices on eBay, while several smaller companies have now bootlegged  
the design and sell them on the down-low.

Eric


On Oct 3, 2007, at 2:11 PM, tbd wrote:

> I just took a glance at this survey. It is an interesting topic and  
> one that has puzzled me for a while. When a musical composition  
> goes into the public domain, one can make an arrangement of the  
> work and claim a copyright on that musical arrangement. When I  
> first learned that this could be done, I was kind of surprised  
> because it kind of defeats the purpose of public domain. It also  
> makes copyright clearance difficult for sound recordings. You may  
> obtain the right from a record label to use a sound recording of a  
> public domain song but you can't assume that there is not a  
> copyright claim to the arrangement. It is incredibly difficult to  
> research the copyrights of arrangements of public domain songs  
> because most searches require song title and author and most  
> returned results say it is in the public domain.
>
> On 10/3/07, carolina botero <carobotero at gmail.com> wrote: Jordan,  
> the link seems to be wrong.
> carolina
>
> On 10/3/07, Jordan S Hatcher < jordan at opencontentlawyer.com > wrote:
> I don't know if it ever made it to this list, but there is a new
> project on folk music and copyright.
>
> Full details on my site
>
> http://www.opencontentlawyer.com/2007/10/03/trip-project-traditional-
> music-and-intellectual-property/
>
> "At this year's Gikii conference, Richard Jones of Liverpool John
> Moores University (where he is a Reader in Law and IT) has a new
> project, together with RA Roksana Ghaffrinik, are looking in to
> traditional music and IP. The core of the study, from what I gather,
> is folk music and copyright (rather than "IP"), and specifically if
> Creative Commons fits with the genre."
> Project website:
> http://ipmusicresearch.com/
>
> ~Jordan
>
> ____
> Mr. Jordan S Hatcher, JD, LLM
>
> jordan at opencontentlawyer dot com
> OC Blog: http://opencontentlawyer.com
> IP/IT Blog: http://twitchgamer.net
>
> Open Data Commons
> http://www.opencontentlawyer.com/open-data/
>
> Usage of Creative Commons by cultural heritage organisations
> http://www.eduserv.org.uk/foundation/studies/cc2007
>
>
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>
>
> -- 
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