You are browsing archives for
Category: derivatives
Public Domain Bonanza
January 1, 2019 marks a significant date in US copyright law. On this “Public Domain Day 2019” thousands of works from 1923 previously protected under US copyright laws became public domain. Duke Law’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain reviews “Public Domain Day 2019” and has similar archives going back to 2010. You may […]
Derivatives – Build on Another’s Work
Derivatives must be transformative U.S. Copyright Law is all about protecting creators’ works in order to offer incentive to these creators so that they keep on producing works for the good of society. So it seems that building on an existing work such as a play, poem, song, or film would be blessed in the eyes […]
Copyright Infringement: Dangers of Copyi...
We creatives know there is nothing new under the sun. We know that art and literature thrive, in part, because creatives in these fields have so much wonderful work from which they may glean ideas for new works. And there is much public domain content that can be used to legally create derivatives. A derivative work is […]
About Face—Tyson’s and Obama’s
All the photos of Mike Tyson’s face in the Internet copyright news arena this past week carried me back to the not-too-distant past when another face was ubiquitous there—President Obama’s. Tyson’s facial tatoo had found its way to the face of an actor in the newly released movie “The Hangover Part II.” About two years […]
Copying the Bible, the Classics—Old Work
We can copy and publish from any edition of the Bible, right? The Bible is in the public domain, right? After all, it’s message belongs to all of us and is very old. What about Les Miserables? Victor Hugo died over 125 years ago. We couldn’t possibly be infringing copyright if we copy excerpts from these […]