This Might Be Illegal

There was once an artist in Philadelphia that wanted to make a statue. It would have been a ten foot tall Mickey Mouse holding up a bottle of Coke-a-cola while standing on a pedestal that had the word OK prominently chiseled in. You would think this light hearted poke at three of most universally known bits of American culture would be greeted with a chuckle. But the artist found out not everyone has a sense of humor when he received a phone call from a lawyer. 

The lawyer represented Disney Inc. and he explained that the statue the artist was working on was a copyright infringement.  At first the artist probably thought this was a Godsend. A lawsuit over Fair Use could generate tons of free publicity, it could make him famous. He could turn the tables and put Disney Inc. on trail.

As the story goes the lawyer mentioned that all kinds of things could become public information during a lawsuit and darkly hinted about the artist's past. The artist had no doubt the lawyer had already investigated his past. Whatever the artist wanted to keep secret might be forever lost to time because the statue was never finished.

The Super Bowl is coming. The phrase "Super Bowl" is owned by the Nation Football League.  If I have a business I can not advertise a "Super Bowl Special" without paying the NFL a royalty fee or running the risk of being sued.

The NFL has already sent lawyers out to contact bars, restaurants and small family businesses on the consequences of unauthorized use of their protected "Super Bowl" trademark.  One church that was planning to have a Super Bowl party ran afoul of the NFL.  The church wanted to have the party as a fund raiser but the NFL objected, so the church turned around and made their Super Bowl party a free event. The NFL objected again when they found out the church was going to show the game on a TV that was bigger than 55 inches. Any TV that is bigger than 55 inches can be consider a "public performance" .  

Potentially if you have one of those really huge TVs and invite more than a few friends over to your house on Super Bowl Sunday -well the NFL might come after you. It's ridiculous to think  the NFL could effectively police the country over every Super Bowl party but they could cherry pick one or two parties and make a very heavy handed example out of them. Harassing a few  usually has a very chilling influence on everyone else.  Like dealing with a lunchroom bully, it's easier to hand over a little change from your pocket than to get constantly hassled.  The NFL sees a payday -even a few extra cents from a billion views is tens of millions to them.

Over the last thirty years America has pushed aside the consumer and has made business its first priority. When considering which is more important property rights or civil rights; property rights has been the clear winner.

Football isn't alone, Major League Baseball is working extending its control over its "property". Have you ever wanted to be a sports announcer? Do the play by play. TV or radio stations might not have any openings but on the internet you could be star -unless MLB gets a hold of you. They really chase after any "unauthorized" use of their broadcast. If you do not have prior written permission from MLB, you can not do live play by play of a major league game on the internet.

Major League Baseball is interest in taking copyright privileges one step further by claiming all baseball statistics are protected property. That means someday if I publish the fact that "Babe Ruth had 714 life time home runs and that was a major league record that stood for almost 40 years until it was broken by Hank Aaron".... well I will need MBL permission or will have to pay a fee.

Once upon a time there was a clear understanding of the fair use clause in copyright law. As big business closes in fair use to turn it into a cash cow a commercialized form of censorship is creeping in. That kind of censorship is becoming possible because computers can keep track of so much data and the ownership of the media continues to consolidate into the hands of smaller and smaller groups of owners.

There is hope. Once there was a day care school near Orlando Florida. Partly out of local pride they decorated the walls of the school with Disney characters. The minions of Disney Inc found out and threaten legal action. The good people of Hanna-Barbera Cartoons can to the rescue, they removed the "offending" images and replaced them with their own characters -free of charge. I will not question Hanna-Barbera's motives, even if they did what they did just to embarrass Disney, it was still a noble gesture.

The day care school is safe until someday when Disney buys out and owns Hanna-Barbera. Hopefully by then we will either rebel against or reject the mass media.  It could be nice returning to a time when people also entertained each other, where every story wasn't owned and every imagination had to be fenced in to protect some corporation's property rights. I  fear the possibly when every thought in out head will be metered and charged for.

One twist irony is an ordinary private citizen can not copyright his own life story to protect his personal information. You have practically no control over the information about yourself. That information can be bought, sold and traded -and you have no rights to the profits that information can generate.

It's funny how some people can whip fear over big government but government is the junior partner in the brave new world that's coming at us, where we will be nickeled and dimed into servitude instead of being shackled in irons.

Otherwise enjoy the game.

It's a celebration of athletics and money -and making more money. And isn't that what life is all about?

Some people say money is a very addictive drug -just look at anybody who is jonesing for some.