Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

Hollywood hates it when fans get creative. We were reminded of that this week when a popular re-edit of Mad Max Fury Road was taken down, and That One Guy won most insightful comment of the week with his lack of surprise:

The only allowed creation is authorized creation

Disappointing, but not in the slightest surprising at this point.

A work was built on to create something different, something apparently more true to the director's idea of how it could have been, and it was killed off.

Because it was an act of creativity, and not money, it was removed.

Because it was created on a whim and not after careful negotiations with the expected sales sheets filled in, and the profit 'sharing' contract signed and sealed, it was shut down.

Because it was created not to make a buck, but because of a desire to create, to take an idea and make it real, it was blocked from the public.

More songs, more books, more films and more pieces of art may be being created than ever before in history, but it's not because of the laws in place regarding 'creativity', not because of the permission culture that demands payment for every use, lest it be killed off, but in spite of those things. People are creating because that is what people do, despite the repeated attempts by those that would lock creativity behind a paywall, and prohibit the growth of culture unless every single parasitic middle-man was paid first.

We also got a glimpse beneath Hollywood's surface this week, where all the screwing-over-of-artists happens in contrast to the screwing-over-of-the-public, as it was revealed just how creative the accounting got for Goodfellas. DOlz won second place for insightful by reiterating the key takeaway from this and similar revelations:

MPAA remind me again, who are the pirates that are robbing the hardworking creators, actors, and the support people that make the movies?

For editor's choice on the insightful side, we start out on our post criticizing Wired Magazine's new exclusive early stories for iOS devices, where a discussion broke out in the comments as to how this differs from Techdirt's own Insider offerings. There were interesting perspectives on both sides, with some focusing primarily on the platform exclusivity aspect as a key differentiator. We certainly feel that our Crystal Ball is a bit different - and I think the best explanation came from nasch:

I don't think it's a matter of "bad" and "good" but a question of how people react. Mike isn't saying this is immoral, he's saying it might not be a good business decision because it pisses people off. If there had been an uproar in the Techdirt community about the crystal ball/insider feature, I'm sure he would have reconsidered it, but we seem to have accepted it just fine.

Next, we head to the bad copyright ruling of the week, where the Batmobile was recognized as a character deserving some sort of protection in the abstract. Larry Zerner, one of the attorneys in the case, supplied some additional thoughts in the comments:

As the (losing) attorney on this case, I just wanted to add a bit of background and give my 2 cents. I'm a big fan of Techdirt and the Techdirt community and appreciate that they understand that not everything is automatically protected by copyright.

First, with regard to the question as to whether DC does license an official Batmobile car, they do. My client began selling replica Batmobiles in 2001. Ten years later, in 2011, DC entered into a deal with another replicator, Mark Racop (www.fiberglassfreaks.com), and gave him a contract to sell officially licensed Batmobiles. Racop then told DC to sue Towle.

Second, and what most people seem to forget, is that the copyright act specifically states that there is no copyright protection for the design of automobiles because they are "useful articles." In fact, if you go to the Copyright Office website you will find a page that states this:

"Copyright in a work that portrays a useful article extends only to the artistic expression of the author of the pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work. It does not extend to the design of the article that is portrayed. For example, a drawing or photograph of an automobile or a dress design may be copyrighted, but that does not give the artist or photographer the exclusive right to make automobiles or dresses of the same design."

(http://www.copyright.gov/register/va-useful.html)

So the Copyright Office has made it clear that drawing a car does not give you the exclusive right to the design of those cars.

Third, even if the Batmobile were to qualify as a character, the copyright should only extend to the qualities of the character that are not part of the car's design. This decision absolutely says that Ian Fleming's estate now owns the copyright to the Aston Martin, Disney owns the copyright to the Volkswagen (because of Herbie the Love Bug), and Universal owns the copyright to the Pontiac Trans-Am that played KITT. I believe many of you can see that this makes no sense. These characters exist in movies and TV shows. They don't exist in the real world. If someone sells a Trans-Am and calls it KITT, that may be a trademark issue, but in no way should it violate a copyright.

Anyway, thanks for letting me rant for a bit and get that off of my chest.

Over on the funny side, we start on the story that spurred a lot of rage this week: the drug company that raised the price of Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 per pill. Mason Wheeler won first place by giving the company a new slogan, borrowed from highwaymen and pirates:

Turing Pharmaceuticals: Your Money or Your Life.

In second place, we've got a response to France's decision that Google must honor right to be forgotten requests across its sites globally. Anonymous Anonymous Coward's original comment included a silly error that was corrected shortly afterwards, and since it still racked up lots of votes, we'll just fix it and pretend it didn't happen:

I can see it now. Some young person opens Google Maps over Europe and see's this black splotch just south of England and west of Germany and says "Mommy, Mommy, what's this black thing?" Of course Mommy will reply "Well honey, that use to be France, but they have a right to be forgotten, so we have."

For editor's choice on the funny side, we're looping back to two earlier stories. First, on the subject of the Mad Max Fury Road edit, some commenters had some carefully worded thoughts on just how "gone" it is:

I can neither confirm, nor deny the allegations that kick ass torrents, or the pirate bay, may harbour links to ways to obtain that masterpiece, but I can definitely say I'm not downloading it and won't be watching it tonight. I'm very excited.

Finally, on the subject of the Batmobile, jupiterkansas took a shot at treating the "character" to some accolades:

And the award for best actor goes to... "The Batmobile" Yes, it brought tears to my eyes when it jumped over that ravine, and who can forget it's hilarious performance trying to find a parking spot in the garage. Hopefully this award will end the ongoing argument over which vehicle portrayed The Batmobile the best.

That's all for this week, folks!

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