
In Lewis Carroll’s classic (1865) children’s story, Alice in Wonderland, Alice remarked that things got “curious and curiouser” as she entered her mysterious world. Curious and curiouser is certainly one way to describe some of the things that have been happening in the copyright world lately. Copyright ownership has been contested in fields of creative expression as disparate as tattoos of NBA players to artificial language, in this case the Klingon language of Star Wars. It has involved high profile artists such as Led Zeppelin who were accused of illegally copying the guitar riff in their famous song “Stairway to Heaven” from musical group Spirit’s 1968 recording of “Taurus”, written by the late songwriter Randy Wolfe. The suit was based in part on allegations that Led Zeppelin members Jimmy Page and Robert Plant had heard Spirit play Taurus before “Stairway” was written. They were acquitted by a jury that concluded that while band members had heard the song, there was not substantial similarity between the key elements of the two pieces of music. Alleged copyright infringement has even involved a photograph taken by a monkey, as I have written in my blog. In this case we know, thanks to a decision of the California Ninth Circuit, that Naruto the macaque does not own the copyright on the photo, but we are still not sure who does. Continue reading “Some Curiosities of the Copyright World”