“A Moron in a Hurry” is a formalized legal term used in the UK and Canada and the US. It was first established in a 1978 UK court case : The Morning Star Cooperative Society v Express Newspapers Limited, and subsequently reaffirmed by Alfred Thompson “Tom” Denning, OM, PC, DL (Baron Denning,) [pictured] in the case […]
Tag: copyright
YouTube, the Ig Nobel Prizes, and the Year 1914
[NOTE: On September 22, 2021 we more or less solved the problem. See the end of this blog post for the happy news about that. The original blog post was written on September 13, while we were intensely wrestling with the problem.] YouTube’s notorious takedown algorithms are blocking the video of the 2021 Ig Nobel […]
Copyright in Outer Space
“In due course we may see the presence of thousands of human beings in Space. What copyright law will they take with them, and how will it be exercised and administered?” – asks extraterrestrial copyright specialist Adrian Sterling, who is a Professorial Fellow at Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute, University of London. “It appears […]
Maggot Paintings – can they be ©opyrighted?
For those interested in painting with maggots, Alison Bockoven, who is a PhD entomology student at Texas A&M University, provides an online resource: How to paint with maggots. Leading Improbable to a question : ‘If a maggot (or group of maggots) create(s) an artwork, who, if anyone, owns the copyright?’ Navigating the thorny and enigmatic […]
Tattoo copyright conundra
Intellectual property law in many countries (e.g. US and UK) asserts that when an artist creates an original artwork, he or she automatically owns the copyright. But what if you happen to be, say, a tattoo artist? What’s the legal position when the tattoo – which is now permanently attached to the person who acted […]
Copyright connundrum of Pi digital music
Vi Hart made this video to explain and deplore the legal questions, copyrightically speaking, that arise when a composer converts the digits of the number pi into musical notes; In this related video, Hart counts, on the digits of one hand, some related musings: