Posted on 10/12/2016 4:43:18 PM PDT by SMGFan
A federal appeals court Tuesday called out a lower-court judge for tossing a copyright infringement lawsuit over the 80-year-old sketch Whos On First? but upheld the dismissal anyway. A three-judge panel from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals said Manhattan federal court Judge George Daniels erred in throwing out the lawsuit brought by the kin of Abbott & Costello, who claimed they owned the copyright to the famous comedy routine.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
You are exactly right. I’m actually somewhat surprised that the congress didn’t actually just go ahead and word the lwa to be “the age of Steamboat Willie plus 5 years”.
Of course that would mean that Disney wouldn’t have to come back every few years with buckets of cash to make sure their congresscritters stay bought.
I think it used to be the life of the author plus a certain number of years. It has to do with retaining rights to support the families.
Whos On Appeal?
That sketch was largely the creation of A&C’s longtime writer, John Grant, who came up with many of their famous doubletalk routines. But between the three of them, they knew so many old burlesque bits that a lot of their famous routines were really just variations on routines that had been done by thousands of comics for decades (”Niagara Falls!,” etc.) Claiming to have an ironclad copyright on “Who’s On First” is like claiming to have invented the recipe for fried eggs.
LOL
Pronounced zhing or ching? Yes/no?
“zhing “
“Who is on first, what’s on second, I don’t know is on third...’’
“I don’t give a damn.”
“Oh, that’s our catcher!’’
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