Can You Own The Idea Of A Reality Show For Moms Picking Brides For Their Sons?
from the ownership-society dept
I have to admit that I don't watch reality TV or follow what's the latest in reality TV shows. I hear people talking about them, but it seems like half of them blend together with something about models who sing while cooking and designing fashions for eligible bachelors as an angry British guy yells at them and they hope they don't get voted off the island. Sometimes Donald Trump appears. Or something like that. So I had no idea that there's a yet another reality TV show out there on NBC called Mamma's Boy that apparently involves overbearing mothers trying to pick out potential brides for sons who apparently are unable to cut the apron strings. Sounds pretty horrific to me.However, there was apparently a lawsuit over this one, as the guy who produces a Turkish reality TV show called Perfect Bride tried to stop NBC from airing Mamma's Boy, claiming that he holds a copyright on the entire concept of mothers and sons trying to pick out a bride (found via IPMaven). The guy claims he was trying to license the idea to a competitor of NBC, and allowing NBC's show to air would endanger those negotiations. Luckily, a court wasted little time (almost none at all) in denying the injunction, noting that there seemed to be very little likelihood that the guy would succeed in his case. Still, the case moves forward, and it's yet another symptom of a culture that has lead people to believe that you can own ideas, and anyone else who comes up with a similar idea (or, hell, improves on your bad idea) somehow owes you money.
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Filed Under: copyright, ownership, reality tv
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owning an idea
you pay someone to find out if your idea is patented.
if not.........then fair game.......
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Re: owning an idea
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Re: Re: owning an idea
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I demand money!
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Troll'd Hard
Where should we crash next? John Biggs' place? Biggs' looks like fun- his RSS subscription feed is only at 34k. We could get it up to 250k subs in 3 months. Will someone let him know we're coming over to sleep on his couch and increase his viewership?
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Mamma's Boy
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Re: Mamma's Boy
Oh, and that comment about weaving carpets was incredibly racist. Why dont you go widen your horizon or even try weaving a carpet that may exercise a few braincels??
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MORE LAWYERS! LAWYERS BY THE MILLIONS!
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He's Too Late
Hey, I've got an ORIGINAL idea. Instead of raising taxes, why don't we take the public television airwaves and auction them off to the cell phone companies, and require the TV stations to buy a bunch of expensive new transmitters and tell each US citizen that they can NO LONGER view television on THEIR PUBLIC AIRWAVES unless they BUY a Chinese decoder to allow their television they had already bought to be able to receive the NEW TV signals.
The taxpayers will be happy in their delusion that we have NOT raised their taxes, the TV stations will be happy to spend billions of dollars on new equipment they cannot afford unless they RAISE the price of their advertising or run more ads, and the poor citizens who currently watch television on THEIR PUBLICLY OWNED AIRWAVES can go to hell after February 17, 2009, because Mr. George Bush (Chief Thief) and his buddy Kevin Martin (Chief FCC Frequency Thief) will be LONG GONE, likely counting the money they received from their billionaire cell phone buddies to steal this PUBLIC ASSET for them.
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I dont get it
Seriously, who would watch this, and what would the ads be like ?
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The Bigger Problem: The Judge didn't throw out the suit
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