$1 Trillion Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Against Oprah Dismissed
from the well,-phew dept
We've seen all sorts of bizarre copyright claims over the years, but I can't recall anything quite like this. Apparently, Oprah Winfrey was sued by some poet for $1 trillion, claiming that the TV talkshow star had ripped off a poem. One would hope that his poetry is better than his legal skills, as the lawsuit was quickly dismissed, noting that the poet failed to register a copyright on his poems, and a prerequisite before a copyright infringement lawsuit is to have the works registered. While it's never good to support bogus litigation, it's difficult not to wonder how this guy planned to substantiate the $1 trillion number. Even the big shots in the RIAA and MPAA don't go that far...![Hide This Hide this](https://ii.techdirt.com/s/t/i/topclose.png)
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general question
Not saying I agree with ether side, just asking.
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Re: general question
You can still make them take it down, you just can't get damages. It's purely an anti-free speech measure.
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Re: general question
I know, it makes absolutely no sense, but that's the way it is.
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That'll be $700. :)
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Poetry is a bird turd on the shoulder of the Statue of Liberty.
Copyright 2009. All rights reserved. Can you spare some change?
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Re:
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Hey!
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Hmmmm.....
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Re: Hmmmm.....
I mean this is Oprah we are talking about hear, she probably has lawyers on payroll.. hell, she probably has a judge on payroll.
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Re: Re: Hmmmm.....
I believe she has Jesus on her payroll.
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1 Trillion?
Easy. Maybe Oprah made 200 copies and handed it out to her audience for free. According to the RIAA's logic, that should easily top $1 trillion.
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bad math
He either doesnt realize that 650 million x 20 is only 1.2 Billion. Or maybe he was going for the 1000 fold RIAA penalty assessment.
Personally I dont understand why he doesnt sell his own work online if he believes that many people want to read it.
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Re: bad math
650M x 20 is 13 Billion. 650M x 2 is 1.3 Billion.
Still trying to figure out how in the hell he got to 1T... Must be an RIAA lawyer...
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That Must Be Some Poem!
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Anyone checked sales volume on Amazon for thier book(s)? Want to bet it spikes over the next couple of dats?
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The math is...
Forcing someone to pay $1.2 million, when they don't have it, might has well been $1.2 trillion. Either way, it's still an asinine amount over a copyright issue.
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$1.2 trillion = $20 x 60 million.
60 million = Oprah's viewers(?)
Based on this link (which gets the math wrong):
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/showbiz/a170375/winfrey-sued-for-one-trillion-dollars.html
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Correction: $20 x 60 million = $1.2 BILLION.
That’s off by a factor of a thousand.
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Pick a number....any number...
a talk show host richer than Ophrah on TV
who slipped in a little rhyme....
now someone wants her to do time!!
When is deminimis gonna remind the folk
that using a few of the same words is no crime...its a joke
Oprah you got off lucky....
if young Shakespeare would have Copyright Office Registered...
it might not have been so ducky! :-)
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need to get away
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Poets and math
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