$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...Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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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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