Coldplay Sued Again For Copyright Infringement... But Is It Actually A PR Stunt By No Name Musician?

from the idea-expression-anyone? dept

Wed, Sep 30th 2009 2:34pm — Mike Masnick

The more successful you are, the more likely you are to get sued over some bogus claim of copyright infringement, it seems. Having just settled a silly lawsuit from Joe Satriani, it seems that others are stepping forward to see if Coldplay will settle with them. This latest one is seriously ridiculous. Peter Friedman has the details of a guy who is suing Coldplay for copyright infringement, because in a recent video they used the idea of interacting with things happening on a chalkboard. Seriously. Check the two videos out:

The only thing in common is the concept of interacting with chalk on a wall. Even the actual themes of the video are entirely different. And, of course, there have been many other videos predating this other guy's.

My guess is that the guy suing knows all of this (or had a lawyer explain it to him), but he's still suing for one reason: because it may get his video and his name some attention (which is why we're not naming him directly in this post). These are the types of lawsuits for which there should be serious sanctions against those bringing them. It's almost certainly a bogus lawsuit. Copyright doesn't cover an idea, and the idea itself wasn't even that original. The videos are entirely different. This has a high likelihood of simply being abuse of copyright law and the court system because some unknown musician wants extra attention.

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Filed Under: chalk, coldplay, copyright, expression, idea, videos

12 Comments

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Dark Helmet (profile), 30 Sep 2009 @ 2:40pm

Yeah, nice try partner
"but he's still suing for one reason: because it may get his video and his name some attention (which is why we're not naming him directly in this post)."

Well, YOU might not name him in the post, and maybe that saves his recognition ranking in Google searches, but the embedded YouTube video splashes his name across the top, so as far as any and all readers of TechDirt are concerned, you might as well have....
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Mike Masnick (profile), 30 Sep 2009 @ 2:52pm

Re: Yeah, nice try partner
Well, YOU might not name him in the post, and maybe that saves his recognition ranking in Google searches, but the embedded YouTube video splashes his name across the top, so as far as any and all readers of TechDirt are concerned, you might as well have....

Yes, I recognize that. But it's not in the text anywhere.

At some point, if you're writing about the video, it makes sense to show it. Doesn't mean that it's promotional.
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Dark Helmet (profile), 30 Sep 2009 @ 2:55pm

Re: Re: Yeah, nice try partner
Fair enough.

P.S. You know how I know YOU'RE gay? Because you embed Coldplay trailers....
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Sep 2009 @ 3:02pm

Re: Re: Re: Yeah, nice try partner
... and you looked at it.
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RD, 30 Sep 2009 @ 3:11pm

This garbage...
will continue and get much, much worse as long as there is virtually ZERO accountability to those bringing fraudulent and specious copyright lawsuits. The onus is ALWAYS one way - against the alleged infringer. The accuser wins no matter what, or at least, never gets punished for wasting the time of the court or the accused. Why not sue when there is NO downside (except perhaps PR backlash, and even then not much usually).
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Marcus Carab (profile), 30 Sep 2009 @ 3:26pm

Re: Re: Re: Yeah, nice try partner
a rare miss for DH
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ERH, 30 Sep 2009 @ 6:11pm

Snicker
Maybe he's suing because the music industry has misguidedly trained musicians and the common American that copyright is king!
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Hank Ross, 30 Sep 2009 @ 6:33pm

Concepts and themes...
If you could sue someone for stealing the concept and theme of your video the guy who made "I Met The Walrus" should sue Microsoft for those awful ads.

I like how in Mad Men they go through all the trouble of ripping off "Bye Bye Birdy" for Pepsi. Only for Pepsi to realize it's lame once they see it. I wish someone at MS had had the good taste to do that.
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Marcus, 30 Sep 2009 @ 9:38pm

Not quite an original idea....
Definitely nothing more than a publicity stunt.

They might want to check out the films of J. Stuart Blackton, over 100 years old...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dRe85cNXwg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay-85YqEV-s
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Oct 2009 @ 12:12am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Yeah, nice try partner
Nah, he's usually batting around .500. Just watch out for when he goes full retard.
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MRK, 1 Oct 2009 @ 8:45am

I guess Robin Rhode better sue both artists if we want to be sure everyone gets their piece of the chalk art prize. /sarcasm.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Rhode
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Beck, 10 Dec 2009 @ 2:49pm

Uh, this is the same kinda thing in a BNL video (Forget the name at the 'mo)
Absolutely ridiculous
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