Universal Music Lawyers Realize That Taking Down Charlie Brown / Smiths Remix Not The Brightest Idea They've Had

from the about-time dept

We've already written about Universal Music issuing totally bogus takedowns to Lauren LoPrete for her amusing remix that takes Peanuts comic strips and replaces the text with lyrics from The Smiths. And we wrote about the counternotice she sent to Tumblr, done via awesome law firm Booth Sweet. Apparently, someone within the lawyerly ranks at Universal Music realized that this was an incredibly stupid thing to be doing, and told the LA Times that it is "dropping its pursuit" of LoPrete's site. Why it even started in the first place is a question for another day. Of course, now we await the news that Iconix Brand Group, the owners of Peanuts Inc., decides that it, too, wants to be ridiculously overly lawyerly. After all, it's done it before.

Filed Under: charlie brown, copyright, peanuts, remix, the smiths
Companies: universal music

Yes, It's Fair Use To Mashup Charlie Brown And The Smiths

from the stand-up-for-your-rights dept

We had mentioned in our post about Universal Music sending bogus DMCA takedowns over Lauren LoPrete's This Charming Charlie tumblr mashup, that LoPrete had been contacted by various copyright and internet free speech lawyers offering to represent her. It appears that among the lawyers reaching out to her were the good folks at Booth Sweet -- whom we've covered many times for their efforts to fight copyright trolls and other bogus threats -- have taken on her case. Lawyer Dan Booth has sent a short and simple counternotice to Tumblr, arguing that the strips that were taken down were covered by fair use.

So much to answer for! Yet our client believes in good faith that these three posts, like all posts on her charming website, do not infringe the copyright for any Smiths lyrics, as they constitute fair use in accordance with 17 U.S.C. § 107. The three contested posts are JPEGs (attached for your reference) that quote from songs by the Smiths, namely "Ask" (a seven-word quote: "Nature is a language, can't you read?"); "This Charming Man" (eight words: "Will nature make a man of me yet?"); and "Frankly, Mr. Shankly" (twelve words: "Sometimes I'd feel more fulfilled making Christmas cards with the mentally ill"). Those brief excerpts are used to transformative effect, as you see. They also have no commercial purpose, and cannot have any negative effect on the market for the original works. As a result, the takedown notices are erroneous. We look forward to the prompt reinstatement of the posts pursuant to 17 U.S.C. § 512 (g)(3).

And now we wait to see if Universal Music decides to sue. Doubtful, but you never know with the big labels and their itchy trigger finger lawyers.

Filed Under: charlie brown, copyright, fair use, lauren loprete, mashups, morissey, peanuts, remix
Companies: booth sweet, tumblr, universal music

Universal Music Using Copyright To Kill Off Wacky Charlie Brown / Smiths Comic Mashup

from the it-always-looks-darkest-just-before-it-gets-totally-black dept

In the past, we've written a few times about various fun online attempts to take classic comic strips and remix them into something else. Probably the most famous is Garfield Minus Garfield (which is just what it sounds like). What amazed us about that story was that, not only did Garfield author Jim Davis not freak out about it (he actually loved it), he and his publisher agreed to publish a book of those strips.

Unfortunately, other comic remixers haven't had the same sort of luck. "Real Calvin and Hobbes" (taking panels from the strip and putting them in "real photographs") was shut down by publisher Andrews McMeel Universal. And, Iconix Brand Group, owners of Peanuts Worldwide, shut down Peanutweeter, a site that took semi-random tweets and fit them to panels from classic Peanuts' strips.

This latest example also involves Peanuts, though it appears not to have been Peanuts Worldwide that brought it down this time. At issue is the blog This Charming Charlie, which has taken lyrics from songs by The Smiths, and placed them into Charlie Brown comics. It was set up by Lauren LoPrete nearly two months ago, and got a ton of attention back in August, with articles in Slate, Time and Esquire among some others. I had actually missed all of that, but came across the blog today totally by accident (literally: was researching something totally unrelated and a confused Google search sent me to the blog), where I discovered that LoPrete says it's over as of last week because she's been getting takedowns.

But here's the odd part. The takedowns aren't from the Peanuts side of things, but the Smiths. Universal Music Publishing Group is claiming that the use of the Smith's lyrics here violate their copyrights. Frankly, that's ridiculous. First of all, as you can see from a few of the examples below, the strips use just very small snippets of lyrics, and do so in totally transformative ways, in a manner that is clearly commentary on those original lyrics (as well as on Charlie Brown). If anything should be considered fair use, it's this. But, really, what does Universal Music Publishing think they're doing here? Do they honestly think these comic strips somehow hurt the copyright on those lyrics? Really? It seems like just another jerky kneejerk reaction for no reason other than copyright allows them to censor.

Thankfully, it appears that LoPrete isn't just going to fold. She's been hearing from some lawyers who are interested in representing her, and she sounds like she's going to fight this. She's currently filing counternotices and apparently is ready to fight back even more if Universal decides to try to continue to censor her.

Filed Under: censorship, charlie brown, copyright, dmca, fair use, lauren loprete, morissey, parody, peanuts, remix, the smiths
Companies: universal music