Assignment Task:
There are several questions posed in the attached copyright assignment. Discuss your thoughts on those issues amongst yourselves in the discussion board.
As the well-known CEO of a Fortune-500 manufacturing company, Peter Paulsen was something of a celebrity. Like the legendary Jack Welch of General Electric, Peter had taken charge of his company at a time when it had been floundering and had led it to nearly two decades of unparalleled growth and prosperity. As a result, his name had become a household word both in the business community and in society in general. Known for his seriousness of purpose and aggressiveness, almost ruthlessness, in business, Peter was highly sought after for interviews and advice but seldom gave either. He earned a reputation for laser-like focus on his company's success and nothing Else.
Peter did have one weakness, however. He was a member of the Bojangles Club. This club was an elite group of business and political leaders, whose sole purpose was to meet once a year, out of sight of the news media, for a riotous weekend of food, drink, unrestrained conversation, carousing, and silliness. During this once-a-year bacchanalia, the leaders of society who were members of this club dressed in strange costumes, put on silly and raunchy skits, drank and ate too much, and generally carried on like overaged members of an "Animal House" fraternity or sorority.
This annual event occurred in the fall, at a remote mountain retreat accessible only by a single narrow, winding dirt road. Great effort was made to insure that no members of the press or news media were invited or present. Of course, the press and media were equally intent on "crashing" this party, for the Bojangles Club's annual gathering was a matter of intense interest and speculation on the public's part. Although nothing of the kind actually occurred, several conspiracy theories held that society's leaders decided great matters of public policy, in secret, at this event. In fact, the annual meeting had no purpose other than relaxation and recreation.
The most important event of each year's Bojangles Club gathering was the Saturday-night banquet. At this banquet, by tradition, every member of the Club was required to present or act in a humorous speech, poem, song, skit, revue, or the like. The presentations were supposed to be impromptu, but over the years many participants had taken to preparing for them in advance. The quality of each presentation was deemed to be la measure of the presenter, and a poor presentation could result in the presenter enduring merciless ribbing and hazing for the rest of the gathering.
At the annual gathering in fall 2002, Peter had been preoccupied with the effect of the dot-com bust on his company's business. As a result, he had prepared nothing in advance. Fortunately, his presentation was scheduled for the end of the evening. While other members of the Club were making fools of themselves, Peter sat at the head table, drank liberally, and scribbled lines of poetry on a paper napkin with his favorite pen.
Fuzzy with drink, Peter made several false starts. The napkin on which he wrote became a sea of ink blots, crossouts, interlineations, and illegible scrawling. Nevertheless, by the time he had to give his presentation, Peter had composed a series of five hilarious limericks about the perils of managing a large organization.
For his presentation, Peter donned a monkey suit and, so attired, read his limericks in a slow, ponderous and serious tone. His austere tone, coupled with his reputation for seriousness and aggressiveness, only made his five limericks seem more funny. The crowd laughed uproariously in appreciation of Peter's humor.
Shortly after the Peter's presentation, the banquet ended. Nearly everyone had drunk too much and stumbled in walking. On the way out, Peter bumped into a woman whom he had never met before. She praised him for his limericks and said, "They were so good they should be put to music." "Sure," Peter said, "Why not?!" He then laughed uproariously and stumbled off to bed.
Unbeknownst to Peter, the woman he bumped into turned out to be Dotty Davis, star television reporter and amateur musician, in disguise. Through an elaborate ruse, she had obtained an invitation to the Bojangles Club gathering--the first time a reporter had crashed the party in over a decade.
Unlike the Club's members, Dotty had remained cold sober throughout the event, for she intended to report it in its entirety. Furthermore, Dotty had a photographic memory. The minute she got back to her room after the banquet, she wrote down all five of Peter's limericks verbatim.
When she got home after the gathering, Dotty set about composing music for the limericks. The tune she composed was vaguely reminiscent of "Home on the Range," but syncopated, much quicker in tempo, and with several variations in melody from the traditional tune. Her music fit the limericks superbly and seemed to amplify their humorous effect.
The next day, Dotty began her evening television newscast with an "exclusive feature" on the Bojangles Club's bacchanalia. Halfway through her feature, she reported on the inebriated presentation of the famous Peter Paulsen. As she reported, her image appeared as a small, rectangular inset in the lower left-hand corner of the television screen. The rest of the screen showed footage, from actual newsreels, of Peter engaged in various business activities, such as company annual meetings, press conferences, etc. Meanwhile, the audio consisted of a deep, male voice--specially selected for similarity to Peter's voice- singing three of Peter's five limericks, to the tune of Dotty's music, with piano accompaniment. The overall effect of this part of Dotty's newscast was an incongruously hilarious juxtaposition of the serious, aggressive businessman with Peter's raucous, acid humor, amplified by Dotty's music.
Dotty's newscast was such a sensation that, as often happens with the media today, it became the subject of further reporting. For nearly a week, local and national news media reported about little else. There was great speculation about how Dotty had gained admission to the secretive club (a fact she never revealed), what else went on there, and whether the conspiracy theories of intense public-policy discussions were true. Other televisions stations around the country, both local and network, broadcast clips of Dotty's broadcast, although none used more than one limerick. People all over the globe laughed at Peter's apparent transformation from the aggressive Man of Trade into the softer humorist. Dotty's newscast had revealed to the public a side of Peter that few besides his family had ever seen before.
Just as the dust from all the media attention was starting to settle, Peter's limericks appeared on television again, in new form: commercials for new business seminars. Labeled "Don Deller's Business Essentials," the two-day seminars offered "secrets of the pros" in managing large organizations, for an admission fee of $995 per Head.
Don Deller was the seminars' originator and proprietor. At the beginning of each televised advertisement, he himself appeared, in a cowboy hat and with a guitar, singing a country-and-western version of the three of Peter's limericks that Dotty had broadcast, along with Dotty's music.
Although Dotty's music was clearly recognizable, Don's guitar style was notably southwest. Don himself was from New York, but he sang the lyrics with a southwester twang. The result was even more humorous than Dotty's version. After a week or airing these commercials twice per day, Don found that his seminars for the next three months were oversubscribed.
Dotty interviewed Don about his commercials, and he admitted that he had gotten the lyrics and music for his humorous song from Dotty's newscast of Peter's appearance at the Bojangles Club's annual gathering. Don had recorded Dotty's initial newscast on a videocassette recorder and had watched the feature repeatedly in preparing his own version of the song.
Upset that all this unwanted publicity has tarnished his business reputation, Peter has hired you as special copyright counsel to see what can be done about it. Although he wouldn't mind an award of damages, he is most interested in injunctive relief--the sooner the better-_against further publication or use of his limericks in any form.
At your request, Peter found and showed you the napkin on which he first wrote the limericks at the Bojangles Club's Saturday-night banquet. Although you can discern a few words, most of napkin is illegible. You ask Peter whether he can read it, and he replies "Sure, but I doubt even my secretary can." Peter has asked you to evaluate the chances for success of a copyright infringement law suit against Dotty and Don.