quote: You don't lose copyright if you don't enforce. You do lose trademark (and trade secrets, but that's a bit different).
The Cards disagree. kacard has explained that if they don't crack down on all fanfic, they could lose the copyright in some fasion. It never really made sense to me, but that's what she said.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
There's personal interpretation of copyright, and there's legal interpretation of copyright. The way things stand now, copyright lasts until 70 years after the death of the creator.
Fortunately, this argument has absolutely nothing to do with copyright. It's a matter of possession - who owns the ball? Do baseball teams own the balls that are hit as home runs or foul balls? Do the teams own the balls that players toss into the stands? It seems to me that as soon as a ball is out of play, ownership would belong to whoever possesses it. Possession is generally not 9/10 of the law, but it seems like in this case, it is.
Edit: I don't think he should give it back unless the Red Sox provide ample financial reasoning
[ January 07, 2005, 10:05 PM: Message edited by: Vid ]
Posts: 162 | Registered: Dec 2004
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Fugu is right in that copyright is not officially a "protect it or lose it" right as trademark is.
However, it is possible to raise a defense against copyright infringement if the actions of the copyright holder lead you to think that the work in question is not being restricted. I don't know the specifics (I will in 5 months), but I imagine this is one of the things the Cards worry about. If lots of people right fanfic, the Cards know about it and exert no control, then when someone writes an Alvin/Calvin sex scene the Cards may not be able to do anything.
There's a reason Spider-Man is trademarked, not just copyrighted. Copyright protects individual works and derivatives of those works. Not all stories with Alvin as a character would necessarily be considered a derivative work, although it's not something to mess around with unless you have any respect of OSC as an artist and you have a lot of money to cover attorneys fees and damages if the story you write does end up being called a derivative work.
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It's not the game that matters, not the team mates, not pride or love.. it's money.
If I were kidnapped, and that ball was stolen.. there's alot more people out there who would pay to get that ball back than there is who would pay to save me.... Stupid celebrity baseballs..
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You know, pepek, you are so right. The truth is, it is about money. We Red Sox fans think, ooh, the Sox won, yay! Well, are any of them actually even from the Boston area, or really care about the team's history? There may be some, but I don't know of many professional athletes who decide they want to play for their favorite childhood team, and follow that drem. I don't even thnk they could do that, unless they were so good they were a free agent or whatever.
Paul G, where the heck have you been in this discussion?
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