More video thoughts
Andy Baio of Waxy.org has been hosting the parody House of Cosbys videos. The lawyers just sent him a nastygram, but he’s fighting it.
I’m not removing House of Cosbys. House of Cosbys is parody, and clearly falls under fair use guidelines. I’m not taking it down, and their legal bullying isn’t going to work. They claim that hosting these videos “violates our client’s rights of publicity as well as other statutory and common laws prohibiting the misappropriation of an individual’s name, voice and likeness and unfair competition.” Sorry, but the First Amendment protects satire and parody of a public figure as free speech. Also, the right of publicity only applies to unauthorized commercial use, and not a work of art or entertainment.
I work in the media and I enjoy getting paid, so I have a healthy respect for copyright, but I’m with Andy on this one.
However, this is different from the CBS example below. CBS is making a dumb marketing decision; Cosby’s lawyers are overextending their rights. (Note, IANAL so I could be entirely wrong, but I believe I am correct).
