No, it's not "fair." If someone you work for (and presumably respect) gives away their intellectual property, great. That's their perogative. HOWEVER, if the law protects intellectual property, such as copyright protects a comedian's bit, then they have a right to be upset (and to enforce the law) if someone copies said bit. Just because someone is protecting his property doesn't necessarily make him greedy.

Spoken like an LA lawyer, I guess. Not everything that you can call "intellectual property" deserves protection, and not everyone who enforces his rights to the extent of the law deserves respect.

I've been to and done a few open mic comedy nights. It would be really easy to steal some of the unknown people's great bits and make a sizable portfolio of good material. Lot's of these guys have one or two funny bits, but the rest is pretty lame.

How does everyone feel about tribute and cover bands? (as in ones who play shitty bars and never release a cd.) Is this the same type of stealing?

That sounds like a good plan in the abstract, but consider the mechanics. Where does this Voltron of comic theft get his start? If he lifts from local comics, he's bound to get found out -- the circle of comedians operating even in New York City is pretty tiny. So does this guy has the resources to fly around the country and pick up bits from crappy comics all over, while using those bits to get a toehold in the local scene? I just don't think there's a realistic scenario where someone gets successful doing this.

Like if they tried to pass off Come Sail Away as their own song, y'mean?

Carlos Mencia got a show by ripping off George Lopez, who was already "famous" (i think we're stretching the term here a little). Ripped off Lopez for 13 minutes in his HBO special too, allegedly.

And the idea is that people won't know they're watching Mike Nobody performing Oswalt. They'll just think it's Mike Nobody who is pretty funny. Yeah, you know the KFC jokes, but I'd venture to think that Mike Nobody knows some funny Oswalt jokes that aren't that ubiquitous that he can do pretty well with.

And it can also hurt b/c if people like Oswalt don't stand up to Mike Nobody, then what's to stop people from ripping off comics who make their bread on the road grinding it out in places like Baton Rouge. Mike Nobody might be a hellavua lot cheaper than some of the upper end stand ups who aren't famous, and that can cut some gigs he would normally get. That code of honor might just have a real purpose.

The simple legalistic answer to this is that it's different because our system is set up to pay the songwriters for those performances -- the club pays ASCAP/BMI a royalty to account for the covers that get played there, and the performing arts society distributes those royalties to songwriters according to its calculation of the statistical popularity of the songwriter's work.

But we live in a world of entitlement wrapped up under the guise moral virtue.

...he stole Patton's shit, then when he got busted he lied about it. Why is it more complex than that?

Exactly, lol.

No, I mean like a Great White cover band that gets paid a few hundred bucks per gig. Should Great White call them out on a blog, sue them, or just burn down the venue? Obviously the band isn't trying to pass off the material as original.

I could see a cover band of obscure indie tunes getting away with this locally.

For all of the reasons we talked about after that first post?

Kingfish: you're probably right that there is some potential for harm to the original comic's bottom line. I think that harm -- which is what the pro-IP lobby always harps on -- is a lot less common than it's made out to be, but you make a decent case that it can happen. It just doesn't justify draconian copyright policy or being a dick.

I'm pretty sure that the bar where my buddy's metal cover band played isn't paying any royalties. He took home a cool $200 - split 5 ways. lol.

Fair enough.

I'll take that bet.

It seems like the arguments against are all trying to say "he didn't have a right to get mad" and I guess I just don't buy that. We can talk about how mad but, well I won't type it a third time. Seems more cut and / or dried to me than all of this. Also it's a slow afternoon so maybe we're all just enjoying an old-fashioned obner romp.

So will I. The PRO's have reps who go to bars, restaurants, pretty much all public businesses that play music over loudspeakers and meet their definition of public venue and make sure those businesses are paying to have the right to "broadcast" that music whether a CD or live music to the public. They usually pay a Blanket License. However not all clubs abide by the rules.

a bar i go to here got sued for quite a lot of money for not paying royalties for just one show a cover band put on. not sure how the lawyers even found out, but they sure as shit did.

Spoken like a patent lawyer, you mean.




According to who? That's your opinion, not the law. I don't agree with every aspect of patent law or trademark law or copyright law, but that doesn't mean someone should be ridiculed for protecting what is protectable under the law.



This I can agree with, but that doesn't mean he/she/it doesn't have the right to do it, or should be disrespected for enforcing their rights.

ASCAP and BMI (and a third one I can't remember the name of) hire people to frequent bars and restaurants just to see if their songs are being played (when a royalty hasn't been paid).

didnt know that. damn.

and also less funny. he is, after all, a comedian.

Pretty sure that his actual response isn't funny.




SESAC

i laughed at it.

Even more so!



Oh, people should absolutely be ridiculed for enforcing their legal rights. This is immediately obvious in the case of civil rights violations like Jim Crow laws, but I think that people who take advantage of some industry's undemocratic influence on Congress and enforce intellectual property and related rights that are clearly contrary to the public good (like gene patents, or the DMCA anti-circumvention provisions) should be ridiculed out of existence.



Again, the fact that something is a legal right doesn't make it a morally legitimate right. The fact that the law says you can do something doesn't mean your exercise of that right should be accepted by society. And I disrespect many patent attorneys for choosing to enforce legally granted patents that are inherently dubious or used harmfully.