Sherlock lives in public domain, US court rules

Re:Sherlock lives in public domain, US court rules by BerislavLopac on Tuesday June 17, 2014 @04:49AM (#7903395)

The problem with such cases is that -- as far as I'm aware (IANAL) -- concepts like characters, inventions (e.g. hyperdrive) etc are not covered by any of the existing laws that handle creative monopolies (i.e. what is generally known, incorrectly, as "intellectual property"). Copyright covers the specific fixed representations (e.g. words on paper) and not ideas and concepts, while other laws like patents or trademarks also seem unfit here.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Sherlock lives in public domain, US court rules by vidarh on Tuesday June 17, 2014 @05:22AM (#7903465)

Not a lawyer either. Characters may be protected by copyright, in as much as their manifestations in writing, or visual depictions etc. is protected by copyright, and copyright includes the right to control derivative works.

So if I describe a young boy that goes to wizard school in a book, then that idea is not protected by copyright, but if the way I describe him makes him similar enough to Harry Potter, I would risk that a court would determine that the character is a derivative work and find copyright infringement.

Trademark can also apply, if the characters have been used in association with products, but not generally for the work itself.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Sherlock lives in public domain, US court rules by NickNameNick on Tuesday June 17, 2014 @05:19AM (#7903456)

Couldn't the estate trademark Sherlock Holmes' name? Didn't Disney eventually trademark Mickey Mouse?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Sherlock lives in public domain, US court rules by ben0x539 on Tuesday June 17, 2014 @07:49AM (#7903828)

I've googled this a bunch out of curiosity before and everybody, including a bunch of courts, seems to argue that fleshed-out fictional characters are in fact covered by copyright even with the serial numbers filed off. IANAL either, obviously.

I mean, you'd be drowning in published, unauthorized fanfic of Batman and Harry Potter and whatnot otherwise.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Sherlock lives in public domain, US court rules by BerislavLopac on Tuesday June 17, 2014 @09:31AM (#7904274)

In fact we do. E.g. 50 shades of grey started out as a fanfic of Twilight.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Sherlock lives in public domain, US court rules by qwerta on Tuesday June 17, 2014 @09:09AM (#7904163)

Plus most sci-fi stuff such as hyperdrive is old news. Clarke, Asimov and most hard scifi are from 1950ies. Some stuff such as antigravity goes back to Wells and Kepler.

[ Parent | on HN ]