Techno Viking Lawsuit!

[EK WAFFLR]

Yeah, me too. This lawsuit sucks. Oh techno Viking, how he have fallen.

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

I don't understand what he's suing for. It's video taken in a public place. 

So if you read one of your poems in a public place and someone takes some video of it and makes a ton of money off of it, they owe you nothing?

Yes.

If I'm on a streetcorner reading poetry and someone videos it, the video is their copyright. There might be issues with the audio portion, depending on the state.

I don't think it's that black and white.

Ok, how about if you display a painting at Last Thursday on the street, I take a photograph of it, and I make a lot of money selling the prints—without ever mentioning that you painted it.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I don't understand what he's suing for. It's video taken in a public place. 

So if you read one of your poems in a public place and someone takes some video of it and makes a ton of money off of it, they owe you nothing?

Yes.

If I'm on a streetcorner reading poetry and someone videos it, the video is their copyright. There might be issues with the audio portion, depending on the state.

I don't think it's that black and white.

Ok, how about if you display a painting at Last Thursday on the street, I take a photograph of it, and I make a lot of money selling the prints—without ever mentioning that you painted it.

That's making an illegal copy of a copyrighted work. However, if the picture was not a close-up of the painting but a picture of the vendor's booth that included the picture, it would be your photograph to sell as you wish.

Are you seriously going to argue copyright law with me because I asked what the legal basis of Technoviking's lawsuit is? All that tells me is that you don't know.

Luckily, the article Waffles posted had the answer, which is that he's suing for "personality infringement".

[Cain]

Personality infringement's an interesting one.  As far as I can see, the law has mostly been applied by celebrities to protect their likeness from being used to make money via art based on their appearance, or their likeness appearing to promote a company's product.

Usually, the company in question prefers to settle out of court than go through case proceedings.  As a consequence, it's not entirely clear as to where the limits of personality infringement laws actually lie.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Personality infringement's an interesting one.  As far as I can see, the law has mostly been applied by celebrities to protect their likeness from being used to make money via art based on their appearance, or their likeness appearing to promote a company's product.

Usually, the company in question prefers to settle out of court than go through case proceedings.  As a consequence, it's not entirely clear as to where the limits of personality infringement laws actually lie.

It'll be really interesting to see where this goes. If he wins, the ramifications are a little staggering.

[Bruno]

So, if some celebrity were to release a picture, or, say, a 3D laser scan of themselves into the public domain, with the general instructions to, basically, do as thou wilt, and you start selling stuff on Etsy using their image, and then either they, or their company decide they don't like what you're doing...




Then what?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

So, if some celebrity were to release a picture, or, say, a 3D laser scan of themselves into the public domain, with the general instructions to, basically, do as thou wilt, and you start selling stuff on Etsy using their image, and then either they, or their company decide they don't like what you're doing...




Then what?

So, what if there is an angry unicorn on the dark side of the moon, and astronauts disturb it, and it files a complaint with NASA, and NASA doesn't care for it...



Then what?

[P3nT4gR4m]

So, if some celebrity were to release a picture, or, say, a 3D laser scan of themselves into the public domain, with the general instructions to, basically, do as thou wilt, and you start selling stuff on Etsy using their image, and then either they, or their company decide they don't like what you're doing...




Then what?

So, what if there is an angry unicorn on the dark side of the moon, and astronauts disturb it, and it files a complaint with NASA, and NASA doesn't care for it...



Then what?

Let's sell pictures of it and find out 

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

So, if some celebrity were to release a picture, or, say, a 3D laser scan of themselves into the public domain, with the general instructions to, basically, do as thou wilt, and you start selling stuff on Etsy using their image, and then either they, or their company decide they don't like what you're doing...




Then what?

So, what if there is an angry unicorn on the dark side of the moon, and astronauts disturb it, and it files a complaint with NASA, and NASA doesn't care for it...



Then what?

Let's sell pictures of it and find out 

[Bruno]

So, if some celebrity were to release a picture, or, say, a 3D laser scan of themselves into the public domain, with the general instructions to, basically, do as thou wilt, and you start selling stuff on Etsy using their image, and then either they, or their company decide they don't like what you're doing...




Then what?

So, what if there is an angry unicorn on the dark side of the moon, and astronauts disturb it, and it files a complaint with NASA, and NASA doesn't care for it...



Then what?

I guess you owe Pink Floyd some money.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

C'mon, I was hoping for another irrelevant "what if" scenario. You can do it!

If there's one thing RWHN's right about, it's that pot makes people say really stupid ideas out loud.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Oh wait, he's never said that.

[LMNO]

What if we're actually computer programs living in a hologram simulation of the universe that was so precise, it produced experiences exactly like we were human beings living in the actual universe?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

What if we're actually computer programs living in a hologram simulation of the universe that was so precise, it produced experiences exactly like we were human beings living in the actual universe?

ZOMG

MIND BLOWN! 

[LMNO]

What if you couldn't objectively prove you exist, yet from a functional perspective, it really didn't matter?