> Okay, say Microsoft (for whatever reason) decides to infringe on your > copyright and use it. > > Who is going to last longer, you or Microsoft? It's all about paying for your > legal fees. Just because you are in the clear and everything is on your side > does not mean that you have any chance in hell of actually winning. > > I'll see if I can find a blog post by an established photographer that has been > fighting for a couple years, and has spent upwards of $30,000 and his case is > nowhere near completion.
I went to a talk once by Philip Jones-Griffiths, Magnum photographer famous for his book Vietnam, Inc. The film Apocalypse Now! ripped the book of quite comprehensively. In particular, there is a scene where a VC soldier is dying in the arms of some GI, having fought on with his guts hanging out and now begging for water. Robert Duvall's character says something like 'Any man who can fight with his guts hanging out can drink from my canteen any time' and makes to offer the VC soldier his canteen. But before the soldier takes it, Duvall is distracted and walks away, splashing water on the ground and not giving any to the VC. The composition of the scene, and the text, are identical to Jones-Griffiths' book. During the talk he said that Magnum approached Coppola, pointed out the similarities, and asked for the royalties. PJ-G said "he responded with those immortal Hollywood words 'Sue me!'". Magnum couldn't afford to take him on, so he got away with it. If it's that difficult for Magnum, so much more so for Joe TriXpack. B -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
