COPYRIGHT CLAIMS

Is rap torture?

Comedy story of the week – but with a serious side. Ireland Online reports that Michael Winterbottom, director of The Road to Guantanamo has discovered that Guantanamo detainees are played the music of rap star Eminem at full volume as a form of torture. Winterbottom argues that Eminem should take the US Government to court for copyright infringement.

The first example of infringement of moral rights by context? the IPKat asks. Merpel says that if we was Eminem he’d keep very very quiet about the fact that his music is considered a form of torture.


Da Vinci Code case

The Guardian (and pretty much everyone else) reports on the opening day in the Da Vinci Codes case. It is claimed that Dan Brown, the author of the Da Vinci Codes lifted the theme of the novel from an earlier non-fiction work, the Holy Blood, which argued that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a secret child, the descendants of which the Church was now trying to hide. Brown claims that he had not even read the book at the time that he wrote the synopsis for the Da Vinci Codes. The trial, before Peter Smith J, is expected to last two weeks.

Perhaps the IPKat is missing something here, but surely it’s trite law that an idea can’t be protected by copyright, particularly where it’s one based on supposed fact.