pohatu771 t1_jdv8tf8 wrote on March 27, 2023 at 1:28 PM

Reply to comment by wotmate in TIL Australian band, Men At Work were sued over their song "Down Under" for similarities to an Australian nursery rhyme "Kookaburra". by El-Hairy

Someone would.

If some neo-Nazi group used “That’ll Be The Day” over images of a Jewish president, I think Buddy Holly’s wife would have an issue with that.

(Not that Universal, who owns the recording, or Paul McCartney, who owns the publishing would ever allow that.)

wotmate t1_jdxhr8b wrote on March 27, 2023 at 10:22 PM

That's the point though, it's not theirs, they just own it because of Disney's copyright system.

Beethoven would be losing his shit if he knew that school children were mangling his music with recorders, but he's long dead. Copyright, like patents, exist so that the original creator can make money from their creations, not so that some troll can sue people long after the creator is dead.

remarkablemayonaise t1_jdvdtwq wrote on March 27, 2023 at 2:06 PM

Wagner wasn't as much of a Nazi as the Nazis made him out to be. That's the risk of art, if you make something public property (even with licenses) someone will take it to an extreme. The English St George's flag suffers a similar fate. Is the family of St George going to start chasing the EDF?

pohatu771 t1_jdvjaq4 wrote on March 27, 2023 at 2:45 PM

That’s the whole point of the license - it isn’t public property. It is owned by one entity and licensed to others, based on their proposed use of it.

The flag of a country is, generally, public property.