Should Care Bears and My Little Pony Sue Atom.com and Dan Meth?
The extremely talented Dan Meth has made a very funny animated short that imagines what it would be like if the cuddly toys of our childhood were remade into violent action films.
Among the characters used are the Care Bears, My Little Pony and a number of other recognizable copyrighted characters. Now, logically, this would fall under the “fair use” clause of the copyright laws since Dan Meth actually drew his own versions of these characters and placed them in completely original scenarios.
However, look at the J.D. Salinger v. John David California case in which Salinger is claiming that California’s book, an imagining of Cauldin Hauffield as a 76-year-old man, is infringing on his copyright for the character as it exists in “A Catcher in the Rye.”
In both cases, the later artist has taken an existing and well-known character and transplanted a new version of that character into a foreign landscape. In both cases, it could be argued, that the later artist has used the original character in ways that it’s first creator never intended. It could even be argued that these new versions could have an effect on how people feel about the original versions.
In both cases, a major reason anyone would be interested in the new work is exactly because it is a reimagining of a well known pre-existing character(s). Without our original understanding and knowledge of the Care Bears as sickly sweet, plush, pastel bears, Dan Meth’s version of those bears as violent, blood-dripping My Little Pony killers there really wouldn’t be any point to the video at all.
The multi-million dollar question is does this mean that Dan Meth should have to a) get permission from the underlying rights holder prior to making a cartoon like this and b) does he owe that rights holder a percentage of any profits derived from the new work?
Even more complicated is deciding where to draw that line.
Just another example of why our current copyright laws are inadequate both for everyone involved.
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Tags: California, Care Bears, copyright, DanMeth, J. D. Salinger, John David California, My Little Pony, Shopping
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June 25, 2009 6:33 am
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