On Sun, 5 Dec 2004, Wallace J.McLean wrote:

----- Original Message ----- From: Michael Hart <hart@pglaf.org> Date: Sunday, December 5, 2004 3:58 pm Subject: Re: !@!Re: [PGCanada] Introducing... Vasa

...

Mickey Rodent?

Protected by satire laws?

You know, a lot of our supposed creator's rights groups want our CR law "harmonized" with the US.... yet youse have a "parody and pastiche" exemption to infringement... we don't.

I think parody is one of our most powerful weapons. For example, we could parody this [or just quote it] "The 1982 statement to a congressional committee by Jack Valenti, then head of the MPAA, that the VCR is to Hollywood what the Boston Strangler was to a woman alone, still stands as the ne plus ultra of exaggerated claims." We could do a kind of "the boy who cried wolf" thing. . . . After all, Hollywood profited GREATLY from the VCR and DVD thing, but the public domain was decimated. . . . If you don't think this kind of thing has staying power, just look into the root of the word "gerrymander". . . . ;-) Michael