Hello la’ys & gtnlmen,

summer is here (!) and so are various risks associated with UV, swimming, pool-walking, heat, diet, etc.

Did you ever think how knitting could be dangerous for you? Ok, it may be quite weird to consider knitting during summer, unless you are a doily enthusiast or just want to make a personal gift to Jeremy’s artist elephant (an elephant-sweatshirt takes some time)

Think twice before picking up your needles, think about Mazz…

Mazzmatazz, a Dr Who fan with a talent for knitting, published photos and pattern directions of Ood and Adipose, on which BBC Wordwide had copyrights,since they are Dr Who characters. This got her an email in her inbox alerting her on the legal consequences of this act.

Mazzmatazz removed these elements from her website and searched for support from the Open Rights Group on this intriguing situation. It’s not everyday that you risk legal prosecution for buying into a brand symbol.

Is this an exaggerated situation indeed ?

I would say it is, since it interprates the motivation : the “Mazz did nothing more than contrefacon” attitude reduces the creative transformation process to a simple copying reflex.

Then, it sets a miserable legal granularity that drives semiotic diversity to extinction. If nobody can speak, sing, sketch, imitate moves of Adipose without buying copyrights beforehand, then Adipose will not fertilize any other ideas, and will be a symbol quickly forgotten. Save fat !

but wait,

Do we actually have somebody playing tennis in the swimming pool? eh, I mean mixing up the rules of two different business models: If BBC Worldwide is getting royalties from the brand and paraphernalia, it seems to me that Mazzmatazz did not monetize this artwork by selling it directly. If she goes for indirect revenue generation (let’s say from traffic on her site, or publicity, or from boosting her productivity by having a fulfilling hobby, or whatever), let her play on her field. Or else, BBC is bullying “we are competitors, either you like it or not”.

On the other hand, BBC Worldwide, may have needed some field exercises on applied IP law on digital content (mesure the image impact, the propagation speed, the volatility of its arguments). Fair,because when a real crisis is in, I suppose it will be too late to test the legal function.

Or maybe they are doing some buzz about the new cycle of Dr Who series. Knitting is a rather cult activity, exactly like the audience of Dr Who.

Anyway, just in case you got as impressed as I were by this story, remember not to facebook any monument-like castles your cousins built on sand this summer. And let’s hope that this IP hot stream will begin to settle down until Halloween / carnival because I want to pose with my Pink Panther costume. Tara rara, rara…

Georgia

( for a more in-depth legal analysis on the issue, see Andres Guadamuz content, enjoy)

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