The School Of The Future, Today... But Is It... >>
<< Wal-Mart's New Video Offering Demonstrates...
 tdicon 

Legal Issues

by Mike Masnick

Tue, Nov 28th 2006 1:22pm





EFF Teaches Barney The Dinosaur An Expensive Lesson In Fair Use

from the happy-now? dept

The folks behind Barney, the purple dinosaur TV character, have a long history of not quite understanding copyrights and fair use, as they tend to send out cease & desist letters at the drop of a hat, even if there's no actual violation. In fact, they sent so many to one person who had an online Barney parody site (parody is protected by fair use, remember) without actually suing him, that he (along with the EFF) finally sued Barney's owners back. It seems that this little sing-a-long lesson in copyright and fair use finally made sense to the stuffed dinosaur, who not only has agreed to stop sending out cease & desist letters to the guy, but also will pay for his legal bills in defending himself. Are we all a happy family now?

9 Comments | Leave a Comment

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments (rss)

(Flattened / Threaded)

  1.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Nov 28th, 2006 @ 1:37pm

    I love you, you love me. . .

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Nov 28th, 2006 @ 1:41pm

    Let's go nuts and sue Barney?

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  
    identicon
    Stu, Nov 28th, 2006 @ 1:55pm

    Barney is scarey as hell.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  4.  
    identicon
    ehrichweiss, Nov 28th, 2006 @ 2:37pm

    funny...

    About 10 years ago there was a file going around about how Sesame Street was a million times better than Barney and one of the things on it was that on one episode Barney basically humiliated a child for not wanting to share something whereas on SS, they simply said the child had that right and while it was cool to not share, there were benefits to sharing.

    I'm guessing that Barney decided HE didn't want to share either.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  5.  
    identicon
    Copyright double agent, Nov 28th, 2006 @ 3:18pm

    Stealing from the thief?

    Isn't most of Barney's music ripoffs from other songs? How do they get to sue when they just take nursery songs and change the words?

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  6.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Nov 28th, 2006 @ 4:12pm

    I smell you, you smell me
    We're a smelly family
    With some stinky socks
    And some really stinky shoes
    Won't you came and smell me too?

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  7.  
    identicon
    IT STUDENT, Dec 15th, 2006 @ 7:18am

    Can't We All Just Get Along??

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  8.  
    identicon
    HANNAH, Oct 1st, 2007 @ 11:52am

    :O

    Barney??Being sued I used to love him when I was little
    Awww...

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  9.  
    identicon
    gawd666, May 22nd, 2009 @ 9:00pm

    my fave song

    Ihate you, you hate me, lets get together and kill barney! put a colt to his head, pull the trigger and hes dead!

    p.s: read inuyasha meets barney

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


Add Your Comment

Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now. Want one? Register here
Get Techdirt’s Daily Email
Save me a cookie
  • Note: A CRLF will be replaced by a break tag (<br>), all other allowable HTML will remain intact
  • Allowed HTML Tags: <b> <i> <a> <em> <br> <strong> <blockquote> <hr> <tt>
The School Of The Future, Today... But Is It... >>
<< Wal-Mart's New Video Offering Demonstrates...
 tdicon 
Follow Techdirt
Flattr rss rss
A word from our Sponsors...
Sponsored Resource
Essential Reading
Techdirt Reading List
Techdirt Insider Chat

A word from our Sponsors...
Recent Stories

Thursday

12:04pm: Vermont Declares War On Patent Trolls; Passes New Law And Sues Notorious Patent Troll (3)
11:05am: Prenda Lawyer Says Georgia Court Should Ignore Judge Wright's Order Because... Look! Hackers! (14)
10:01am: Chicago School System On FOIA Requests: Stonewalling, Obfuscation, & Paper-Shredding (15)
8:57am: VOD Service Acetrax Shutting Down, Forcing Customers Through DRM Hoops To Retain Their Purchased Movies (30)
7:58am: Man Butt Dials 911 While Discussing Murder Plot (15)
5:51am: Kim Dotcom Threatens To Sue Google, Facebook And Twitter Over 2-Factor Authentication Patent If They Don't Help Him (137)
3:44am: Amazon Wants To Sell Fan Fiction With It, Originator And FanFic Author All Sharing Profits (46)

Wednesday

11:54pm: Cool New Platform For Supporting Artists: Patreon, From Jack Conte (19)
7:53pm: Modest Proposal: Going Piracy Neutral (34)
5:00pm: DailyDirt: Graduation Advice To Remember (3)
More arrow
A word from our Sponsors...

Close

Email This