Paris Hilton and Copyright Law

An interesting email.... I'm not sure it inspires me to be a lawyer?

-----Original Message-----
From: John Schuch
Sent: Thursday, 26 February 2004 2:21 PM
To:
Subject: Paris Hilton and Copyright Law

If talking about DJ Danger Mouse was getting a little stale for you, here's a whole new can of worms.

http://www.jerrybrito.com/blog/000386.shtml

Some days you go to class and you learn something that puts everything in perspective and you realize you made the right decision going to law school.
Copyright class tonight was such a moment.

As you surely know, Rick Salomon, Paris Hilton's ex-boyfriend, recently released a video of the two of them engaged in sexual congress. He actually sells copies of the tape on his Web site, trustfundgirls.com. Now he is suing another Internet site, sexbrats.com, for also selling the video. On what grounds is he suing? Copyright infringement. He owns the copyright to the video.

What's great is sexbrat's attorneys' rejoinder. They have filed a motion to dismiss Salomon's suit, which alleges Salomon committed fraud on the Copyright Office by claiming that he was the sole author of the work in question.

Says the motion: "Salomon's failure to identify Ms. Hilton as a co-author on the application for copyright registration renders the certificate of registration invalid and fraudulent." Hilton didn't just act in the film, sexbrats alleges, she's a co-author.

"Unfortunately for Salomon, the video also depicts Ms. Hilton participating fully in the creation of the video," the motion says. "Ms. Hilton offered directorial comments and physically controlled and directed the camera."
From what I've learned so far in intellectual property class, this sounds like a pretty good argument.

I can't wait to be an attorney.

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Comments

[ryan]

I think I would rather be the film director.