Plagiarism

John R. Levine writes,

>> In the 1950s, the author of a medical textbook sued for copyright
>> infringement when one sentence from the book was used in an
>> advertisement. He won. The ad was for cigarettes, and the quote
>> was used in a way that implied that the author endorsed the
>> cigarettes. I hope that most of us agree that was an appropriate
>> application of copyright law.

IANAL, and I'd hope for comment from the lawyers here--but I don't *think* that would have been an application of *copyright* law. Wouldn't it have been, rather, a question either of right of publicity or something having to do with wrongful implication of an endorsement, especially that of a professional such as a physician?

--Dodi Schultz Received on Tue Sep 17 2002 - 17:13:39 GMT