Re: Loss of Amos and Andy copyright?

You are trying to recall Silverman v. CBS Inc. 870 F. 2d 40 (2d Cir.), cert denied 492 U.S. 907 (1989). I haven't read the case in a long time, but I believe it held that some of the earlier works incorporating the characters Amos and Andy were p/d, and that the characters were p/d as delineated in those work (consistent with, e.g., Prof. Nimmer's proposed analysis of when a character used in a series of works goes into the p/d).s, but that other later works were not p/d and the expression original to those later works was still covered by copyright.

Jay Dougherty

Loyola Law School (Los Angeles)

213-736-1461

fjdoughe[_at_]lmulaw.lmu.edu Received on Mon Apr 27 1998 - 22:31:29 GMT