Re: Aphorisms and Copyright

On Tue, August 18, 1998, Michael Scarpitti <mscarpit[_at_]asnt.org> wrote:
>
> On 18, August 1998, Howard G. Zaharoff <hgz[_at_]buslaw128.com> wrote:
> >
> > On 8/13/98, Bob Stock <bstock[_at_]ucla.edu> wrote:
> > >
> > > Ashleigh Brilliant comes up with pithy sayings and registers them
> > > with the US Copyright Office. To find out more about Brilliant,
> > > you can take a peek at his website at:
> > >
> > > http://ashleighbrilliant.com/
> >
> > As for the potential copyrightable of short works (in this case,
> > one-liners) see Foxworthy v. Custom Tees, 879 F. Supp 1200, 1219.
>
> The (not so?) obvious answer is to collect all the aphorisms together
> in a single volume, like Nietzsche did.

Not so. The resultant copyright would protect the collection, but would not protect any one individual aphorism from being used on a t-shirt without authorization, which is clearly what Mr Brilliant sought to prevent.

Bob Cumbow
Perkins Coie LLP
cumbr[_at_]perkinscoie.com
206-583-8566 Received on Wed Aug 19 1998 - 15:29:40 GMT