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#1 Las Vegas

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Posted 13 May 2009 - 06:08 PM

My nephew, who is an ardent AR fan, wants to produce bumper stickers with AR quotes on them.
He will be selling them for profit. Can he do this legally, or is this copyright infringement?
Thank you in advance!

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#2 Ted Keer

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Posted 13 May 2009 - 06:37 PM

It is copyright infringement, except, of course, for Anthem, which is in the public domain.

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#3 Barbara Branden

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Posted 13 May 2009 - 08:37 PM

Ted, all sorts of web sites are selling bumper stickers, mugs, bracelets, shirts, jackets, etc., containing quotes from Rand's books. Why would the fair use principle not apply to such items, just as it applies to quotes from Rand (or from any writer) included in printed material offered for sale?

Barbara

#4 Rich Engle

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Posted 13 May 2009 - 08:57 PM

Ask the Obama staff.

Seen any of that swag lately?

rde
Wondering why alien voices compel him to invest in Franklin Mint products, weird ceramic plates, lighters...

"There is no way that writers can be tamed and rendered civilized or even cured. the only solution known to science is to provide the patient with an isolation room, where he can endure the acute stages in private and where food can be poked in to him with a stick." -- Robert A. Heinlein

#5 Las Vegas

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Posted 13 May 2009 - 09:28 PM

Perhaps someone with a legal backround can clarify the issue and answer my question.
Here is some information which seems ambiguous to me but may provide insight for another.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use

#6 Darrell Hougen

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Posted 13 May 2009 - 09:51 PM

I don't have a legal background, but it would seem that the sticking point might be whether the new work is sufficiently "transformative." If a bumper sticker simply quotes Rand, it would seem not to be transformative at all. However, if the bumper sticker or t-shirt or whatever were to add designs or pictures to the quoted phrase, it might be considered transformative.

I wouldn't think your nephew would have a problem with any of the other criteria for fair use. He would be using a minimal amount of text and his use would not negatively affect the market for Rand's works. It might even enhance the market. In this case, it would be difficult to quote enough of her work that someone would think there was no reason to read the original since it was mostly quoted in the derivative work.

Darrell

Darrell Hougen
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"America’s founding ideal was the principle of individual rights. Nothing more—and nothing less. The rest—everything that America achieved, everything she became, everything “noble and just,” and heroic, and great, and unprecedented in human history—was the logical consequence of fidelity to that one principle." --- Ayn Rand

#7 Rich Engle

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Posted 13 May 2009 - 10:31 PM

At this point, the issue is enforcement. Right.

#8 Doug Plumb

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Posted 14 May 2009 - 05:05 AM

I just started reading Rand, I read half of Fountainhead - didn't like it because it wasn't teaching me anything, I'm self employed and creative. Atlas Shrugged is beautiful and it has solidified stuff I was already learning from the Patriot movement. I fold pages at the bottom where I find her killer quotes as I read - I want to share them myself.

I believe that after a period of time literary works become public domain. I world suggest one of the expert based web services. You would pay $50.00 or so to get a good answer to your question.

AskAnExpert is one I believe.

"We must now face the harsh truth that the objectives of communism are being steadily advanced because many of us do not recognize the means used to advance them. ... The individual is handicapped by coming face to face with a Conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists. The American mind simply has not come to a realization of the evil which has been introduced into our midst." - J. Edgar Hoover

#9 Chris Grieb

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Posted 14 May 2009 - 07:32 AM

Doug; The period is very long for copyrighted material.

Welcome to OL!

#10 Brant Gaede

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Posted 14 May 2009 - 09:40 AM

Well, one could always make an inquiry to the estate of Ayn Rand. They might be willing to license some material. It'd probably be one thing to make and sell a bumper sticker "WHO IS JOHN GALT" and another to make 40 different bumper stickers with her material. "Who is John Galt" is almost iconic and implicitly common to her millions of readers and would help sell more copies of Atlas Shrugged. Other quotes wouldn't help the sales I think.

--Brant

My Kind of Objectivism: Reality, Reason, Rational Self-Interest, Laissez-Faire Capitalism. I am a Realist.