14 June 2006

Perhaps Captain Copyright Should Be Demoted to Ensign Copyright?

Professor Volokh notes a severe case of copyright overreach by a Canadian copyright information website featuring a character named "Captain Copyright". Volokh dares the Captain to leap his fair use privileges in a single bound:
[Y]our "Links from Other Web Sites" policy is legally unenforceable, implicitly misstates the law in ways that may mislead lay readers (including children and schoolteachers who are visiting your site), and therefore casts doubt on the credibility of the "educational" material you post on your site.

Should you request or demand that I remove the link, I will categorically refuse, as I am entirely within my rights to do. Copyright law does not restrict my linking to your site, and because I never expressed agreement to the offered terms on your site, I am not contractually bound by your assertions of your supposed rights, either. I have absolutely no intention of complying with your requests.

What's more, Captain Copyright seems to be a blatant rip-off from an earlier Singaporean comic. First Batgirl comes out as a lesbian and now Captain Copyright is not just misinformed but is also a copyright infringer? It makes me nostalgic for the golden age of comics when we had such wholesome heroes as the Incredible Popeman and Nelson Mandela.

[Update]

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