GeekLawyer’s Blog

The Gower report on IP struck Geeklawyer as a very balanced and intellectually rigourous review. He was clearly at pains to consider all sides to the increasingly political nature of IP rights.

The thing that stuck out for Geeklawyer in all of this was that Gower is proposing that a defence to infringement of copyright should be reintroduced: parody caricature & pastiche. Geeklawyer says ‘reintroduced‘ because in the dim distant past it was a defence until some arsehat of a judge decided that it wasn’t and that what mattered was the question of whether there was ‘substantial taking‘.

While it is probably a bit tricky starting to assess arguments for and against infringement based on intent, and it might set off an entire line of unwelcome subjectivism in other areas too, parody is really a species of free speech that will not unfairly damage the essential interests of the copyright holder.

Geeklawyer has often said we need a more relaxed US style ‘fair use’ defence. Which is a bit rich coming from someone who mocks UK politicians for sucking up to, and imitating, all things American.

Sometimes, however, one just has to do the right thing.