Yet another example from the topsy-turvy world of copyright, where emulating your pop culture heros gets you slapped with a law suit.
“A Madness tribute band has been told to pay £500 for copying the original group’s famous walk during concerts.
On top of that, Ultimate Madness also faces having to pay a further £100 any time it uses the 20-second dance in future performances.””
Here’s the full story.
[via Peter]
copyright?
In the US, you can’t copyright a dance move, only choreography. It needs to be fixed in a form. And then it’s only protecting that form.
Here they’d have to go trademark, or look-n-feel.
I’m betting it’s something similiar there, and they’re going to rely on the fact that that band can’t afford to defend themselves.
— Ender, Duke_of_URL
Damn!
Guess I’ll have to stop doing the Chuck Berry duck walk whenever I take a patron to the stacks.
(“Walk this way.” “If I could walk that way, I wouldn’t need to see the ABMS Directory.”)
Elvis has left the building?
I wonder now if other cover bands will be sued – I’ve seen advertisements for cover bands of The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Dave Matthews Band, etc. And what about all those Elvis impersonators?