Seuss Estate And ComicMix Copyright Case Settles In The Saddest Possible Way

Copyright

from the sad-I-am dept

Readers here will know that we’ve followed the trademark and copyright lawsuit filed by the estate of Dr. Seuss against ComicMix LLC, creators of the mashup book Oh, the Places You’ll Boldly Go! The entire thing has been a multi-year rollercoaster designed to be serpentine, with ComicMix arguing that the mashup book was transformative and covered by fair use, and winning on that front, only to have the copyright portion of the argument overturned on appeal. Go and read Cathy Gellis’ writeup on the appeal; it’s incredibly detailed and informative.

But if anyone was hoping to see this case progress up the federal court ranks, they will be both disappointed and sad. Disappointed because the parties have now settled the case with ComicMix agreeing to acknowledge that the book did, in fact, infringe on Suess’ copyrights.

Dr. Seuss Enterprises LP and the makers of the Dr. Seuss/”Star Trek” mashup book “Oh, the Places You’ll Boldly Go!” have settled Seuss’ copyright infringement claims, according to a Tuesday filing in San Diego federal court.

In an agreement filed with the court, the parties agreed that the book infringes Seuss’ copyrights and permanently bars ComicMix LLC, former “Star Trek” writer David Gerrold, illustrator Ty Templeton and others from selling it, while Seuss agreed to drop any claims for damages or attorneys’ fees.

The court document is embedded below so you can see it for yourself. This is normally where I would rant and rave about how these settlements, which might make sense for one or both sides of a given conflict, are actually very bad for the larger public as they do not properly resolve the open questions contained in the dispute. In this case, the full weight of the court and legal system has not had its say on whether the mashup book infringed Suess’ copyrights. Two courts have disagreed and this could have progressed further, potentially up to the Supreme Court, but the settlement puts a stop to that process.

That said, it’s difficult to be to rant-y and rave-y about this particular settlement given the reason it was sought out. Remember that part I said above about this being sad? Well…

The defendants’ attorney Dan Booth of Dan Booth Law said in a statement that his clients settled because of Templeton’s diagnosis of Stage 3 colorectal cancer earlier this year.

“After five years of litigation and with the pre-trial deadlines looming, as Ty’s collaborators and friends, we refuse to put him through any additional stress that would in any way impinge on his health and recovery. To the credit of the people at Dr. Seuss Enterprises, they didn’t want to put Ty through that either,” Booth said. “So we joined in a motion to end the suit the day before Ty’s surgery, in order to alleviate the less serious pain in his butt.”

Two things I absolutely have to mention. First, I appreciate the hell out of Booth including a butt joke in a statement about his friend having colorectal cancer. I imagine that he knows Ty would be okay with such a joke, in which case this is just plain good comedy. Second, and more important, the proper framing of this news story should be that the Dr. Seuss Estate extracted a settlement over a copyright dispute for a book that very much did the estate no harm because it was bullying a cancer patient. Somehow, one imagines Suess himself not being in love with this idea, but that is pure speculation.

What isn’t speculation is that, as Cathy made the point in the earlier post, this represents a culture loss. Mashup art is not rare and has become, to some discernable level, a part of our culture. This settlement manages to add another bit of ammunition from protectionists who want to control and license every last thing related to their works, whether fair use ought to apply or not.

I understand why this settlement was reached… but it both sucks and is sad.

Filed Under: copyright, dr. seuss, fair use, mashup, oh the places you'll boldly go, remix, star trek, transformative use
Companies: comicmix, dr. seuss enterprises