No, Writing A Song With The Lyric 'Let's Go Thunder' Doesn't Entitle You To 30% Of The Oklahoma City Thunder's Profits
from the ownership-society dept
A guy named Charles Syrus apparently wrote a song that had the phrases “Go Thunder” and “Let’s Go Thunder” in it, cheering on the Oklahoma City Thunder NBA team. Syrus then got a copyright on the song. And then… he claimed that the copyright for the song gave him the copyright in those two phrases, and demanded 20 to 30% of the teams’ “net gross” (um…) for using those phrases in promotional campaigns. Not surprisingly, the district court and the appeals court rejected his lawsuit, noting that “we easily conclude that the phrases ‘Go Thunder’ and ‘Let’s Go Thunder’ do not reflect the minimal creativity required for copyright protection.” And, finally (though to the surprise of pretty much no one, Syrus excepted), the Supreme Court has said it has no interest in hearing his appeal. Some will claim that this is no big deal, since the courts got it right and this clear overreach of copyright law went nowhere legally. However, it does seem like yet another sign of the insanity of our culture today and the suggestion that everything and every phrase is “ownable” thanks to modern IP laws. You wouldn’t even have a case like this if people didn’t think it was possible to abuse copyright in this manner — and given the headlines we see of crazy sounding copyright cases all the time, it shouldn’t be any surprise at all that people are tying up courts with ridiculous claims like this one.
Filed Under: charles syrus, oklahoma city thunder, ownership mentality
Companies: nba
Comments on “No, Writing A Song With The Lyric 'Let's Go Thunder' Doesn't Entitle You To 30% Of The Oklahoma City Thunder's Profits”
OMG, IP abuse! IP abuse! Thank God for Michael Masnick, our Internet Savior.
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You forgot your ‘/bob’ tag.
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OMG, sheep abuse! Sheep abuse! Thank god for Anonymous Coward, our Bestiality Savior!
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Seriously, you have GOT to try harder that this. You are just going through the motions. If you are gonna troll, then dammint, toll!!!!
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I agree – worst attempt at trolling ever.
flagged it as “funny”, because it wasn’t even worth reporting…
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Seriously, you have GOT to try harder that this. You are just going through the motions. If you are gonna troll, then dammit, toll!!!!
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Thank God for Michael Masnick, our Internet Savior.
You mad you didn’t get a medal dude?
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Dude, very nice!
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She’s cute. Now I want to be given a medal as well!
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Actually, it is IP abuse.
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I love it when I read an article and find that the first comment has been flagged! It generally means I am in for a good laugh!
This is probably an anomaly but I do think people have a ridiculous notion about the ownership of ideas.
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Not even their own ideas. People have been trying to claim ownership of simple words and phrases for a while. It doesn’t usually go over well unless you’re a deep-pocketed corporation.
Just ask Leo Stoller.
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I’d agree with you about it being an anomaly, if it was, but it isn’t. We have chefs claiming IP being stolen when someone takes a picture of their food and a CEO claiming their logo stolen and tagline misappropriated when someone makes a parody website of their company, and that’s just today. In the past Burberry was threatened by Humphrey Bogart’s estate for showing an image of Mr Bogart wearing a Burberry coat, trademark applications for Linsanity, Seal 6 (not by the Navy Seals), Occupy Wall St, Justice for Trayvon, and I won’t even begin with the Olympics. There’s more, but I don’t have the time to remember them all.
It’s not an anomaly.
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Don’t forget the IOC suing anybody daring to use the word “OLYMPIC” or “THE GAMES”
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Oh, that might be a great battle to watch on Pay-Per-View.
This Sunday we have a cage match between the lawyers from the OIC vs the lawyers from Lionsgate Studios (The Hunger Games).
FIGHT!
Seriously, it’s no big deal.
WHY EVEN WRITE ABOUT IT?
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No big deal other than the amount of time this wasted in the courts. Do you really think these fools paid everyone for the time they wasted? Who pays the judges, stenographers, and everyone else involved in making the court run?
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Seriously, it’s just an article.
WHY EVEN READ IT AND COMMENT ON IT?
Message to so-called "Americans"
Good. Eat each other and leave the rest of the fucking world alone.
How about “threepeat” and “one for the thumb” for silly copyrights.
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I wonder if your examples are okay because they were coined by someone who then got the copyright on it versus something they did not create but put into a song?
Besides, any sports team called Thunder would have fans yelling Go Thunder or Let’s go Thunder. Probably have been doing it long before this guy’s song was even created.
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Let’s Go Thunder!
Heck, I yell that every time I go to the bathroom.
You do not want to be there for the lightning. 😉
the only problem with this lawsuit was that it was brought by an individual. had it been a major label belonging to RIAA, the court would have fallen over itself to rule in it’s favour and award astronomical damages. no bias, of course! (sarc)
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agreed! when i started reading the article, i actually thought it was going to do that sort of comparison.. I don’t think its right to ‘abuse’ the system but honestly, if more individuals tried to do this kind of thing, maybe it would be more abundantly clear to law-makers and/or regular citizens the system is completely screwed up and change would happen. Not to mention there would be more comparisons of cases brought by individuals getting rejected vs similar cases brought by RIAA/MPAA that are awarded damages.
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+1
Hope I live long enough to watch their big ass greedy World fall apart.
And that is how much I hate these bigwigs.No Sympathy one bit in my heart for any of them.
Just keep it in our Nation so we don’t mess with other Nations.
Being a fan: you’re doing it wrong.
If they had stayed in Seattle they wouldn’t have this problem:)
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And I wouldn’t have to deal with people suddenly giving a shit about basketball in OK.
Seriously, how did a football state end up with a pro basketball team?
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The state with Bedlam (the awesomest name for a rivalry I’ve ever heard) doesn’t even get a pro football team. Guess we’ll just have to hope OSU (sorry sooners) rises to the challenge again this year.
That is, if the coaches on the poll don’t have their head stuck up their collective asses.
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We’re just greedy.
“Some will claim that this is no big deal, since the courts got it right and this clear overreach of copyright law went nowhere legally.“
Anyone who claims that is an idiot. The expense of taking a case all the way to the supreme court is outrageous. My guess would be at least a half million in attorney fees alone. That is not a system that works for a frivolous case.
And even if the court does make the loser pay, where is that money coming from? It’s not like that song writer has a half a million dollars lying around.
What gets me is how stupid the guy was to go for 30%. There was never any hope of getting that. He probably could have trolled very well though by just asking for much lower amount and hope they pay to get rid of him.
Originality
Let’s Go XXXX has been around for decades. For that matter, Let’s go Thunder has been around for about 20 years for my local AA baseball team the Trenton Thunder. I think there is prior art.
what a greedy little idiot
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I dunno, he’s no worse than your typical patent troll, and in many ways better since his actions largely will not hamper basketball or song-writing innovation.
Can’t blame him for trying to game a broken system for his advantage. Had it worked, him and his children and grandchildren never would have to work another day in their lives. If he seriously thought he was in the RIGHT however then he’s a complete idiot.
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Of course I can. What’s wrong with blaming someone for their unethical acts?
2 wrongs = 1 right?
Well he copied “Thunder” from the name of the team, and he copied “Let’s go” from the chant of every other team in America (or is that Amercia). It makes perfect sense to me that he should get wealth from then combining the two. If he had added two claps between every time the line was repeated it would of been worth 50% of the teams gross.
It would seem to me that the sports team should have a claim against the songwriter, as the concept of “Thunder”, as the name of the sports franchise, must be protect by trademark or copyright or something. 🙂
um...
He wants 30 percent of the “net gross”? Throw in a couple of dozen jumbo shrimp while you’re at it.
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And a pony! Don’t forget the pony!
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…. ride the pony….
Wait, sorry that’s a different song