Wednesday, November 11, 2009

"Family Guy" Case Thrown Out

In March 2009, music publisher, Bourne Co. filed suit against Fox Broadcasting, "Family Guy's" creator, Seth McFarlane, and producers for breach of copyright in 2007. Bourne Co. owns the rights to Disney song, "When You Wish Upon a Star". Bourne Co. felt that the song's image had been damaged when "Family Guy" used the song in a skit with anti-semetic lyrics.

The case was dismissed as the court ruled "Family Guy" did not violate copyright law because they used the song in a parody. Parodies are protected by 1st Amendment rights. "Family Guy" producers did not use the entire song. They used enough of the song so that it was recognizable to its audience. It was, also, clear to the audience that the song was being parodied since the lyrics were altered to differ from the original song.

Do you agree with the ruling? Do you think this damaged the song or Disney's reputation?

http://www.starpulse.com/news/index.php/2009/03/17/family_guy_copyright_case_thrown_out_

1 comment:

katie said...

I don't think this damaged the song at all - the parody is really a new song that had no mention of Disney what-so-ever. They didn't say that Disney was anti-semetic as far as I can recall and I had actually forgotten all about that episode since it wasn't really that funny really.