Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments
Search

News for nerds, stuff that matters

Slashdot Log In

Log In

[ Create a new account ]

Xenographic (557057)

Xenographic
  (email not shown publicly)
http://www.cyberarmy.net/
I can neither confirm nor deny that this information is correct.

Journal of Xenographic (557057)

Captain Copyright Expires

[ #163490 ]
Tuesday February 13 2007, @02:10AM
User Journal

The Canadian superhero Captain Copyright has finally expired, not due to pirates, but because "the current climate around copyright issues will not allow a project like this one to be successful." The cartoon was intended to provide an education in copyright law for children, but it became a focus for criticism when even the Canadian Library Association condemned it for lacking of balance in how it ignored issues like Fair Dealing (Canada's version of Fair Use). Personally, I was hoping we'd see them get sued by DC & Marvel, who claim to own the trademark on the word superhero and vanish in a puff of logic.


List all Journal entries
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

Captain Copyright Expires 50 Comments More | Login /

 Full
 Abbreviated
 Hidden
More | Login
Loading... please wait.

  • So... (Score:5, Funny)

    by LiquidCoooled (634315) on Tuesday February 13 2007, @06:25PM (#18004332) Journal
    So, Captain copyright is dead.

    Is it 85 years after death that his copyright expires and we can create our own free version of him?

    Only 84 years 11 months and 3 weeks to go...

    • I wonder... (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      If anyone will make a spoof of him where he gets killed by pirates? :-)

    • Is it 85 years after death that his copyright expires and we can create our own free version of him?


      I probably shouldn't mention this... but Disney is working on a direct-to-DVD presentation of Captain Copyright. The upshot is that you'll never get your chance.
    • Don't worry. I have a bunch of copies of him.
    • How many years before we're allowed to link to the old site without permission?

      Wait, they "reserved" that right, yet no such right exists? Brilliant start for an educational program about rights.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by mrchaotica (681592) *

        Brilliant start for an educational program about rights.

        Well there's your first mistake -- it's not "educational," it's brainwashing.

  • mod -1 Pedantic (Score:5, Insightful)

    by tverbeek (457094) * on Tuesday February 13 2007, @06:28PM (#18004360) Homepage

    Personally, I was hoping we'd see them get sued by DC & Marvel, who claim to own the trademark on the word "superhero", and vanish in a puff of logic.
    Given the facts that A) copyrights and trademarks rights are different things, and B) the word "superhero" doesn't appear anywhere in the name "Captain Copyright", I don't think there'd be much chance of that.
      • He had the power to grab IPs from torrents send baseless cease and desists to your ISP, then again, so does everyone else.

      • Even if you can't use the term "super hero", which probably shouldn't apply in this case, there's always the term "masked adventurers" a la Watchmen.

        Or the classic "mystery men" (a term which goes back at least to the 1930s [comicartville.com]).

      • Re:Not a SUPER-hero anyway (Score:5, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 13 2007, @07:24PM (#18005074)
        Mild-mannered Mark Trade was your average corporate shill from Krypton born with a mutant x-factor until one day he was bit by a radioactive spider that had touched some mutagen ooze which had been exposed to gamma rays while in outerspace.

        His superpowers are irony, the ability to set off kids' bullshit detectors without even having to say anything, and the ability to incapacitate pirates by forcing them to laugh uncontrollably.
      • Did Captain Copyright even have "super powers", or was he just a muscular and dandily-attired dude

        You mean like Batman? He always gets called a superhero too, despite not having any super powers that I'm aware of.
      • I bet he wasn't a captain either.

  • It coulda been really deviant (Score:5, Funny)

    by CrazyJim1 (809850) on Tuesday February 13 2007, @06:30PM (#18004398) Journal
    It said they were training kids at grade 1. LOL. What are they going to brain wash them with? "Remember kids, even your parents can't be trusted. If you suspect your mom or dad to be illegally using music or software, call 911 and report them."

    • Re:It coulda been really deviant (Score:5, Funny)

      by purpledinoz (573045) on Tuesday February 13 2007, @06:37PM (#18004484)
      Anyone ever see that children's educational music video, "Don't Copy That Floppy", where this rapper does this whole rap about software piracy? That video is hilarious. It's on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afuc8TmU2Rg [youtube.com].

      • Re:It coulda been really deviant (Score:5, Funny)

        by binarybum (468664) on Tuesday February 13 2007, @07:07PM (#18004860) Homepage
        holy crap - there's more FUD in that video than a whole generation of parents warning about hairy palms.

                I wonder if to this day those programmers are dropping casual references to their appearance in a "rap video" in attempt to get laid. I probably would.

        • Re:It coulda been really deviant (Score:4, Funny)

          by Firehed (942385) on Tuesday February 13 2007, @07:28PM (#18005146) Homepage
          Holy crap... I'd take the world's hairiest palms in order to not have to sit through that whole video. By three minutes in, I was almost ready to pour my scalding beverage all over myself to make it end (thankfully, I remembered that back button).

          Although come to think of it, if all that it takes to absolve myself of any potential guilt about software piracy is mastu... 3) Profit!

        • there's more FUD in that video than a whole generation of parents warning about hairy palms.
          Ok as funny as the video is I'm curious what FUD is in it.

            • The video isn't new. At the time, ALL games came on floppies. So again... What FUD?

              I haven't seen the video in years, and I refuse to subject myself to it again, and there may very well be tons of FUD in it. The floppy bit is NOT the FUD.

              • The idea behind the original "don't copy that floppy" campaign (and also stated on the video) was that software piracy prevented the development of future versions.

                The fact is (and history has borne this out) that software piracy allowed pirated software to gain mind- and market-share at the expense of software that came with excessive copy protection that prevented piracy.

                So the whole campaign was FUD.

      • Re:It coulda been really deviant (Score:4, Funny)

        by dwandy (907337) on Tuesday February 13 2007, @08:59PM (#18006186) Homepage Journal
        so ... when the kid says "hey, who are you and what are you doing on my computer?" , was I the only one who thought, Sony? is that you?

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by skoaldipper (752281)
      Do we really need such battlegrounds fought in schools anyways? What ever happened to just the basics like Math, Reading, and History? We try to indoctrinate so much into these little heads at such an early age. Every time I hear of some new curriculum added by a school board, I'm reminded of what future generations of our children will look like [70disco.com].

    • "Remember kids, even your parents can't be trusted. If you suspect your mom or dad to be illegally using music or software, call 911 and report them."
      You mean, like what DARE teaches kids in the United States.

  • *Gasp* (Score:5, Insightful)

    by HerrEkberg (971000) on Tuesday February 13 2007, @06:34PM (#18004440) Homepage
    Who will now protect us from the evil Dr. Copyleft?!

  • A fancy way of saying... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Captain Copyright expired when a melting glacier fell on him.

    Yet another Canadian superhero suffering from copyright climate change. Can you still deny the truth after this?

  • His wife... (Score:5, Funny)

    by markbt73 (1032962) on Tuesday February 13 2007, @06:40PM (#18004528)
    ...Tenille Copyright, is said to be inconsolable. And they thought love would keep them together. The fools.

  • Captain Copyright Farewell Message (Score:5, Informative)

    by Apple Acolyte (517892) on Tuesday February 13 2007, @06:43PM (#18004570)
    http://www.captaincopyright.ca/ [captaincopyright.ca]

    In August 2006, we took the Captain Copyright website offline so that we could revise its content in response to the criticisms the site had received. We worked extensively on revising the original lessons and we commissioned someone with expertise on the creation of educational materials to prepare new lessons on the Creative Commons, fair dealing and the public domain. We also sought the assistance of an advisory panel of educators and copyright experts with a range of perspectives on copyright, and every lesson was submitted to them for rigorous review. We then incorporated their revisions to the lessons so that they could be thoroughly teacher-tested.

    Despite the significant progress we made on addressing the concerns raised about the original Captain Copyright initiative, as well as the positive feedback and requests for literally hundreds of lesson kits from teachers and librarians, we have come to the conclusion that the current climate around copyright issues will not allow a project like this one to be successful. It is difficult for organizations to reach agreement on copyright issues at this time and we know that, in the face of continuing opposition, the materials will not be used in the classroom. Under these circumstances there is no point in our continuing to work on this project.

    We began this project because teachers told us that copyright had become too much a part of their students' daily lives for it not to be taught in the classroom, and they told us they needed a teaching tool to help them do it. We still believe that creating such a tool is important, but we also now believe that no single organization can take the lead on such an initiative. We truly hope that there will come a time when the copyright community - including educators, librarians and copyright collectives - can work together to provide a unbiased teaching tool that provides teachers and students with a balanced view of copyright.
    • Balanced view of copyright: it's evil but a bunch of people have gotten rich and powerful from it, so now we can't get rid of it.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Adambomb (118938) *

      as well as the positive feedback and requests for literally hundreds of lesson kits from teachers and librarians
      See, now I know we canadians are small in terms of demographics, but I do not see how one could be so pleased about "literally hundreds" of lesson kits. How many primary and secondary educational instutitions do we have in canada again?

      • Assuming, of course, that you beleive copyright should have anything to do with consumers. I'm of the opinion that little Billy shouldn't need to be educated as to what he is free to copy and what he isn't free to copy because everyone should be free to copy anything, and copyright should only apply to people who are selling copies. So, just like little Billy doesn't need to be taught the legality of insider trading, little Billy shouldn't need to be taught the legality of copyright.
  • Quick, someone put together a super hero to defend the public domain, fair use, and/or call for the outright abolishment of copyright.
     

    • Quick, someone put together a super hero to defend the public domain, fair use, and/or call for the outright abolishment of copyright.

      I already did.* I called him Captain Copyright. But because I didn't claim any trademark rights and donated the character to the public domain, this outfit was able to use him for their own purposes instead.

      *(OK, I didn't really. But it makes for an ironic example of how things would suck without copyrights and trademark rights. They can be used for good as well as fo

    • Quick, someone put together a super hero to defend the public domain, fair use, and/or call for the outright abolishment of copyright.

      "Captain Sensibility" doesn't have quite the same ring to it, though.

  • FYI on superhero trademark (Score:5, Interesting)

    by edwardpickman (965122) on Tuesday February 13 2007, @06:53PM (#18004670)
    A friend was curious and checked it out. Marvel never trademarked the term "superhero". That was ten years ago so it might have changed since. Each of their characters are trademarked but not the term in any fashion. It's debateable if the term can be in of itself be trademarked at this point. He was trademarking some things at the time and I know he was tempted to establish a "Superhero" trademark but it would mostly be a logo trademark.

    • Re:FYI on superhero trademark (Score:4, Informative)

      by tverbeek (457094) * on Tuesday February 13 2007, @07:15PM (#18004976) Homepage
      DC and Marvel filed a joint trademark registration (#73222079) on "super heroes" back in 1979, when a toy manufacturer produced a line of licensed action figures featuring both of their characters. DC has a registration for "Legion of Super Heroes" (their long-running team series), and Marvel has registered "Marvel Super Heroes". One or the other publisher periodically issues a cease-and-desist to people who they feel are infringing on one of these trademarks, and this is why (for example) Malibu Comics instead called their specially-powered characters "ultras".

      As far as I know, the trademark has never been challenged/defended in court. If it were, it's hard to say whether it's become generic enough to go public-domain like "refrigerator" and "aspirin", or if it'd cling to proprietarity like "Xerox"® and "Band-Aid"®. But it is on the books.
      • XEROX is just barely hanging on there, and Xerox has to do a lot of work all the time just to avoid genericide. Personally, I wouldn't bet a penny on SUPERHERO having any distinctiveness. And the evidence gathering for that would probably be loads of fun.
      • "refrigerator" was/is a brand-name?

  • His wikipedia page is a good read (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 13 2007, @06:55PM (#18004698)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Copyright [wikipedia.org]

    It details all of his various "adventures", including stealing (that is what they want us to call it isn't it?) content from wikipedia and breaking the licensing terms by not providing a source. Also the pesky little scamp attempted to tell us that we were "not permitted to copy or cut from any page or its HTML source code to the Windows [TM] clipboard (or equivalent on other platforms) onto any other website." - what a wonderful place the web would be if we all followed the rules of the captain.

    May he rest in hypocritical peace - or is that phrase copyright someone?

  • itsabirditsaplaneitstheriaa (Score:3, Funny)

    by bky1701 (979071) on Tuesday February 13 2007, @06:57PM (#18004708) Homepage
    Come on, you know you wanna. ;)
  • Did we see a body? NO! This is comics, so it guarantees that, a year or several down the line, a new writer will bring Captain Copyright back, revealing that his death was faked, surprising allies and enemies alike with his return to glory!

    Even if there were a body, all it means is they'd wait six months and pass the identity on to a new, teenage Captain Copyright, whose only link with the original is the name and the costume's color scheme -- and, of course, the same villains will show up, gunning for th

    • Pfft! Even a body means nothing. The dead body could still have been a clone, for example, or a robot, or from an alternate timeline / dimension, or even a real dead body could be resurrected with alien technology... or all of the above.

      Superheroes don't die, their books just go on hiatus...

        • Look, you stupid Bastard. You've got no arms left.

          Captain Copyright: Yes I have.

          *Look*!

          Captain Copyright: It's just a flesh wound.

          If they had their way, in Soviet Canukistan, Captain Copyright would expire YOU! Unfortunately the Wayback Machine doesn't have a copy ... only in Canada you say? Pity ...

  • They've been fighting for citizen privacy also with the authorities wanting to check library records..

  • It is official; Netcraft now confirms: Captain Copyright is dying


    One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered Captain Copyright community when IDC confirmed that Captain Copyright market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming close on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that Captain Copyright has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. Captain Copyright is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.


    You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict Captain Copyright's future. The hand writing is on the wall: Captain Copyright faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for Captain Copyright because he is dying. Things are looking very bad for Captain Copyright. As many of us are already aware, Captain Copyright continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.

  • But, but, but... without Captain Copyright who will step forward to encourage 1st graders to turn their parents in for Copyright violation and pirating!?!?

  • struck down by his evil undead nemesis Rictus Stalemate, a Greater Power Lich with a hideous visage and devious mind.

  • May the same fate await (Score:4, Funny)

    by Scareduck (177470) on Tuesday February 13 2007, @09:05PM (#18006262) Homepage Journal
    his brother, Professor Patent.

All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest © 1997-2008 SourceForge, Inc.