My latest Guardian column is “Internet copyright law has to have public support if it’s going to work,” and it goes into the difference between copyright infringement and plagiarism, and tries to understand why so many people got upset at Glee’s legal ripoff of a Jonathan Coulton song:
Copyright experts were quick to explain that Fox’s plagiarism was legal – the same rules that allp’s no intent to fool the purchaser, who understands that a 99% discount on a Vuitton bag means that it’s really a “Vuitton” bag.
This kind of plagiarism is more like selling horsemeat labelled as beef burgers. Horsemeat can be perfectly harmless, and many people happily eat it, but when you buy beef burgers, you expect that you’re getting what you paid for.
Internet copyright law has to have public support if it’s going to work
