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Friday's Three Burning Legal Questions
Here are today's three burning legal questions, along with the answers provided by the blawgosphere.
1) Question: I purchased an American Express gift card and gave it to my daughter. She tried to use it at a big electronics store but something was supposedly wrong with the card as the numbers on it were not "raised," so they called the police. The police then handcuffed her, took her to the precinct, frisked her and placed her in a holding cell for about an hour. Now what?
Answer: Once she gets out she may get a nice $175 gift card for her trouble.
(Consumerist, Best Buy Sends Customer to Jail For Paying With AmEx Gift Card)
2) Question: I've finally perfected my Flux Capacitor, which allows people to travel
through time. I just need to fax the patent application to the US
Patent & Trademark Office. Can you give me the fax number?
Answer: We don't have that number but we do know this: If you fax it to them upside down, they will send you a letter telling you to re-fax it. They're not big on rotating pieces of paper there.
(BNET Technology Blog, USPTO Won't Accept Upside Down Faxes; Demands Resends)
3) Question: I just saw that someone created a cartoon character about me, only it is me as a 50-foot tall woman (actually "woMunn") who does battle with swarming geek fans at Comic Con. Can they do this?
Answer: Are you a public figure? If so, they might be able to if the use of your likeness meets the tests for the "parody copyright exception."
(The AnchorPlate, Right of Publicity Is Not Copyright: Free Speech Pitfalls for Comic Book Artists, Publishers & Sellers)
Posted by Bruce Carton on February 5, 2010 at 03:45 PM | Permalink
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