Faulkner's heirs sue Woody Allen for copyright infringement

And lose.

This is a pretty good example of the craziness of our copyright laws. William Faulkner has been dead for over fifty years. Woody Allen had a character paraphrase one of his quotes in an utterly transformative way. Yet the film studio got sued for it and had to litigate.

At least Woody & Co. won, so that's some vindication for the law. But the case exposes two problems:

1) Copyright lasts too long. There is no reasonable justification for Faulkner's heirs to have a monopoly right to his works so long after his death. The main idea of copyright is to provide an incentive to produce works of art, etc. You could argue that providing for one's heirs gives some extra incentive, so a few years of posthumous exclusivity is justifiable. But current US copyright lasts for 70 years after the author's death. That's just absurd.

2) The contours of "fair use" are too fuzzy, which creates a playground for bullies and their lawyers. This creates a serious chilling effect. Particularly when there is a lot of money on the line, a copyright owner can threaten to sue for an injunction. Holding up a movie's release date is a serious threat that can do millions of dollars of damages in a very short time. So usually it's worth it just to cave in and pay some ransom.

It's all pretty nutty.

--Bart Torvik

Revisionist history: John Travolta

John Travolta is in the news. And his career's arc is being erroneously recounted:

Travolta, who shot to fame in the 1970s on TV show "Welcome Back, Kotter" and had starring roles in movies "Saturday Night Fever" and "Grease," suffered a career lull in the late 1980s.  

But he bounced back with gritty roles in films such as 1994's "Pulp Fiction" and later, action adventure "Face/Off."

Anyone who lived through the 80s knows this is false. In fact, Travolta bounced back long before "Pulp Fiction." Who can forget his tour de force performance as James Urbiacco in "Look Who's Talking" (1989), "Look Who's Talking Too" (1990), and "Look Who's Talking Now" (1993)?

In hindsight, it seems very strange that Travolta was not a cast member of "Three Men and a Baby" (1987). Too soon, I guess. It's been said elsewhere, but it bears repeating: Steve Guttenberg is no John Travolta. (Full disclosure: I saw "Three Men and a Baby" four times. In the theater. It was a boring summer.)

In all seriousness, I recall that at least the first of the "Look Who's ..." movies was a blockbuster, and that it was that film that revived Travolta's career (after the delightful disasters of "Staying Alive," "Two of a Kind" (edible sunglasses!) and "Perfect" (among others)). Sure, Travolta got his street cred back in "Pulp Fiction" (1994) but he had already reestablished himself as box office gold with the "Look Who's ..." trilogy.

By the way, I believe I have seen 27 of the top 28 grossing moving of 1989, which is pretty amazing to me. The first to guess which of the top 28 I've never seen will be awarded 20 Gillette-Torvik Bucks™, which can be used to purchase Gillette-Torvik Paraphernalia (forthcoming).