This is not what I’m talking about for this week’s ‘Saturday’ post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But since I’m interested in both intellectual property rights and the fiction side of writing, I’m taking a few minutes from my Wednesday afternoon to share this excerpt and a link to Blake Hester’s article:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“Spider-Man 2 Is Missing This Major New York City Landmark<\/a>“
Blake Hester, Game Informer (October 20, 2023)<\/p>\n\n\n\n“The recently released Spider-Man 2 is also missing the Chrysler Building. In its place is the same building that replaced it in Spider-Man Miles Morales, though this time with a new coat of paint….<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“…with the building coming under new ownership in 2019, it looks like the Chrysler Building may be making fewer appearances. We talked to a copyright lawyer about the ways buildings are protected by copyright and to developer Insomniac Games about why it had to change its version of the New York City skyline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The Chrysler Building opened on May 27, 1930, and stood as the tallest building in the world until the Empire State Building was completed in May 1931, one mile away. … The Art Deco building, which rises to 1,046 feet with 77 floors, is particularly famous for its eight eagles, which protrude from the exterior of the 61st floor….”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Whoops. Left out an important bit:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“…As of 1990, architectural works such as the Chrysler Building can be protected under copyright<\/strong>, no different than other forms of art. According to the United States Copyright Office, an architectural work is defined as ‘the design of a building as embodied in any tangible medium of expression, including a building, architectural plans, or drawings. […] Examples of works that satisfy this requirement include houses, office buildings, churches, and museums.<\/strong> By contrast, the Office will refuse to register bridges, cloverleaves, dams, walkways, tents, recreational vehicles, or boats (although a house boat that is permanently affixed to a dock may be registerable as an architectural work).’<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“While copyright owners won’t go after a picture you took of a building,<\/strong> they do protect themselves from more obvious infringements, such as another company copying a building’s design for its own purpose, and building owners have, on occasion, gone after companies for copyright-protected architecture on merchandising….”
(“Spider-Man 2 Is Missing This Major New York City Landmark<\/a>“
Blake Hester, Game Informer (October 20, 2023)) [emphasis mine]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nAs I see it, folks in New York City are still allowed to look at the Chrysler Building and other non-bland objects. They’re even allowed (apparently) to take snapshots. That, my opinion, is good news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I can, with a little imagination, see the viewpoint of a corporation bigwig who wants another corporation bigwig’s minions to give the corporation of the first part a piece of the corporation of the second part’s action \u2014 whoosh. That’s a syntactic mouthful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anyway, I can see why SIGNA Group and RFR Holding LLC \u2014 I gather they’re the current owners of the Chrysler Building \u2014 don’t want their big shiny building associated with Spider-Man. Not until they get an offer they like, at any rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the other hand, I don’t know where the dividing line is between some New York City tourist taking pictures and the likes of Sony Interactive Entertainment and Marvel Comics. Or maybe it’s a dividing zone, where one writer or artist gets sued and another doesn’t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This doesn’t affect me, happily. At least not yet. But I like to keep mildly up to date with rules involving intellectual property rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, I’d better get back to work on that ‘Saturday’ thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is not what I’m talking about for this week’s ‘Saturday’ post. But since I’m interested in both intellectual property rights and the fiction side of writing, I’m taking a few minutes from my Wednesday afternoon to share this excerpt … Continue reading