It’s weird when wrestling superstar Randy Orton, Netflix’s romance “Bridgerton,” TikTok, a tattoo artist, Instagram, NFTs and Andy Warhol’s portrait of Prince all show up in the same law school textbook. A series of hot-button lawsuits have linked all those unlikely creators and platforms in litigation that goes as high as the US Supreme Court. The litigation deals with issues of intellectual property, copyright infringement and fair use in a rapidly changing new-media landscape.
Producer and series creator Shondra Rhimes, in a statement released when the suit was filed in July, said “what started as a fun celebration by [fans] on social media has turned into the blatant taking of intellectual property.” Cases like this turn on “fair use,” matters such as how much of another work someone appropriates. Or whether it dents the original creator’s ability to profit.
Intellectual property isnt real.