Too Bad You Can’t Copyright Ideas
The policy behind copyright is the encouragement of creative work, and no one can say these four Oklahoma prison inmates aren’t creative. In a wildly imaginative scheme to get out of jail, four inmates copyrighted their names - yes, their names - and then warned prison officials in writing that they must have permission to use the names - permission which the inmates conveniently denied. After the prison continued to use their names on official documents, the inmates demanded money from the warden for copyright infringement, then seized his personal property in alleged satisfaction of the claims, but offered to return the property in exchange for their freedom instead of money.
Turns out you can’t copyright a name, and the person they hired to seize the warden’s assets was an undercover FBI agent. So now they’re facing new charges that will probably keep them in jail even longer.
But they’re not giving up so easily. When in Court to face his new indictments, one of the inmates prompted this delightful little exchange with the judge:
“When Magistrate Judge Bana Roberts asked Bischoff to identify himself, he responded, “That is my private property, ma’am.”
Bischoff denied he was the man named in the indictment, but said he held a title to that name.
“Nothing you said makes any sense,” Roberts told him. ”
KOTV in Tulsa has the story here and here.
Leave a Reply