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Advertising and the Copying of Concepts

By Senior Copyright Counsel, Google Inc.

Youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com is an open blog for artists to post material they think has been ripped off, preferably by corporations. Their ?About? page states:

Welcome to ?you thought we wouldn?t notice? a site dedicated to pointing out those thing?s that give you that feeling of ?haven?t l seen that somewhere before??

This is a open blog so anyone can post anything, therefore we don?t have control over what is put up. We can only delete it once it?s there.
If anyone has any issues with any of the posts please email us on ytwwn [at] youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com

Anyone posting PLEASE check your sources.
These are some of the reasons you shouldn?t post here:

It could be a commissioned work.
It could be a tribute.
Or it could be credited.
It could be the same idea by different people
Please check that it not the case before posting.

There is often reasons why you may have ?seen it before? please check that your post that it doesn?t come under the following:

Parodies: intentional copies mocking the original
Same Influences/Inspirations: If someone was inspired by ?a plane hitting a building? to create there art you can?t stop anyone else from having the same inspiration.
References: As above & If someone makes an illustration of a photo it is still there work (look at andy warhol)
Style: You can?t really own a style. These ones may be judge case by case. post and let the readers decide.
Artist Vs Artist stuff is just so bitchy, I would much rather see artist vs company issues posted here

Here is a list of the categories with the number of postings in each category:

advertising (44)
animation (2)
art (49)
automotive (1)
clothing (71)
design (73)
film (11)
graffiti (28)
music (21)
photography (13)
retail (28)
Uncategorized (71)
video game (5)
web (26)

There is overlap in the categories, especially when it comes to advertising uses, which appear in other categories. From a strict copyright point of view, one sees many examples where is clear evidence of copying (assuming no independent creation), but copying only of ideas. The advertising uses are also interesting because in some cases bad faith may be inferred, as where the agency entered into negotiations with the creators, no agreement was reached, but the agency went ahead and created a conceptually identical ad anyway.

One example of this involves advertisements for Berocca vitamin tablets and the American musical group OK Go (No slouches when it comes to law, two members of the group testified before the House Judiciary Committee on net neutrality March 11th on behalf of the Free the Music Coalition. An article the today?s edition of The Scotsman the dispute between Berocca and OK Go:

WATCHING the current television advert for Berocca vitamin tablets, you could be forgiven for thinking: "hmm, dancing on running machines, that's original". Unless, of course, you are familiar with the music video for Here It Goes Again by American band Ok Go. Released in September 2006 and viewed more than 32 million times on YouTube, it features the band dancing. On running machines.
Ok Go's video won a Grammy and is an elaborately choreographed, fixed-camera, single-take masterpiece. The Berocca advert cuts between a dissolving tablet and people rising from tables to dance on running machines in a city centre. The songs are different but, in what may become the world's first legal dispute over treadmill dancing, an issue of copyright infringement could be determined by comparison of the videos' individual dance moves.

A source close to the band claims: "There was extensive negotiation to use Ok Go (by the JWT advertising agency on behalf of Berocca's manufacturer Bayer] but this didn't bear fruit." The source says JWT had no authorisation to reproduce the choreography. JWT and Bayer have, thus far, ignored all requests for a statement.

Both videos are funny. Here is a link to the group?s video. Here is a link to the Berocca ad. One would be hard pressed to find any copying of expression, although the conceptual copying is obvious.

Full post as published by The Patry Copyright Blog on April 21, 2008 (boomark / email).