Astronaut Sues Dido For Album Cover 264
An anonymous reader writes "Astronaut Bruce McCandless is suing Dido for her album cover that uses a famous NASA photograph of a tiny, tiny, tiny McCandless floating in space. McCandless doesn't own the copyright on the photo, so he's claiming it's a violation of his publicity rights ... except that he's so tiny in the photo, it's not like anyone's going to recognize him."
Re:That's why he's suing,so people will know it's (Score:4, Interesting)
By suing, everyone will know it's him, regardless of how tiny he is in the picture, thus giving him grounds to sue. So if he doesn't sue, he has no grounds to sue, therefore he must sue!
I am familiar with the picture but I didn't know it was McCandless. Given that he actually got paid to do something which I will never be able to pay to be able to do, I don't have a lot of sympathy for him.
In Other News... (Score:3, Interesting)
We know the submitter of this post is from a marketing agency by the blatant attempts made (several times in a short amount of text) to lead the reader to a conclusion.
We also know Slashdot has utterly sold out, as the said marking drone somehow circumvented the tradition of being called an anonymous coward: "An anonymous reader writes".
Re:Broken News... (Score:2, Interesting)
You've seriously never heard of Dido? That's like never hearing of Scotch tape or underpants. You'd have to be feral to pull that off.
Re:Broken News... (Score:3, Interesting)
In fairness, the singer's music may be familiar but not the name. That happens a lot.
In this case I'm in the same boat as the gp. Never heard of this singer (or even how to pronounce her name) but that's because I haven't watched MTV in a very long time.
Re:That's why he's suing,so people will know it's (Score:5, Interesting)
No, you're right on the money. I was looking for one earlier when I read this [slashdot.org] comment.
I think adding something along the lines of FB's "Like" button could salvage Slashdot's next-to-useless moderation system. You could tie it in with the existing relationship system. Maybe I see comments my friends or (optionally) friends of friends "liked" highlighted, while comments they disliked are buried. Failing that, let me choose to not see moderations by particular users. That could be done without necessarily identifying the moderator.
Of course it would be optional, and I would probably still browse at a low threshold, but it would offer a more refined experience for those who want it without the abuse the current system suffers.
Re:Broken News... (Score:5, Interesting)
The "duet with Eminem" was actually a illegal use of parts of her song "Thank You" by the rapper. Then when it was explained how much cash she could make and how good it'd be for her, she agreed to sanction it and perform with him.
Re:In Other News... (Score:3, Interesting)
Considering the unique nature of the photograph in question and the *very* limited number of people who could be in such a photograph, it is pretty easy to argue that the subject is identifiable. Obviously, he was able to identify himself after all.
This isn't a case of "Hey, that's my elbow! Right there! Between the column and the giraffe's neck. Can't you see it?"
Re:In Other News... (Score:3, Interesting)
The filing claims exactly that - this was an iconic event (with the images appearing in various popular media), and it could be no other astronaut. Supposedly he's indentifiable from the insignia on his suit and by his equipment (at least in the source image - Sony might try to claim this doesn't apply to the CD cover). Perhaps more damningly, his lawyers also claim the cover image picture credits on 'one or more' versions of the album actually identify him by name.