The Battles of Copyright: Roger vs Koons and Queen vs David Bowie

There are many people today thinking they can take created for someone else work without any consequences. The government has special office designed to deal with matters of copyright when it comes to ownership of an artist's material: literature; music; movies; and art. Copyright is a way of the U.S. constitution's protecting original work done by an individual. This means copyright infringement is a criminal offense in the eyes of the law. Copyright infringement secures the individual has the right to profit from their own work along with giving them credit. This means that the work done by that individual whether its music or a movie can be protected on any platform meaning the internet. There are many examples today of copyright infringement for the example: ice ice baby by Vanilla Ice vs. Under Pressure by David Bowie and Queen; Star Wars vs. Battlestar Galactica; and Rogers vs. Koons. The U.S. government protects work from the public stealing it.

In the case of ice ice baby by Vanilla Ice vs. Under Pressure by David Bowie and Queen have the beat in both songs. This made most people unhappy because Vanilla Ice tried to take credit for David Bowie and Queen original work. In an interview Vanilla Ice had done an interview saying that the clip of the music from Under pressure in ice ice baby as a sample just for his rap music. Saying that “the music sounds the same” in either clip of Under pressure or ice ice baby. Inevitable facing a lawsuit by David Bowie and Queen, which resulting in vanilla ice having to give credit to Queen and David Bowie in Ice Ice Baby.

Another case that fell into the hand of the U.S. government because of copyright infringement is Star Wars vs. Battlestar Galactica. George Lucas the creator of Star Wars notices some irritable similar scenes and props in Battlestar Galactica. There were people working for the film of Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica using the same methods and effects in both television series. This uprooted a conflict between both Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica leading Star Wars and fox to file a lawsuit against ABC and Universal. This case was never taken to court by resolved by the producers.

Rogers vs. Koons is another case of copyright infringement involving Rogers photography. Rogers had taken a picture of two people holding puppies and it was made into a post card. Meanwhile Koons was an artist that had done panting's and sculptures. Koons had done this sculpture of two people holding a bunch of puppies. This then led Rogers to sue Koons for stealing his work in 1992. Rogers had won the case against Koons who then had to hand over all his profit that he made from his sculpture. Overall copyright plays a big part in today's world because without it the original creator wouldn’t be able to stop people from taking their work or give them credit. There are not exceptions for copy right infringement only if it allowed by the copyright owner. All copyright infringements have to be proven by a material object in order for there to be a case if someone wanted to sue another for stealing their work. The government copyright office is the protection of all original work of an individual.