Filed last week in the Federal District court, New York Southern District Court was Bourne Co. v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, et al, Case Number: 1:2007cv08580, Filed: October 3, 2007. The owner of the copyright of the song “When You Wish Upon a Star” is suing 20th Century Fox (and others including Seth McFarlane personally) for their song called “I Need a Jew” included in an episode of Family Guy. The original episode, “When you wish upon a Weinstein,” debuted in 2003 (though created in 2000), so they are primarily concerned about reruns and DVD sales. Honestly, this episode is one of the funniest Family Guy episodes, second only the epic episode ”Stewie loves Loise.”
I would represent 20th Century Fox (or any of the other defendants) for free on this one. The U.S. Supreme Court said parody is protected in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., 510 U.S. 569 (1994), seems like a good place to start. I did like how the complaint (pdf) describes the original songs lyrics as “beautiful and heartfelt” and characterizes The Family Guy as an inferior rip-off of The Simpsons. Articles about this at The Associated Press, MSN, and Undercover.
Filed under: 2007 Copyright Cases, Copyright, Infringment Cases
