"Copyright being used to stifle creativity, rather than promote it"

The University of the South owns the copyright of Tennessee Williams’ plays such as “A Street Car Named Desire.” The university is threatening to sue a one-man act entitled “Blanche Survives Katrina in a FEMA Trailer Named Desire.” While the university alleges that this one-man act is an infringement “on the university’s valuable intellectual property rights,” the author of this article maintains that the act is a transformative use. In addition, the author of this article emphasizes that the act’s author and actor has a strong fair use defense since the act is a “parody of both current events and the original play.” The university, on the other hand, maintains that the fair use defense will not work since the parody is only directed at current events.


Here is the link to the article: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090206/1241493676.shtml