Dr. Seuss/Star Trek Mashup Not Fair Use, Ninth Circuit Says
December 18, 2020 – Media MentionGreenberg Glusker Partner, Aaron Moss, provided commentary to Bloomberg Law regarding the Dr. Seuss/Star Trek mashup. In a case that tested the limits of fair use, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected the Southern District of California’s finding that the book was safe from Seuss Enterprises’ suit because it made transformative use of Seuss’ stories.
Excerpt:
“It’s an early Christmas present for media companies, and it’s a lump of coal for creators of fan fiction,” copyright attorney Aaron Moss of Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger LLP said, noting content industries had been “shaking in their boots” at the notion of the lower court being affirmed. “You can’t simply combine two works and claim that that is sufficiently transformative when there’s not some parody or underlying criticism of the works.”
