The Plagiarism Today Holiday Collection

It’s that special time of year where the weather gets colder and families across the world are gathering to celebrate their holiday traditions. Schools and offices are silent, living rooms and meeting halls are bustling.

Plagiarism Today is no different in that regard. As the year winds down I’ll be taking some time away, enjoying precious moments with my family and friends while also tackling some projects I haven’t had time for during the year, including some improvements to the site

What this means is that this will, most likely, be the last post for a while. I’ll return before the end of the year with the usual wrap up and look ahead posts but, until then, things will be a bit quiet.

Until then though, I wanted to leave you with something special and, since it’s the holiday season, it seemed appropriate to offer up what I’m calling The Plagiarism Today Holiday Collection, a series or articles about Christmas and the copyright weirdness that surrounds it.

So, grab some egg nog and nestle your brain for a warm copyright nap…

The Plagiarism Today Holiday Collection

1. 5 Christmas Copyright Myths: No, Coca Cola doesn’t own the rights to Santa Claus and your Elf on the Shelf is a surprisingly recent tradition that’s still fiercely protected. These are just two of the copyright myths we explore in this holiday extravaganza of myth busting.
2. 5 Public Domain Christmas Songs (And 5 That Aren’t): Got a favorite Christmas song? Wondering if you need a license before singing it on your new CD? It turns out a lot of the most popular Christmas songs are surprisingly recent though there are still plenty of classics that are well beyond their copyright expiration.
3. It’s a Wonderful (Copyright) Life: The story behind It’s a Wonderful Life and how it became a Christmas classic is a long and complex one. It’s the tale of a film that did poorly on release but found a new life as a public domain classic only to be reclaimed following a 1990 Supreme Court decision in an unrelated case.
4. The Greatest Anti-Plagiarism Video I’ve Seen: What does an anti-plagiarism video have to do with Christmas? Well, this video from the University of Bergen in Norway is a parody/recreation of A Christmas Carol, featuring ghosts, giant robots, a song and dance number and some slightly NSFW humor. It’s a truly-can’t miss film that includes more than a little bit of holiday cheer. (Hint: When watching, turn on English subtitles.)
5. The Night Before a Copyright Christmas: Finally, I step up to create my own mashup  of Christmas and copyright, T’was the Night Before Copyright Christmas. Some of the references now dated (it was written in 2010) and parodies of this poem are a dime a dozen, but it was still good fun and has gone on to become a tradition in absolutely no one’s household.

Happy Holidays

On that note, thank you very much for a great year, have a happy holiday season and we will see you shortly with a look back at 2016 and a look ahead to 2017!