MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Seriousness How Copyright broke. Cory Doctorow

bizzybody · 10-12-2025, 06:49 AM

A quite ridiculous Fun With Copyright issue was when a programmer who made an Energizer rabbit computer screen saver got the attention of Eveready batteries. They wanted to make it an official thing, with the code cleaned up and various other stuff done to it.

They were just about to release it when someone asked where the programmer got the drum beat sound. He'd just kept a tape recorder ready so when the commercial came on he held the microphone up to the speaker.

Oh, noooo! That won't do! That's part of a *copyrighted* production! Or there *might* be some copyright issue, nevermind that Eveready had paid for the TV advertisement and should own any copyrights to the production.

So Eveready hired a recording studio and a bass drum player to come in and hit the drum one time - *thump*. That was then digitized for use in the screen saver. Nevermind it sounded exactly the same as the TV commercial drum beat. Eveready's executives and lawyers could sleep soundly with the knowledge that there was no possibility of anyone suing them over one simple drum hit.

Here's the article https://medium.datadriveninvestor.co...y-4d277fca3279

10-12-2025, 06:49 AM	#37
bizzybody Addict Posts: 302 Karma: 8317682 Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Idaho, USA Device: Various PalmOS PDAs, Android Phones, Sharper Image Literati	A quite ridiculous Fun With Copyright issue was when a programmer who made an Energizer rabbit computer screen saver got the attention of Eveready batteries. They wanted to make it an official thing, with the code cleaned up and various other stuff done to it. They were just about to release it when someone asked where the programmer got the drum beat sound. He'd just kept a tape recorder ready so when the commercial came on he held the microphone up to the speaker. Oh, noooo! That won't do! That's part of a copyrighted production! Or there might be some copyright issue, nevermind that Eveready had paid for the TV advertisement and should own any copyrights to the production. So Eveready hired a recording studio and a bass drum player to come in and hit the drum one time - thump. That was then digitized for use in the screen saver. Nevermind it sounded exactly the same as the TV commercial drum beat. Eveready's executives and lawyers could sleep soundly with the knowledge that there was no possibility of anyone suing them over one simple drum hit. Here's the article https://medium.datadriveninvestor.co...y-4d277fca3279 Last edited by bizzybody; 10-14-2025 at 03:24 AM.