You may or may not be aware that The Hangover Part II is coming out this weekend. You also may or may not be aware that there is a copyright battle heating up over one particular aspect of the movie.
As in the first movie, the character played by Ed Helms wakes up to something different about his face – this time the presence of a tattoo similar to the one on Mike Tyson’s face, who also appears in the movie. Now the designer of the Maori-inspired tattoo, S. Victor Whitmill, is claiming copyright over its design and has filed a suit against Warner Brothers Entertainment. The suit asks Warner Brothers to stop using the tattoo in its posters or in the movie. Because the tattoo features prominently in The Hangover Part II movie poster and the movie, this would effectively stop the film from being released.
Warner Brothers replied by denying that it appropriated anything belonging to Whitmill and the allegation of copyright infringement. Warner Brothers also denies that a tattoo on the skin can be copyrighted. Warner Brothers also says the use of the tattoo falls under fair use in the Copyright Act and that Whitmill didn’t make any allegations when the tattoo appeared in The Hangover on Mike Tyson’s face.
The Freakonomics blog has an interesting analysis of “Can You Copyright a Tattoo?” The blog post does find that tattoos could be subject to copyright as “graphic art” and throws doubt on the “fair use” defense by Warner Brothers. However, it also addresses the issue of the mobile nature of tattoos, especially on a celebrity’s face and, in the end, declines to say whether tattoos should be copyrighted.
If you would like to know more about Copyright, look no further than the Copyright Office, which is part of the Library of Congress. Their Copyright Basics manual has a lot of helpful information. Their website also contains Title 17