There are several questions posed in the attached copyright assignment. Discuss your thoughts on those issues amongst yourselves in the discussion board.

As the well-known CEO of a Fortune-500 manufacturing company, Peter Paulsen was

something of a celebrity. Like the legendary Jack Welch of General Electric, Peter had

taken charge of his company at a time when it had been floundering and had led it to

nearly two decades of unparalleled growth and prosperity. As a result, his name had

become a household word both in the business community and in sodiety in

general. Known for his seriousness of purpose and aggressiveness, almost ruthlessness,

in business, Peter was highly sought after for interviews and advice but seldom gave

either. He earned a reputation for laser-like focus on his company's success and nothing

Else.

Peter did have one weakness, however. He was a member of the Bojangles Club. This

club was an elite group of business and political leaders, whose sole purpose was to meet

once a year, out of sight of the news media, for a riotous weekend of food, drink,

unrestrained conversation, carousing, and silliness. During this once-a-year bacchanalia,

the leaders of society who were members of this club dressed in strange costumes, put on

silly and raunchy skits, drank and ate too much, and generally carried on like overaged

members of an "Animal House" fraternity or sorority.

This annual event occurred in the fall, at a remote mountain retreat accessible only by a

single narrow, winding dirt road. Great effort was made to insure that no members of the

press or news media were invited or present. Of course, the press and media were

equally intent on "crashing" this party, for the Bojangles Club's annual gathering was a

matter of intense interest and speculation on the public's part. Although nothing of the

kind actually occurred, several conspiracy theories held that society's leaders decided

great matters of public policy, in secret, at this event. In fact, the annual meeting had no

purpose other than relaxation and recreation.

The most important event of each year's Bojangles Club gathering was the Saturday-night

banquet. At this banquet, by tradition, every member of the Club was required to present

or act in a humorous speech, poem, song, skit, revue, or the like. The presentations were

supposed to be impromptu, but over the years many participants had taken to preparing

for them in advance. The quality of each presentation was deemed to be la measure of the

presenter, and a poor presentation could result in the presenter enduring merciless ribbing

and hazing for the rest of the gathering.

At the annual gathering in fall 2002, Peter had been preoccupied with the effect of the

dot-com bust on his company's business. As a result, he had prepared nothing in

advance. Fortunately, his presentation was scheduled for the end of the evening. While

other members of the Club were making fools of themselves, Peter sat at the head table, drank liberally, and scribbled lines of poetry on a paper napkin with his favorite pen.

Fuzzy with drink, Peter made several false starts. The napkin on which he wrote became

a sea of ink blots, crossouts, interlineations, and illegible scrawling. Nevertheless, by the

time he had to give his presentation, Peter had composed a series of five hilarious

limericks about the perils of managing a large organization.

For his presentation, Peter donned a monkey suit and, so attired, read his limericks in a

slow, ponderous and serious tone. His austere tone, coupled with his reputation for

seriousness and aggressiveness, only made his five limericks seem more funny. The

crowd laughed uproariously in appreciation of Peter's humor.

Shortly after the Peter's presentation, the banquet ended. Nearly everyone had drunk too

much and stumbled in walking. On the way out, Peter bumped into a woman whom he

had never met before. She praised him for his limericks and said, "They were so good

they should be put to music." "Sure," Peter said, "Why not?!" He then laughed

uproariously and stumbled off to bed.

Unbeknownst to Peter, the woman he bumped into turned out to be Dotty Davis, star

television reporter and amateur musician, in disguise. Through an elaborate ruse, she had

obtained an invitation to the Bojangles Club gathering--the first time a reporter had

crashed the party in over a decade.

Unlike the Club's members, Dotty had remained cold sober throughout the event, for she

intended to report it in its entirety. Furthermore, Dotty had a photographic memory. The

minute she got back to her room after the banquet, she wrote down all five of Peter's

limericks verbatim.

When she got home after the gathering, Dotty set about composing music for the

limericks. The tune she composed was vaguely reminiscent of "Home on the Range," but

syncopated, much quicker in tempo, and with several variations in melody from the

traditional tune. Her music fit the limericks superbly and seemed to amplify their

humorous effect.

The next day, Dotty began her evening television newscast with an "exclusive feature" on

the Bojangles Club's bacchanalia. Halfway through her feature, she reported on the

inebriated presentation of the famous Peter Paulsen. As she reported, her image appeared

as a small, rectangular inset in the lower left-hand corner of the television screen. The

rest of the screen showed footage, from actual newsreels, of Peter engaged in various

business activities, such as company annual meetings, press conferences, etc. Meanwhile,

the audio consisted of a deep, male voice--specially selected for similarity to Peter's

voice- singing three of Peter's five limericks, to the tune of Dotty's music, with piano

accompaniment. The overall effect of this part of Dotty's newscast was an incongruously hilarious juxtaposition of the serious, aggressive businessman with Peter's raucous, acid

humor, amplified by Dotty's music.

Dotty's newscast was such a sensation that, as often happens with the media today, it

became the subject of further reporting. For nearly a week, local and national news

media reported about little else. There was great speculation about how Dotty had gained

admission to the secretive club (a fact she never revealed), what else went on there, and

whether the conspiracy theories of intense public-policy discussions were true. Other

televisions stations around the country, both local and network, broadcast clips of Dotty's

broadcast, although none used more than one limerick. People all over the globe laughed

at Peter's apparent transformation from the aggressive Man of Trade into the softer

humorist. Dotty's newscast had revealed to the public a side of Peter that few besides his

family had ever seen before.

Just as the dust from all the media attention was starting to settle, Peter's limericks

appeared on television again, in new form: commercials for new business

seminars. Labeled "Don Deller's Business Essentials," the two-day seminars offered

"secrets of the pros" in managing large organizations, for an admission fee of $995 per

Head.

Don Deller was the seminars' originator and proprietor. At the beginning of each

televised advertisement, he himself appeared, in a cowboy hat and with a guitar, singing a

country-and-western version of the three of Peter's limericks that Dotty had broadcast,

along with Dotty's music.

Although Dotty's music was clearly recognizable, Don's guitar style was notably

southwest. Don himself was from New York, but he sang the lyrics with a southwester

twang. The result was even more humorous than Dotty's version. After a week or airing

these commercials twice per day, Don found that his seminars for the next three months

were oversubscribed.

Dotty interviewed Don about his commercials, and he admitted that he had gotten the

lyrics and music for his humorous song from Dotty's newscast of Peter's appearance at

the Bojangles Club's annual gathering. Don had recorded Dotty's initial newscast on a

videocassette recorder and had watched the feature repeatedly in preparing his own

version of the song.

Upset that all this unwanted publicity has tarnished his business reputation, Peter has

hired you as special copyright counsel to see what can be done about it. Although he

wouldn't mind an award of damages, he is most interested in injunctive relief--the sooner

the better-_against further publication or use of his limericks in any form.

At your request, Peter found and showed you the napkin on which he first wrote the limericks at the Bojangles Club's Saturday-night banquet. Although you can discern a few words, most of napkin is illegible. You ask Peter whether he can read it, and he replies "Sure, but I doubt even my secretary can." Peter has asked you to evaluate the chances for success of a copyright infringement law suit against Dotty and Don.