Judge Rules in Favor of Family Guy
Posted by K.C. Morgan Categories: Animation, Comedy, Prime Time, FOX, Family Guy, Gossip,
FOX’s animated Family Guy is not guilty of copyright infringement, per court ruling, for a song parody featured in one of the episodes.
The episode offered up a new version of Disney’s “When You Wish Upon a Star,” which subsequently launched a lawsuit from the major corporation in 2007. The ditty originally appeared in the 1940 flick Pinocchio. The Family Guy version, “I Need a Jew,” was perhaps a little less family-friendly…but it wasn’t illegal.
Despite the content of the song - “anti-Semitic lyrics” - a U.S. District Judge ruled that the lyrics of the song and tone of the piece was “strikingly different” from the original version. Since winning the Academy Award for Best Original Song after its film debut, “When You Wish Upon a Star” has been recorded by more than one hundred subsequent recording artists and orchestras.
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| MSNBC
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FCC Reduces Fine Against FOX Over 2003 Reality Show
Posted by Jacci Lewis Categories: Prime Time, Reality, ABC, FOX, Cable/Satellite, News,
Score one for
FOX reality TV, sort of. The Federal Communications Commission slashed nearly all of a proposed $1.2 million indecency fine against several FOX stations yesterday, according to the Washington Post.
The FCC instead decided stations can only be fined for airing the offensive TV show in question if viewers actually complained about it. There was not a change in the FCC’s determination that the show in question was, in fact, indecent.
In this case, 13 of the 169 FOX stations that aired the April 7, 2003 episode of the short-lived Married By America will actually be required to pay indecency fines. The total amount of fines will be somewhere near $91,000.
The episode that lead to the original fine showed digitally-obscured nudity and strippers covered in whipped cream. FOX argued that the worst parts were obscured, keeping the scene from being indecent under FCC rules which prohibit conventional radio and television stations from broadcasting what’s called “patently offensive” material of a sexual or excretory nature between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. (Times when children are most likely to be watching.) Obviously FCC indecency statutes do not cover cable or satellite TV (e.g. Paradise Hotel 2).
The Post says FOX, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., hasn’t decided whether to appeal the FCC ruling in federal court.
Click to continue reading FCC Reduces Fine Against FOX Over 2003 Reality Show
Washington Post
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