The Mardi Gras Indians

A group of New Orleans residents spent a lot of time and money creating very elaborate costumes for the Mardi Gras parade. And, of course, as they go down the streets in the parade, photographers take their photos. They want to be paid by the photographers. So they tried to copyright their costumes. The “Mardi Gras Indians” claim that it's not fair that others profit from their work. The problem is that clothing and costumes are not covered by copyrights. This was ruled and closed by the US Supreme Court in 1914!

Since they can't copyright their costumes. With the help of law professor Ashley Keaton, they claim that their costumes are not costumes but sculptures that they wear. Sculptures can be copyrighted. Since they wear their sculptures and the photos are derived work of copyrighted sculptures therefore all the photos of the Mardi Gras Indians are subject to the copyright laws.

This sort of abuse of the copyright law have become common. Doctors are trying to copyright all mention of their names so they cannot be rated with RateMDs and others rating websites. The music industry is also doing similar things with their blanket DMCA slap downs…