Groucho

I've been getting multiple enquiries regarding when my Open University course, Law, the Internet and Society: technology and the future of ideas will be made available again. The answer, I'm afraid, remains the same that the University is currently reviewing its policy on the licensing of its teaching materials. This is taking some time to complete and the site will remain offline until it is done. I understand that is frustrating but greatly appreciate everyone's patience.

I am thinking about including one of my favorite stories from the course in a short conference talk on open content tomorrow, though.

Groucho Marx, when preparing to produce the Marx brothers film "A Night in Casablanca", got a letter from Warner Brothers' lawyers warning that the name 'Casablanca' belonged to Warner Brothers, since they had created the famous Bogart-Bergman film "Casablanca" five years previously. Groucho wrote back 'You claim you own Casablanca and that no one else can use that name without your permission. What about Warner Brothers - do you own that, too? You probably have the right to use the name Warner, but what about Brothers? Professionally, we were brothers long before you were.' The whole letter is well worth a read and can be found in The Groucho Letters by Groucho Marx published and re-printed by various companies (including Warner Books!) numerous times.

Update: Apologies to early readers - there were technical problems with a cartoon of Groucho I uploaded in the original entry, so I've removed it.