Online Post-conference Happy Hour

The stars congratulate each other…

Michael: It was great.

Charles: Everybody offered something. Just like Stone Soup.

Michael: Yes, some presentations were like meat and potatoes, others exotic like pineapple tiramisu dessert.

Charles: The best?

Michael: That had to be you on character arcs. Closely reasoned but absolutely brilliant.

Charles: Oh no. It was you on secondary characters.

Michael: But everyone was good. Karen on memoirs. And so many others. Nothing disappointed.

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Voice-over

The upside of Zoom conferences: not having to go out to attend face to face. The downside of a Zoom conference: not being able to go out to attend in person. However, by choosing sessions carefully, no presentations disappointed. And all achieved without stepping outdoors.

Copyright

Polly has told Basil his brochure cover needs some spicing up.

...

Basil: There. I added a Mickey Mouse.

Polly: You can’t do that.

Basil: Who says?

Polly: Copyright law says you can’t. You can’t copy their mouse. Disney still owns it. You can’t copy the form and manner. They can’t stop you using an original picture of a mouse.

Basil: All right. How about if I put in a picture of some other mouse?

Later:

Basil: There. It’s not Disney, it’s a photo I took myself.

Polly: A real rat? It gets attention, and copyright law won’t get you but do you think any guests will come?

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Voice-over

Polly is quite right about Mickey, but Disney doesn’t own the idea of mice, anthropomorphic or real. Basil, as usual however, goes to an extreme.

But then, there is the issue of copyright in parody photographs... For some, parody is how they survive and make sense of life.

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