Appeals Panel Rules Against Trek Seuss Parody Book
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Oh, The Places You’ll Boldly Go!, a “mash-up” of Star Trek and Dr. Seuss is not a parody and therefore is not protected against a copyright infringement claim from Dr. Seuss Enterprises.
A three-judge federal appeals panel made the ruling last week on the book, created by ComicMix after a Kickstarter campaign for the book, which placed Trek characters into Seuss’s 1990 Oh, the Places You’ll Go! book.
Last year, the book had been deemed “highly transformative” and fair use.
ComicMix believed that the publication fell under fair use, but the appeals court disagreed, saying that the book was not a parody or otherwise transformative.
“The creators thought their Star Trek primer would be ‘pretty well protected by parody,’ but acknowledged that ‘people in black robes’ may disagree,” said Judge M. Margaret McKeown via a written opinion. “Indeed, we do.”
Oh, The Places You’ll Boldly Go! was written by David Gerrold and illustrated by Ty Templeton. Glenn Hauman, VP of ComicMix edited the book.
The ruling did not put off Hauman, who was “pretty optimistic.” He told the New York Times that “I’m just going to quote Captain Kirk and say there are always possibilities.”
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