"$tella!

Copyright is an issue that never fails to engage me, partly because it's intricately interwoven in nearly everything I do as a blogger and as a writer (from opposite sides!), and partly because—like obscenity—it's an incredibly vague aspect of American law capable of engendering many different, nuanced interpretations.

Case in point: Madonna paid $3,750 to each of the estates of the long-dead stars whose faces flashed across our screens when she performed "Vogue" at the Superbowl. I find that kind of bizarre considering that was NOT the fee for the actual images but just for using their faces/names.

Then, she was asked to pay $5,000 per concert (!) for using the same stars' faces on tour...except Marlon Brando's estate demanded $20,000, so they all wanted $20,000. Some of these dead stars probably never earned $20,000 for any of their movies! Sheesh. The price tag would wind up being hundreds of thousands of dollars per gig.

I'm in the wrong business.