So I met these Germans last week, and I asked the girl about this tattoo on her wrist because it was partially hidden by a bracelet. “What is your tattoo?” I asked her.
And she explained to me another danger of copyright……
“Well it used to be a Jonah Matrenga tattoo!” I had not heard of this musician but he is actually quite good. Here is a link to his myspace http://www.myspace.com/jonahmatranga. But take note of his profile image, it’s his logo, a heart/question mark. 
More importantly, if you are really into music, maybe you know Jennifer Lopez is trying to make her comeback. In addition to her wipe-out on her new year’s eve performance, she also performed on Saturday Night Live this past February. You can watch the video in the link below.
http://dirtywhorelebrity.com/2010/03/01/videojlo-on-snl/
If you take a good look, you can see quite a similar logo on the drum and stage (also in the picture below). There have also been rumors about a new album she’s going to put out this summer, “Love” or “What is Love?”
Doesn’t make too much of a difference to me, but this girl Stephanie said, “If she puts this new logo on her album, then it will really be a J Lo tattoo.”
If you go to Jonah’s music community, some fans comment: “Oh. I guess her new album is called Love? I’d say you should wait until the album is successful before you sue, Jonah, but it will almost certainly bomb.” There hasn’t been much discussion of this logo confusion in the news or other places online, but I think it could be grounds for copyright infringement. (horsehead)
Matrenga released the image in his album “The Three Sketchyes” in 2007 (above), well before JLo’s attempt at a comeback, but I’ll let you be the judge, would it be infringement? And let this just be a warning to you, think twice before you get a tattoo of your favorite musician’s logo, your taste may not change, but you can’t account for something like this….
Some Rights Reserved
Wouldn’t this actually infringe on trademark rights, not copyright laws? I know Wikipedia is not the most reliable source of information, as we discussed in class, but this is the definition I found on the “trademark” Wikipedia page:
“A trademark or trade mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or services from those of other entities.”
This musician, Jonah, is using that logo to represent himself, the brand. And his friends/fans on myspace are right, if J.Lo uses this same image as her album cover or new logo, it certainly will be associated with the J.Lo. brand.
Point of my story is, I do not believe this falls under copyright infringement, but either way this Jonah guy may have a brewing problem to deal with.
I thought the same thing too, and I think it could be grounds for both. Since it is a tangible image or graphic that I assume has been copyrighted with his album being copyrighted. It looks like JLo transformed it into something her own. But I think if JLO used the image and created some sort of “consumer confusion,” then it would be grounds for trademark infringement.
Good job, both of you, addressing the copyright/trademark distinction, and thanks for including the relevant image in the post.
So if Matrenga’s symbol can be a copyrighted work, is J Lo’s symbol actually substantially similar, such that it would be an infringement of the reproduction right? Alternately, does it fall within 101’s definition of a derivative work?
It’s interesting that the symbol in question here is fundamentally a melding of two other, unoriginal symbols. Did J Lo just copy the idea of combining the two symbols, or did she copy some original expression of Matrenga’s, too?
the legal wording is vague, it could possibly be considered an art reproduction that was transformed and adapted, but still, so many other things can fall under these technical terms and be an obvious case for fair-use or original design.
Personally, I don’t think it is substantially similar, but if Mantrenga associated this symbol as an integral part of his image, and it was widely known or accepted, then it may be grounds for trademark infringement and possible even a derivative work, but like you stated, it a combination of 2 symbols, and can one copyright this?
this is a very beautiful and creative tattoo… i love the lighting except for on her left foot, its slightly blurred, but other than that, the overall background is very pretty
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