This Charming Charlie: Universal Music Publishing Group v. Loprete (2013)
A graphic designer’s widely-acclaimed website on Tumblr, This Charming Charlie, features her fair use mash-ups of Smiths lyrics and Peanuts comics. When the site faced DMCA takedown notices from Universal Music Publishing over the lyrics used, Dan Booth served a counter-notice to the web host. Within weeks, Universal privately recanted, the Smiths’ singer and lyricist Morrissey publicly endorsed the website, and the site was fully restored.
- Marah Eakin, The Smiths are in the process of shutting down Peanuts mashup site This Charming Charlie, A.V. Club (Sept. 19, 2013)
- Marc Hogan, There Is A Tumblr That Never Goes Out, But the Smiths-‘Peanuts’ Mashup Will Fade, Spin (Sept. 19, 2013)
- Fruszina Eördögh, ‘This Charming Charlie’ Tumblr Creator Won’t Go Without a Fight, Motherboard (Sept. 21, 2013)
- Mike Masnick, Yes, It’s Fair Use to Mashup Charlie Brown And The Smiths, Techdirt (Sept. 24, 2013)
- Jon Healey, Universal Music lawyers not laughing at Peanuts-Smiths mashup, Los Angeles Times (Sept. 25, 2013)
- Los Angeles Times editorial board, Copyright law and This Charming Charlie, Los Angeles Times (Sept. 26, 2013)
- Mike Masnick, Universal Music Lawyers Realize That Taking Down Charlie Brown / Smiths Remix Not The Brightest Idea They’ve Had, Techdirt (Sept 26, 2013)
- Evan Minsker, Morrissey Did Not Ask to Take Down the Peanuts/Smiths Tumblr, Pitchfork (Oct. 6, 2013)
- Fruszina Eördögh, ‘Universal Lost a Copyright Fight with this Charming Smiths-Peanuts Mashup Tumblr, Motherboard (Oct. 8, 2013)
- Victoria McNally, Good News for Sad People: This Charming Charlie Has Gotten a Copyright Reprieve, Geekosystem (Oct. 9, 2013)
- Dan Booth, What Would Ian Do? Punk Rock and the Ethics of Fair Use, Harvard Office for Scholarly Communication (Feb. 28, 2014)
