Copyright law and This Charming Charlie

What do you get when you replace the original dialogue from classic Peanuts comic strips with lyrics from songs by the beloved British indie-rock band The Smiths? A wry and clever blog that a major record company tries to shut down.

The case of This Charming Charlie, a blog that features Peanuts characters uttering lines by The Smiths, is a good example of the collateral damage caused by copyright holders struggling to protect their works against the onslaught of piracy online. The problem for the music and movie industries and their artists is so vast, they've had to speed up and automate the process of detecting infringement and bringing enforcement actions. That haste has led them to challenge some creative uses of their works that are wholly legitimate. It's been 15 years since Congress set up rules for the use of copyrighted material online; it's past time for lawmakers to overhaul them so that they work better for both copyright holders and those who make fair use of their works.