Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Abbott & Costello Heirs Lose Appeal Over Broadway Play's Use of "Who's on First" Routine

The heirs of Abbott and Costello have lost a very important court ruling in terms of a copyright over the classic routine "Who's on First". The heirs have claimed they held the copyright for "Who's on First" based on a the copyright that was tied to the film "One Night in the Tropics". As such the heirs sued the producers of the Broadway play Hand to God. The play uses the famous routine and declared that it was "Fair Use". However the court ruled that in fact the Heirs of Abbott and Costello no longer hold a copyright of the Famous routine and that in fact it is in the Public Domain. I am sure that this ruling will be appealed and future court decisions on this matter is forthcoming. To read more about this story you can click the link below:

https://us.yahoo.com/movies/abbott-costello-heirs-lose-appeal-over-broadway-plays-040038683.html