Blanche survives Katrina in a FEMA Trailer Named Desire, only to face off with the copyright police

Marjorie Heins of the Free Expression Policy Project has some commentary published on the FEPP site about an interesting copyright case. It’s a Fair Use case that even copyright moderates ought to get riled up about. It concerns a play called Blanche Survives Katrina in a FEMA Trailer Named Desire, which uses the character of Blanche Dubois in a more contemporary way, for critical and comic effect. The holder of the copyright to Streetcar Named Desire is The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, and they are taking legal action against the author of the new work for copyright enfringement. They may not end up having a strong case in court, but a cease-and-desist letter can be a powerful thing, especially when directed at an artist or group that doesn’t have a lot of power. (The things that independent artists like this do often end up being very important.)