Shostakovich v. Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp. is a landmark 1948 New York Supreme Court decision. It was the first case in the United States dealing with moral rights in authorship. The Soviet composers Dmitri Shostakovich (pictured), Aram Khachaturian, Sergei Prokofiev, and Nikolai Myaskovsky sued Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation for using their compositions in the film The Iron Curtain. Although their compositions were in the public domain in the United States, the composers argued that the film violated their moral rights by using their works in a manner contrary to their beliefs. The court rejected the composers' argument, holding that there was no clear standard for adjudicating moral rights and that moral rights conflict with free use of public domain works. The decision has been criticized for misunderstanding moral rights and praised for upholding the right of the public to use public domain works over the rights of authors to censor uses that they disagree with.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shostakovich_v._Twentieth_Century-Fox_Film_Corp.

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1904:

Blackstone Library, the first branch of the Chicago Public Library system, was dedicated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackstone_Library

1977:

Three bombs attributed to Armenian nationalists exploded across Moscow, killing seven people and injuring 37 people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1977_Moscow_bombings

1981:

In Trans-en-Provence, France, a local farmer reported a UFO sighting claimed to be "perhaps the most completely and carefully documented sighting of all time". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-en-Provence_case

2011:

Jared Lee Loughner opened fire at a public meeting held by U.S. representative Gabby Giffords in Tucson, Arizona, killing six people and injuring twelve others. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Tucson_shooting

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

pendeloque: (also attributive) A drop-shaped diamond or other gem used as a pendant; also, a piece of jewellery in pendant form. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pendeloque

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

The goal of a free nation is to reveal by example the enlightened possibilities of the human race, not to wield its power of destruction and death over the helpless, the poor, the starving and the war torn masses. The goal of a free nation must be no different outside its borders than within them. In America we do not massacre whole towns because they may be the chosen domicile of a criminal or a conspiracy of criminals. Instead we carefully root out the felons and bring them to justice. In the same way, the goal of a free nation must be to first view all people as members of the human race, and, as such, to insist that they possess fundamental human rights. They are, as we, citizens of the world. The rule of law shows us the way.   --Gerry Spence https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gerry_Spence