You may have heard about Woody Allen's recent copyright feud with American Apparel. Well, he won the battle yesterday and walked away with $5 million in settlement. And so the case is over, but questions still remain as to what exactly prompted the multinational "alternative" clothing company to assume that Allen wouldn't make a fuss about his face being copied & pasted on their billboards. Did the AA marketing directors feel some vague sort of empathy/indie-connection with the celebrated filmmaker? Or did the copyright laws just slip their minds when they right-clicked on "Save and Download Image As"?

Which brings up the real question and the point that I want to over-stretch from this episode: are copyright laws still "real" in the year 2009? I am just saying, I think Woody is great and all, but I seriously doubt that $5 million he scored will leave any permanent lessons to be learned. Just saying.