"Joke theft" sounds funny, but that claim is at the heart of a lawsuit lodged against Conan O'Brien. The case brings thorny questions of humor to the courtroom, a place not always known for jokes.

Jokes were no longer common property, so comics invested both time and money writing (and hiring others to write) new material in a way they rarely did before. The result was more original comic ...

Joke about a juice cleanse on Twitter, and you just might begin a national conversation on copyright laws. The Twitter account @PlagiarismBad, which spots plagiarized tweets, pointed out on ...

Comedy is creative work. Whether you tell jokes, take pictures, write novels or have a business that supports these creators, taking appropriate precautions to protect this work is key.

Not many comics know what the law says about joke theft. Instead, the comedy community has developed its own ways of preventing plagiarism, and settling disputes when they do, infrequently, arise.

Unless you’re a comedy writer and you see a late-night TV host telling a joke you wrote. Five times. That’s what the writer Alex Kaseberg says happened to him in late 2014 and early 2015, a ...

"Joke theft" sounds funny, but that claim is at the heart of a lawsuit lodged against Conan O'Brien. The case brings thorny questions of humor to the courtroom, a place not always known for jokes.

Unless you’re a comedy writer and you see a late-night TV host telling a joke you wrote. Five times. That’s what the writer Alex Kaseberg says happened to him in late 2014 and early 2015, a charge ...