Some time ago, I read an article about an author calling himself J. D. California, who wanted to publish a book called Coming Through The Rye. In it, he intended to write about a 76-year-old Holden Caulfield, bringing the hero of J. D. Salinger’s classic Catcher In The Rye into the modern age.

Salinger, ever protective of his creation, promptly took “California” to court, and reading about this lawsuit, I began to wonder about author rights. To what extent can an author exert control or copyright over a character? If Coming Through The Rye is either a parody of or a commentary on Caulfield, was “California” obligated to seek Salinger’s permission before writing his book?

Fortunately for me, I had Just to Clarify at my disposal. Just to Clarify is an explainer podcast that I host once a week on the Mint web site. So in the last episode, we got an intellectual property expert, Saikrishna Rajagopal, to discuss the Salinger case and lead us through the convolutions of copyright law. Since it’s a pleasantly bookish topic, I present it here for Bookends readers to listen to as well. Click here to listen to the podcast.