guest post by Doctor Popular

photos by Plug1 (WHAT IM SEEING DOT COM)

Pez Candy Inc. is suing the Burlingame Museum of Pez Memorabilia over copyright infringement. The suit, filed last week, claims that the museum deceives the public into believing they are operating under the authority of Pez and asks that the museum’s 7 foot tall replica of Pez dispenser be destroyed. The lawsuit also takes issue with the museum’s sales of toy truck Pez dispensers which had been modified with Obama and McCain logos during last years elections. The museum has been opened since 1995 and is said to be the only place in the world were you can see every Pez dispenser ever made.

WHAT IM SEEING DOT COM has a great write-up on the Burlingame Museum of Pez Memorabilia from last December.

via The San Mateo Times

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guest post by Burstein!

In 2006 internet troll Jason Fortuny conducted his infamous “Craigslist Experiment” by posting a fake Women Seeking Men ad on Seattle Craigslist. What makes this remarkable is that Mr. Fortuny decided to post every single response in full detail on Encyclopedia Dramatica, including names, photos or emails. Unsurprisingly, people sued and one of them won a default judgment ordering Mr. Fortnuy to pay almost $75,000 in damages [PDF].

UPDATE: 10 Zen Monkeys interviewed the guy who sued Jason Fortuny.

via Waxy

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guest post by Violet Blue

Above is Ely Kim’s truly awesome “Boombox: 100 days, 100 songs, 100 locations, 100 dances” — one of the three videos Jason Schultz (Dir Samuelson Law & Technology Clinic, UC Berkeley) used in his South By SouthWest Interactive 2009 panel New Threats to New Media: Fair Use On Trial. Of the many excellent panels and core conversations at SXSWi ‘09, Shultz’s stood out as one of the most exciting, unforgettable and still talked about sessions at the convention.

That’s not the only thing that left us stirred and excited: We also truly loved a couple of the packed, standing room only core conversations. Like the provocative and informative How Not To Be Evil (Even By Accident) with Danny O’Brien and Eva Galperin (both from the EFF). Also remarkable and highly valuable was the packed Therapy 2.0: Mental Health for Geeks with Dr. Keely Kolmes (professional website) and Thomas Roche. See also: the Therapy 2.0 wiki here. Don’t get me wrong: there was some pure, tiresome, self-congratulatory crap on the schedule; but the value, when found, was extremely high.

But it was the Fair Use on Trial panel that had the dynamic format, high energy, conflict and controversy that made us remember why it’s worth traveling to see this always-evolving conference. For the panel, Schultz picked Stanford’s Julie Ahrens (one of Shepard Fairey’s lawyers); her polar opposite lawyer Ben Sheffner (Fox Media, the McCain presidential campaign); and film artist Kelly Nyks.

Then Schultz set up a really exciting format: first he’d show us an Internet video where fair use was in question. Next, he’d ask the audience for a quick show of hands — was this fair use or not? No nitty gritty definition or dissection, just our initial gut reactions to the video. Fast! Schultz then gave each lawyer three minutes apiece to argue their case (and they were at odds each time). After the arguments, then Schultz would quickly ask the room again — was the video fair use, or not? Then he’d ask if anyone changed their minds. Every time, people did. Jason would then ask one of the people who’d switched to tell us the reason they switched, and only 30 seconds to sum it up for the room. It was the Fair Use Experiment. We watched three videos total, and the Q/A after was on fire.

It was intense, fast-paced and sparked conversations that continued — well, we’re still having them. One of the other videos Schultz showed was “The Films of Stanley Kubrick“. What do you think? Are either of the videos in this post fair use, or not? This slide was our guide.

* More images from the panel are here.

photo by Violet Blue

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guest post by Burstein!

Simon Cheffins and Gregory Jones of Extra Action Marching Band, the two artists behind the late and legendary La Contessa are suing Michael Stewart who burnt it to the ground a few years ago. Michael Stewart owns the land near Black Rock where La Contessa was left after it broke an axle in 2004. La Contessa was originally parked on the land with the permission of the then-owner, Joan Grant, but she eventually sold the land to Stewart who torched La Contessa because he supposedly thought it was junk.

Cheffins and Jones are suing Stewart for $1 million. The lawsuit is based on the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990.

Here’s more info on the lawsuit and the history of this case.

See Previously:

- La Contessa Has Been Destroyed in a Fire

- La Contessa Burial at Sea

photo by John Manyjohns

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Our friends at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco are having a tough time with the The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control who appear to be trying to force them out of business. The club’s owner, open source pioneer Jamie Zawinski has been documenting this issue on the DNA Lounge blog. They are currently seeking donations for their Legal Defense Fund and have setup a Save DNA Lounge page on Facebook.

The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control is trying to put DNA Lounge out of business! They are accusing the club of “running a disorderly house injurious to the public welfare and morals”, and are trying to permanently revoke our liquor license. If they succeed, the club will close.

UPDATE: Violet Blue wrote about the DNA situation in her San Francisco Chronicle column.

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guest post by Charlie Todd

Earlier this month a massive group of pranksters led by members of The Yes Men and The Anti-Advertising Agency printed up and distributed copies of a spoof New York Times. The paper featured the headline “Iraq War Ends” and 14 pages of unbelievably good news for any left-leaning reader. The paper, which was also reproduced online, also included some very clever fake advertisements for real corporations, including the De Beers ad above. While the real Times called the prank a “Grade-A-caper”, De Beers did not find it as funny.

Matt Zimmerman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation explains:

Not surprisingly, the corporate targets of the parody were not pleased. Now, in what is becoming an all-too-familiar trend, one of those corporations has attempted to shut down the site by putting pressure on what is often the weakest link in the online speech chain: the domain name registrar. Stymied by the First Amendment and other legal impediments, those who don’t appreciate critical commentary and other “objectionable” online content have found intermediaries — providers of indispensable technical services like domain name registration and web hosting — much easier to intimidate.

This time, the complaining (and overreaching) party was the South African diamond conglomerate De Beers, the target of a critical fake ad on the web version of the New York Times spoof announcing that diamond purchases “will enable us to donate a prosthetic for an African whose hand was lost in diamond conflicts.” Miffed by the criticism, De Beers responded not by confronting the authors (whose parody is protected by the First Amendment) but instead by threatening their Swiss-based domain name registrar, Joker.com. De Beers has demanded that Joker.com disable the spoof website’s domain name or face liability for trademark infringement.

You can read the EFF’s letter to De Beers, attached at the bottom of their coverage.

I’m reminded of the nastygram Laughing Squid received last holiday season from Best Buy.

See Previously:

- Fake New York Times Distributed With Headline: “Iraq War Ends”

- Best Buy Cease & Desist Letter For Blog Coverage of Parody

image via nytimes-se.com

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