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We DID have an amusing page here that was a parody of a famous credit card company's apparently too-long-running ad campaign. (I had
originally thought it was American Express and wasted some time fruitlessly looking for it. It turns out it wasn't. Ad people hate me.) There are MANY parodies of this ad campaign, and even Ralph Nader had one for the US Election! (That one is on AdCritic.com Quicktime and a bit slow. Fair warning.)
Well, a year later, as we fire up a NEW Yearbook, low and behold we find a pack (is it pack or coven?) of overpaid lawyers with nothing else to do, hot on our heels:
- Software Web bots to find alleged infringers of your copyright
$1,385,000(est)
- Multinational Law Firm for letterhead, Boilerplate text and FedEx charges
$millions(est)
- Mailings done by a $15/hr clerk using Word (incl. fringes)
$37,440
- Harm done to Corporate Brand Name
Beyond Price
We were told to remove the offending page from this website by April 13, 2001, with which we complied. An innocuous site that did nothing to harm the Mark that sent us the boilerplate letter, which you can read HERE, but was merely parody.
Yes, true enough, there is a requirement to defend your copyrights so as not to lose them. But be serious! It was a JOKE page, folks!
Why go after these little parody sites, which are probably doing some free advertising for the Mark! (Lawyers take no prisoners, apparently.)
These sites then regroup and post up the actual C & D (Cease
and Desist) letters, which then tarnish the Company and their Marks! (See another site's C&D order HERE. Same letter, but you get to read the offending bits at least.)
Why wasn't there a nice request to remove a logo, or ask if it could it link to the Company web site? No, it had to be a huge threat, from a huge company's huge lawyers, -BAM- right out of the box.
(But then have you seen what they've done to your 'grace period' and late payment fees, lately? That's to pay the lawyers, of course.)
And at what point does an ad campaign become so successful that it falls
into the public domain? Or isn't that the whole POINT of an ad campaign? To make your Brand or Mark something everyone immediately recognizes? When was the last time you asked someone for a 'facial tissue'? No, you
ask them for a Kleenex!!
I still fail to see how this Yearbook2000 page could have hurt the Brand, Mark(s), or Company in any way. And I am not likely to find out without protracted legal proceedings that
only they can afford. When you get a boilerplate letter like that, you know you can't just call and talk to a normal rational human.
In a phrase, "My wallet buys more lawyers than your wallet can."
By the way, parody and satire used to be a protected free speech right. Wonder when that stopped.
Somewhat,
RabidWolf, <> Esq.
For everything else, I use another card.
P.S. Overpaid Lawyers is redundant, isn't it.
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