Satire, Parody, and Copyright: Republican Govs Ape NYT’s Format
By Dave Wieneke on Jun 25, 2009 in Copyright Law, Fair use, Featured, Politics, Trademark law
The Republican Governors’ Association has launched an attack website against Democrat New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine. The site, called the Corzine Times, is formatted to resemble the New York Times. The grey lady has sent a cease and desist letter to the Republican governors.
The demand letter claims trademark infringement, claiming that similar logos and formats create an impression of sponsorship and confusion about the site’s origin. It further alleges copyright infringement for using the Times layout and styles.
Examples of More Blatant Infringement Make the Governors Look Conservative
I’d offer the trademark claims are the most interesting. Any confusion caused by Corzine Times would be limited, as would the use of copyright in attacking a third party in parody.
You can see more blatant violations of the NYT’s copyright and trademark rights on http://www.nytimes-se.com/ which creates real confusion by using the NY Times’ name. And here Greenpeace infringes on both the International Herald Tribune and NYTimes to highlight their news. In both these cases, the infringement is obvious as they directly use another publication’s name to identify their work.
On Jun 28, 2009, Stephanie Davis said:
The “Grey Lady” should be thrilled that anyone of any stripe wants to be affiliated with it (imitation…flattery)? On second thought, the affiliation is meant to be unflattering (Grey Lady-Corzine) so perhaps it’s a backhanded insult???
On May 21, 2010, battery-stores said:
Thanks for sharing the post.
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