Democracy Has Prevailed.

November 23, 2005

Saw this headline in the Post-Gazette today: "Absolut threatens bloggers over use of product in parody of Bush"

I wonder who they could be talking about?

Story here.

11 comments:

Philip Shropshire said...

Definitely give the ACLU and the EFF a call. And don't forget Chuck Penn's new fundraiser...it ain't over till its over...

Maria said...

I've spoken to the ACLU, they might be interested if any US govt. agency/official gets involved. Hadn't thought of EFF.

Did you know that the owners of the Absolut tradmark is a company "wholly owned by the Kingdon of Sweden"? That might make this post a bit less cryptic.

Sherry Pasquarello said...

i think that image is pure genius. even the right wing has to admit that.(well, they should, but i doubt it, probably wishing they had thought of it first)i'm not much for sort of name calling or labeling, but your idea was genius! i hope you can at least keep it on your blog.

Maria said...

Thanks!

It would be very ironic if we couldn't because at least 70 other blogs have copied it off 2pj and published it on their blogs. (Try googling "absolut corruption" and you'll see what I mean.)

Ol' Froth said...

Maybe I shouldn't have given you that idea!

Maria said...

I actually did mention your blog, but only because I wanted someone to write you a letter telling you you can no longer use that phrase.

;-)

Jonathan Potts said...

I don't recall reading about Absolut sending out cease-and-desist letters in the 1990s to all the college sororities and fraternities--including my own--that mde Absolut parody T-shirts. They are rather selective in their defense of their trademark it would seem.

djhlights said...

Yet another reason why I prefer grey goose.

Anonymous said...

Yes, blast those Bush-loving Swedes. V&S must be part of the Carlyle Group. It's the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy, come to censor the liberal blogosphere by way of the liquor industry. Get the ACLU; they're on speed dial, right?

They probably would have left you alone if you hadn't bandied about the idea of putting the image on t-shirts. Trying to profit off of their intellectual property is what got the two of you in trouble. Now they have you by the cojones, and there's jack-all you can do about it.

Guess it's just another reason to hate capitalism...

Maria said...

"Trying to profit off of their intellectual property is what got the two of you in trouble."

Wow! I didn't think that even wingnuts were in favor of thought crimes. No product was ever produced or sold. Do wingnuts now favor punishing people for what they might do?

Again, they are not asking us to stop making/selling products -- there isn't any -- they are asking us to take what is clearly a parody and politically protected speech off any web pages.

zencomix said...

Parody is a protected form of free speech, whether you want to make money off of your speech or not. The last Supreme Court case that I can recall off the top of my head that dealt with the issue was in the early 1990s. 2 Live Crew did a raunchy parody of Roy Orbison's "Pretty Woman", and the owners of the copyright tried to prevent them from releasing it. 2 Live Crew won...Weird Al Yankovic has been making money from parody of other people's songs for years.