The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) last Wednesday asked a federal court to protect the free speech rights of a website publisher who has suffered years of legal threats over his parody of the Barney and Friends television show.
According to the EFF, since 2002, the Lyons Partnership has repeatedly sent "meritless" cease-and-desist letters to Stuart Frankel because his website pokes fun at Barney the purple dinosaur, the well-known children's television character.
Dr. Frankel, assisted by EFF, responded to these letters in 2002 and 2005, but the show's lawyers have continued to harass him. The lawsuit filed by Dr. Frankel asks the court to finally resolve the matter by declaring that his parody does not infringe Barney's copyright or trademark rights.
"Barney's lawyers are sending out intimidating lawyer letters to parody websites that are clearly protected by the First Amendment and fair use," explained EFF Senior Staff Attorney Fred von Lohmann.
"It's time for Barney to call off his lawyer armies and get back to entertaining children."
Barney's lawyers have a history of using copyright and trademark laws "as a pretext for censorship", the Foundation stated last week.
"The misuse of intimidating cease-and-desist letters for censorship is a growing problem online," observed EFF Staff Attorney Corynne McSherry.
She continued:
"We hope this lawsuit sends a message to Barney's owners and other corporations to think twice before sending baseless threat letters."
.
Network Tweets
Network BlogsContent
provided by
|
Archive | Resources | Partners | Site Map | Links | Newsletter Archive | Contact | RSS Feeds | About | Syndication | Advertising & Marketing | Recruitment | Terms & Conditions | Privacy
Copyright © 2012 - All Rights Reserved - Tax-News.com
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Tax-News.com has taken reasonable care in sourcing and presenting the information contained on this site, but accepts no responsibility for any financial or other loss or damage that may result from its use. In particular, users of the site are advised to take appropriate professional advice before committing themselves to involvement in offshore jurisdictions, offshore trusts or offshore investments.
Write a comment