Seem's that
Penny Arcade has been issued a Cease and Desist over a comic they did making fun of American McGee's Alice. If you haven't played Alice, it essentiall takes the story of Alice in Wonderland, and turns the title character into a sadistic killer with a butcher knife. Lots of fun. The guys at PA thought it'd be funny if the sequel involved Strawberry Shortcake. Yes, the red-haired, scented, 80's girl toy. Only he involved some sexual connotations (ok, not connotations, it was blatant).
Now, I'm no expert, and I don't really support making everything about sex. But it occurs to me that the original comic was a parody of Alice, not of the American Greetings icon. Unfortunately, I can't link to the comic itself because Gabe and Tycho have complied with the C&D until they know more about their rights (speaking with their lawyers). At any rate, seems like this is first amendment protected.
Tycho doesn't have a lot to say about it:
If you have any questions about why, feel free to raise them with Rinda E. Vas, Corporate Counsel for the American Greetings Corporation.
We're currently trying to figure out exactly how the concepts of Parody and Satire work to protect the sorts of things we do, to better arm ourselves against this kind of crap. Virtually everyone believes that what we did is protected, indeed, I believe that myself - but I'm not going to bet the farm on it until I have a bit more than Internet hearsay to back myself up with.
(
http://www.penny-arcade.com/news.php3?date=2003-04-21)(scroll most of the way down, he provides links).
However,
Slashdot as usual and as expected, had quite a bit to say.
If you've heard enough, here's the (poorly spelled)
petition. Personally, I think the
Comic Book Legal Defense Fund would be interested in helping out. Again, I support Gabe and Tycho. I dont' necessarily care for the sexual nature of the comic, but prohibiting this free speech would be a bad precedent.
