Timewaster's Guide Archive
Departments => Webcomics & Free Stuff => Topic started by: The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers on April 24, 2003, 09:00:10 AM
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Seem's that Penny Arcade (http://www.penny-arcade.com) 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 (http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/03/04/23/0336227.shtml?tid=153) as usual and as expected, had quite a bit to say.
If you've heard enough, here's the (poorly spelled) petition (http://www.petitiononline.com/agcbyctt/petition.html). Personally, I think the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (http://www.cbldf.org/) 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.
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This reminds me of that run of episodes of Drew Carey that got Drew in trouble for drawing a comic in an office memo of a catapillar trying to have sex with a french fry. But in any case, I support them as well. And last I saw that petition had a good 7000+ signatures. So bugger of AG!
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You spelt "Parody" wrong mate.
Spriggan is infectuous.
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I think Ehlers wants to get in trouble with the Dictionary people.
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Just to clear things up, they aren't being sued by the creators of American McGee. They're being sued by the creators of Strawberry Shortcake. The argument is that the comic is a parody of American McGee, but a copyright infringement of Strawberry Shortcake. Personally, I don't see why it can't parody both, but we'll see how Tycho and Gabe handle it.
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The precedent is against them, in that a work that uses a target property without directly parodying it is not considered a parody but a satire, which is not protected by law. Their comic is a parody of Alice, but could easily be considered a satire of Strawberry Shortcake. I think this one might come down to how well the lawyers argue, and the personal preference of the judge.
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Yes, I meant to be clear about who was suing who, but I was hurrying to get my post up before breakfast, which also explains my misspellings.
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Well, I certainly hope it turns out okay for them. Penny Arcade is always a hoot.
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Penny Arcade seems to be down today. Anyone know why?
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Ah, it's a DNS thing. Some access routes don't work, others do.