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Asterix and Mobilix Redux
eguaj writes "I thought the "Obelix vs. Mobilix" case was over, and that the Mobilix web site had definitely won in the first instance, but this morning I saw this mail , on the linux-laptop mailing list, stating that 'Les Éditions Albert René' went into appeal and they managed to overturn the first decision, and now the Mobilix.org site will have to withdraw his domain name, pay the compensation fee, etc. Mobilix.org is a web site dedicated to Linux/Unix on mobile devices (laptop, pda, cell. phones), and they ruled that "Mobilix" was too much similar to "Obelix" and that people could take one for the other." For Americans: Asterix and Obelix are well-known French cartoon characters (think: Mickey and Goofy).
They can hardly be accused of typo-cybersquatting if the O is two rows up and a bit right from the M. Perhaps spoken errors could come into play, but this sounds like quite a petty case. And who the fuck would mistake a PDA site for a Cartoon site?
How about Crispix cereal? Sounds too much like what would be the name of the guy in Asterix' village who always overcooks the roast boar.
Epix image hosting on eBay? The lady in the village who needs to use an Epliady (not hard to find in any French village for that matter.
Appendix? Can't use that one either. That is the guy who keeps trying to add extra verses to Cacaphonix's tales.
Phoenix, Arizona? Better change your name, you copyright-violating town.
how long before they make us pry the '8' key off of all our keyboards?
-- OMFG = Oh My Floatse Goatse
But Mobilix is (well, was) a mobile phone company around here. Owned by France Telecom as far as I recall. Now it is called Orange.
Could this not have influence on this issue, i.e. that the name has been previously used without Obelix and his Gaul friends objecting?
Just a thought!
virve
--
This just underlines the injustice of the courts. I suspect that it was as much decided on who knew who and who had the biggest pockets - always a big factor in a trial.
Life would be much more pleasant if there were no lawyers.
Euh, nice comparison (not!). Mickey and Goofy are cool, I like them, but you can't possible compare them to Asterix and Obelix. FYI, it is a (apparently not so) well known fact that Asterix and Obelix have add more to the knowledge of classical history then classical education. A lot of things in the strip (not cartoon) are genuine. You can actually learn stuff from Asterix. So, I'd say go out and read some.
-- The Internet is a too slow way of doing things, you'd never do without it.
It's 2003 AD, and all the Internet is occupied by the powerful IP empire. All? No, a little village of indomitable freedom fighters still hold out, assisted by their druid Getafix's magic potion, freenet.
Only a hell of a lot funnier than that stupid mouse and dog. I'd say a better comparison is Homer and Bart. Mickey and Goofy start to lose their humor once you reach a certain age. Asterix works on so many more levels...
There is no sig, there is only Zuul.
Sent via: Via Certified Mail, Return Receipt Requested
Re: Re: Infringements of AT&T Copyrights and Trademarks
I write as attorney for AT&T Telecommuncations Corporation.
As you are, no doubt, aware, AT&T owns the rights to ATT, AT&T, or anything relating to or sounding vaguely like the phoenetic sound of "at." These rights are protected by numerous copyrights trademarks.
We have recently learned that you have have been using the words "at", "attack", "attachment", and any and all words beginning with "AT" in your book entitle the "Dictionary" Your addition of these items in your book is an infringement of AT&T's rights.
Based upon the foregoing, we hereby demand that your confirm to us in writing within ten days of receipt of this letter that: (i) you have removed all infringing materials from your book; and (ii) you will refrain from adding any similar infringing material in the future.
The foregoing is without waiver of any and all rights of AT&T Telecommunications Corporation, all of which are expressly reserved herein.
Very truly yours,
[Attorney]
checking for libvirus... no
ERROR, libvirus.so not found, terminating
Let's call the whole thing off!
Eclectic beats from Leeds, UK
handmadehands.co.uk
Asterix was aimed at adults with an extremely corny sense of humour who liked the occasional bad joke (you know, the kind of jokes that are so bad that they're good). The beano was aimed at 10 year old kids.
If we Slashdot them, they'll surrender!
This is not a case in France, but one in Germany, started by a german lawyer against a german company.
This is actually quite ironic since allmost all names in the Asterix comic series are derived from real words (in French). Asterix comes from 'asterisque' (the * character), Obelix from 'obelisque' (a vertical monument, like a pillar), idefix (the dog) from 'idée fixe' (difficult to translate, something like an unchangeable opinion), assurancetourix (the chief IIRC) from 'assurance touts risques' (an insurance for all damages), etc ...
And now they sue somebody cause a word they use looks like one of the names of their characters. It would be funny if it wasn't so stupid.
"Son, in a sporting event, it's not whether you win or lose, it's how drunk you get" - Homer J. Simpson
When the stories were translated into English, they changed some of the names -- asterisk and obelisk are valid English words too, so they stayed the same, but many of the other characters got renamed so the (awful) puns would still work. For example:
... and this one I didn't understand for years ...
Vitalstatistx was the (rather fat) chief of the village.
Dogmatix was Asterix's dog.
Unhygenix was the village fishmonger.
Fullyautomatix was the village blacksmith.
Getafix was the village druid (who cooked up the magic potion for our heroes).
Lots more names, but those are the main ones that changed in English, I believe.
I can totally see how a mobile phone could be mistaken for a good natured fat guy who likes to beat up romans and eat wild boar.
</sarcasm>
When will the insanity end? Mobilix, despite being in a totally different market, gets the shaft, but Lindows, which was intentionally named in order to draw in Windows customers, is OK?
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.