Penny Arcade vs. American Greetings

ferrocene writes "Penny Arcade's American Mcgee/Strawberry Shortcake spoof posted last Monday was pulled because someone at American Greetings got wind of it and set their lawyers on them. PA's forums are abuzz with activity. I'm pro-funny, myself."

Comments

Isn't it protected?

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought copyright law had exemptions for satire and humour.

If it didn't, how could anyone talk about anything?

Hope the lawsuit gets thrown out, if there is one

[Junior J. Junior III]

American Greetings needs to get a grip. Parody is a legitimate form of Fair Use.

Didn't you get the memo?

[truthsearch]

You didn't get the memo? There is no more fair use for anything electronic any more.

Fair Use

[Pharmboy]

I am so god damned tired of companies doing this. Fair use allows parody as long as the use does not cause confusion in the market place, ie: as long as it is obvious that it is parody and not the same 'product'. We have been in and out on similar but different fair use of a trademark ourselves, and finally got the company to see the light.

As much as I hate lawyers (and who doesn't?) it appears we need a new case or two at the highest level to reaffirm our rights to fair use in parody.

Re:Fair Use

[Kanon]

All AGC have done in getting Gabe and Tycho to pull the pic is cause it to be distributed far and wide across the net as fast as it's little meme legs will carry it.

Now *that's* justice :)

Re:Hope the lawsuit gets thrown out, if there is o

[questamor]

Sucks to be them

What was the purpose of getting the image pulled - to stop people seeing a ripoff of their product/image/whatever

Now the story's on 2 places online, has the attention of the slashdot crowd, and shall be mirrored in dozens of places it never would have gotten to.

Thanks guys - I wouldn't have seen it if you hadn't wanted it pulled!

That'll teach 'em a lesson

[wiggys]

It's quite ironic that a company threatens to sue in order to have a fairly innocent piece of satire taken down, and by doing they draw more attention to it than if they'd just left things alone.

It's now on Slashdot and the cartoon is being mirrored all over the place... can't ask for more publicity than that!

It's not a parody of Strawberry Whatshername...

[kahei]

It's a parody of American McGee (or maybe of the flood of crap pseudo-gothic grotesquerie of which he forms but a small part). It just happens to refer to Strawberry Thingy.

Sorry, I'm so pedantic I just had to point that out, because some people seem to have the impression that it's a really childish parody of Strawberry Doodad. Whereas in fact it's an okay (but not hilarious) parody of American 'Alice' McGee and his belief that giving anything at all a big fanged grin and some pseudo-bondage chic will make it entertaining.

This is of course a false belief, similar to the belief (popular in Asia and, I'm told, elsewhere) that giving something cat ears, a cat tail, and enormous big eyes makes it automatically entertaining.

Not the target

[greenjinjo]

And the sad thing is: American Greetings were not even the target of the parody. That honor goes to American (coincidence?) McGee. Looks to me like they didn't even bother to read the site.

Re:Weird Al Yankovic Interview

[CastrTroy]

Had he instead written a new melody to go along with his altered lyrics, I think he might not have needed to ask permission.

Had he done the above, I believe he would have written an entirely original song, and there would obviously be no need to get permission.

Re:Hope the lawsuit gets thrown out, if there is o

[Andy_R]

I understand your legal point, but surely PA's drawing IS a parody of American Greeting's original character?

It clearly picks out the absurdity of the original's cuteness and lack of sex-appeal and the fact that the character never grows up or misbehaves, and parodies these points by giving her curves, age and a bad attitude.

If the references to Mr McGee were removed, the comic would still function as a humorous visual parody of the work American Greetings is claiming it infringes.

I suggest PA put the picture back up, but change the words to read "What if Strawberry Shortcake was as nasty as American Greeting's Lawyers?"

This would clearly be a parody of the material in question.