Penny Arcade vs. American Greetings Revisited

Jojo writes "After American Greetings got some lawyers to bring down a Penny Arcade strip (M i r r o r) last week, PA is now striking back.. IANAL, but I fear their latest strip might get them into real trouble this time." As always, PA cracks me up, but these are scary events. The banned strip is clearly a work of parody, which I believe is still legal in this country, unless that too changed recently.

Comments

Who was the target?

[IIRCAFAIKIANAL]

The problem is that they were parodying American McGee by using a registered trademark. They clearly weren't parodying Strawberry Shortcake - if they were, it would be more clear cut. Not that we wouldn't see a C&D letter anyways...

For the record though, I love PA and hope they make it through ok. And you just have to respect em for making a stink even if they did pull the offending strip originally. They're as subtle as a heart attack :)

Re:Who was the target?

[autopr0n]

Parody is well and good, but when you parody someone for profit it's something different. Free Use does allow for parody, but the Courts have generaly heald that when you profit financialy from a parody you need to pay for the rights to what you're mocking.

What the hell are you talking about? This is absolutely and completely wrong! Can you even cite one case that fits your description?

Mirror of the new strip

[Motherfucking Shit]

Today's PA comic

Re:Can someone explain?

[Randolpho]

American Greetings currently (I think) holds the copyright for Strawberry Shortcake. If you click on one of the mirrors, you'll see Penny Arcade's take on American McGee's *next* game, in which Ms. Shortcake is quite the little sadist.

So American Greetings is essently protecting their copyrights to Strawberry Shortcake. Groundlessly, because as the article stated, it's a work of parody. The funny thing is, it's *supposed* to be a poking fun at American McGee. I'm sure PA was prepared for any backlash from them. Getting hammered by a greeting card company probably surprised PA quite a bit.

And, to top it off, PA is now getting hit with a slashdotting, as if PA didn't already have bandwidth problems!

Comic Book Legal Defense Fund

[Lothar 0]

I looks like they're seeking legal aid from the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. If the little guy can't defend himself in court against the big boys, then there should be someone else who can. They also protect Japanese and American manga artists and sellers. I joined, and so should you.

How to fight lawsuit abuse in general

[Nova Express]

For general information on curbing all sorts of lawsuit abuses across the country, you might want to take a look at the American Tort Reform Association.

Re:They deserve it.

[UCRowerG]

It looks like the lawsuit is totally justified. The Strawberry Shortcake comic is damaging to the trademark-holder's reputation, and the US has an enforce it or lose it trademark system.

This only applies if the user attemtps to pass their own work off as the original. US Copyright law permits the parody of works as long as the derivative can be easily seen as a parody. And since this strip wasn't intended to be seen by Strawberry Shortcake's prime audience (little girls), I don't think American Greetings has an actual case here.

of course the usual disclaimer: ianal but have seen them on tv

Email from American Greetings

[rudeboy1]

I did my patriotic (read-rabid PA fan) duty, and wrote Miss Rinda Vas a letter, telling her what bad idea this all was and everything. I got a fairly swift response, including an "original" letter written to the PA staff. Email addresses have been removed to protect the innocent...

Email sent Wed. 4/23--

there is no legal action against them ... fyi ...

-----Original Message-----
From: RV Rinda Vas (1328)
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2003 9:32 AM
To: Subject: RE: Trademark infringement, misuse

Thank you for your immediate attention to this matter. We note that the
cartoon has been removed.

I am receiving a good amount of e-mails from the penny-arcade subscribers
asking why American Greetings asked you to pull the cartoon. Unfortunately I
do not have the resources to respond to them individually so I am passing
the answer on to all of you. On April 17, 2003, American Greetings received
a complaint about the cartoon namely that it was "creepy" and "offensive."
Thereafter, we asked you to remove it.

Note that the target audience for Strawberry is young females (indeed young
children). And we do receive complaints from parents and the like over
cartoons like yours.

So there you have it.

-----Original Message-----
From: Ryan
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2003 3:55 PM
To:
Subject: Please Cease and Desist

Dear Rinda Vas-
I am writing to you, as I am sure are many others, to implore you to stop
your legal action against Penny Arcade and its creators. As you may or may
not be aware, the actions your company has taken against Penny Arcade has
already publicized the original event much more than the comic's web site
ever would have. Furthermore, several websites have made note of this
issue, spreading the issue to more people, not usually associated with the
normal Penny Arcade crowd. Feel free to read the articles posted on
http://slashdot.org, and other such sites. At Slashdot, you will see the
forum that follows every article. Within said forum, you will note a
resoundingly negative response to your decision to take legal action. There
is even a petition out to boycott your company. The last time I checked
that site, the petition was drawing near the 10,000 mark, and climbing.
I am not going to threaten you, or swear at you, as I am sure many others
are doing, regarding this issue, but I have to advise you that, from all
evidence available, what you are doing does not seem like a smart move. I
think you might do well to look into options for reaching a quiet agreement
with the owners of Penny Arcade. I am sure they will be happy to make this
legal action go away with as little public notice as possible. My advice to
you is to try to save face, as your company stands to lose a large amount of
business and public appeal by pursuing this petty issue. Thanks for your
time.

Ryan

Re:Clearly Parody, But....

[PurpleFloyd]

But they were targeting American McGee, and his method of taking childhood fantasy (Alice in Wonderland, Oz) and adding blood, gore and a bit of S&M. I really don't see how Strawberry Shortcake was a target in this; the joke would have remained the same if it was a different character in the bondage gear. Thus, American Greetings has a leg to stand on in court: PA was not parodying Strawberry Shortcake, and could have just as easily used a different character.

Said it before: simple boycott

[Galvatron]

I said this the first time this was posted, but for those that missed it: if this upsets you, don't buy American Greetings or Carlton Cards for Mother's day (a bit over 2 weeks away). That's it, pretty simple. Maybe it'll have an impact, maybe it won't. But it's SO easy to do, that we ought to at least make that much of an effort.

If you don't normally buy cards anyway, well good for you, you don't need to reply to this telling me about how you're superior because of it. Maybe you'd like to buy a Hallmark card anyway, just so that AGC's market share as a percentage of money spent on greeting cards this month falls, maybe not, up to you. But for those of you who were planning on buying a card for your mother anyway, how about checking the brand on the back first?

Re:Admirable pluck...

[cptgrudge]

Are you offering to foot their legal bills?

If you truly do want to help, go to the Club PA section of their site and contribute. It's real money like this that pays the bills folks. Plus you get cool stuff every month for being a member!

I am in no way affiliated with PA. I just love the site.

The issue is Strawberry Shortcake, not the style.

[Mr Z]

According to the USPTO website, the Strawberry Shortcake mark is owned by "Those Characters From Cleveland, Inc." Those Characters From Cleveland appears to license their marks to American Greetings or is a subsidiary. I haven't found a page that explicitly mentions their relationship. (Note: I think USPTO query links 'expire.' You can always search again using TESS.

According to this link, it looks like American Greetings, Those Characters From Cleveland, and Rinda Vas have previously gone after alleged violations of their marks. (In the linked page, the case appears to be a reasonable attack against a domain squatter.)

--Joe

Re:Polymer City

[wikthemighty]

Polymer City Chronicles is doing it too...

Re:Clearly Parody, But....

[42forty-two42]

Well, if slashdot posted a direct link to the donations page...