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Wal-Mart Parody Site Censored by DMCA

Posted by Zonk on from the always-low-opinion dept.

davidwr writes "Wal-Mart used the Digital Millenium Copyright Act to temporarily shut down a university student's parody of the Wal-Mart Foundation." The story's details are also available via BusinessWeek. From the article: "Papasian launched the Web site April 16 for an art class at Carnegie Mellon University called 'Parasitic Media.' The class teaches students about the political uses of satire in the media. He acknowledged using Wal-Mart's graphics on his Web site but said he believed he could use the images as part of a parody."

2 of 469 comments (clear)

  1. From TFA by Kagura · · Score: 0, Redundant

    "The goal was to make the site look like it could be a real site from a company like Wal-Mart, but have text that was so ridiculous that anyone who read it would realize that it was absurd," Papasian said in a statement on his revamped Web site. "If anyone believed it to be a real Wal-Mart site, that is only a testament to the degree of absurdity that exists within corporate America today."

    Wal-Mart claimed Papasian violated copyright law and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by improperly using images from the real Wal-Mart Foundation's Web site -- http://www.walmartfoundation.org./

    Papasian said he closed the site for five days so he could remove the offending graphics. In place of the images, Papasian has put the word "censored."

  2. Better case by mattmentecky · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I think the guy would have a better case if the domain names werent so similar.

    Is it reasonable to suspect someone mistaken the parody site for the reason one, a difference in a hyphen? I can't answer that, I dunno.

    But given the average/stereo-typical intellectuality of a Wal-Mart customer.... :-p