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EFF Sues Barney Producers over Spoof Sites

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the can't-we-all-just-get-along dept.

PetManimal writes "The Electronic Frontier Foundation is suing the company that produces 'Barney and Friends' for harassing the creator of a Barney parody Web site. Barney producers Lyons Partnership has threatened lawsuits over the past few years against Stuart Frankel and his parody site, actions which the EFF says violates freedom of speech and fair use laws. The parody site contains doctored images of Barney, and claims the purple dinosaur is the Antichrist. From the article: 'Lyons Partnership has sent multiple cease-and-desist letters to Frankel for a Web page that includes a depiction of the fuzzy purple dinosaur as Satan. In an October letter, Lyons demands that Frankel immediately take down copyrighted images of Barney. The company threatens to take legal action or contact Frankel's Internet service provider if he doesn't comply.'"

6 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. So will I be sued for my Hulk stuff? by Hulkster · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I've got a mish-mash of Hulk Stuff up on my site - will these type of people threaten a lawsuit against me ... or just SMASH?!?

    P.S. Satire is protected speech - doesn't that apply here in the Barney case?

  2. Did the lawyers read the dmca law? by tinkertim · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If these guys even glanced at the DMCA laws they would kick themselves in the legal checkbook. Anyone who operates a hosting company , even one on the side knows when the formal DMCA notice arrives, you must yank the site unless the owner can furnish a court ruling allowing it to exist. Depending on your upstream provider, some will go to bat if you can show your client is at least in litigation with the complaining party .. and wait for the outcome, but that's rare. Anyone hosted in infomart (or on level3, cogent, willtell , etc bandwidth) or any other 'cafeteria style' DC is under a yank-first-and-ask-questions-later policy.

    That being said, such a court ruling would almost be automatic. Parody sites are protected, I helped one of my clients stand up against the big bad e-bay and they won. I'd post a link, but .. well I don't feel like going to the DC with a fire extinguisher to put out the nic :)

    I've never, ever seen someone threaten to go to the isp *last* .. how did this feeble gray matter manage to cook up something that took over children's television for years?

    At this point their lawyers saying anything other than "Duh!" would be almost as comical as the parody itself.

    What a world.

    1. Re:Did the lawyers read the dmca law? by jafiwam · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I was under the impression it was a "take it down till the site operator tells the host they are taking care of it".

      Basically, forcing the host to be a pass through of information or just to take it down. Effectively removing the host as a protector of the site. (I.e. "we just host it, you need to contact the webmaster" while the webmaster has no available contacts and is trying to remain anonymous.)

      The operator does NOT need to show proof of anything other than that they are aware of the notice the host recieved and that they are contesting it. So "no, it's not a violation, put it back." is good enough.

      At that point, the host is out of it and it's between the operator and the person or company that is complaining. Otherwise, you are asking the host to act as an agent of the court, or to BE the court.

  3. Speaking about the Antichrist angle... by T_ConX · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I found this on Wikipedia...

    1. Barney is well-described with the following phrase:
    CUTE PURPLE DINOSAUR
    2. The old Latin alphabet used the letter 'V' in place of 'U', therefore the above phrase is modified to:
    CVTE PVRPLE DINOSAVR
    3. Letters that do not represent Roman numerals are removed:
    CV-- -V--L- DI----V-
    4. Add up the Roman numerals of the remaining letters:
    C + V + V + L + D + I + V
    100 + 5 + 5 + 50 + 500 + 1 + 5 = 666, which is the Number of the Beast.
    5. Therefore, Barney is considered Satan.

    HA! Because Numerology is TOTALY admisable in court!

  4. BarneySplat! by Yonder+Way · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I remember hanging out at ASCII Express's place during the BBS days. I ran a local BBS and so did he. AE had a special place in his heart for Barney and came up with a great door game that can be run as a standalone game in DOS as well. Anyone remember playing BarneySplat!?

    Someone should put that in a VMware image so everyone today can enjoy it.

  5. Re:Barney's got a brand new bag by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting
    Does that rhyme?

    No.

    But this guy should get in touch with the guy who did the video animations of Barbie getting bent over the (top down) back seat of her BarbieMobile (prolly tm) by Ken. Along with many other hilarious sexual exploits. Barbie's legal bitches went after him, but the judge sided with the maker of the parody videos.