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Barney Surrenders To the EFF
davidwr writes, "Earlier this year, EFF sued the Barney the Dinosaur people for harassing a Barney parody web site. Well, Barney finally surrendered, err I mean, learned to share. For more, read the case history at the EFF site."
oh, and if you have tried to trademark 'Good Thing' don't worry, I won't sue....
Its good to see the EFF winning anytime... everyone should support them
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
The EFF actually won a case? What, did they get new lawyers or something?
How we know is more important than what we know.
Someone get these lawyers on the RIAA's case. The sooner we're rid of copyright abuses, the sooner we can put a sane system in place. Though the other way around may work better.
Actually enforcing fair use is a good start.
Care about privacy? Read this!
I love you, you love me,
This is bestiality...
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
"... Conditioned upon the parties' compliance with the terms and conditions of this Agreement, the parties, and their respective officers, directors, agents, servants, employees, parents, subsidiaries, affiliated companies, attorneys, successors and assigns, hereby release each other from any and all claims, demands, damages, losses, liabilities, rights or causes of action, including but not limited to any claim for attorneys fees, arising out of or relating to the Action and/or the allegations asserted therein. ..."
Reading this please make your own conclusions about the inner structure of the underlying legal system (IMAGINE YOU WOULD STRUCTURE CODE THE SAME WAY!).
cc.
TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
No, Kerry, you're doomed to second.
Quoth Judge Smails: "Well, the world needs ditch diggers, too."
It was his lawyers that surrendered, those damn slackers.. Barney will be out kicking ass and giving hugs in no time.
I quote the famous barney addage:
I guess Barney is one of those Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde kind of guys with a split personality. While he sings sweet happy songs to young children who absolutely adore him, he has a darkside he shows to those who don't like him. When someone doesn't respect the lines "We're best friends like friends should be", and "Won't you say you love me TOO", the big purple dinosaur sends them the not-so cuddly wrath of the purple-D's lawyer team.
I thought Barney was a parody? Isn't a parody website redudant?
http://www.textfiles.com/art/barney.txt ...Subliminal Barney has spoken. (anyone remember this classic?)
--Rob
Towards the Singularity.
...because this case had no basis.
Even though I really hate Britney Spears, I must admit that before she got pregnant, she actually looked kind of hot. However, after she got pregnant, she gradually turned into a monstrosity (or was it years of lyrical and systematic infection of our American youth finally striking back...?). If the value premise of the case were true, that meant that if I used Photoshop to exaggerate her hideous appearance to blatant unrealistic proportions, then posted it back on my MySpace, I have used the image of Britney Spears illegally under copyright law and will be subjected to all sorts of governmental discipline. Does this make any sense?
I'm glad that the court realized the flawed logic of this case. It would have been a shame if that person had to pay some consequence solely for using merely the image of a character humorously (or not). I knew the dinosaur had some evil in it...
You know ive had one of the shittiest days
;)
in my life, this made me laugh out loud..
i dont know why...
but thanks
I hate you, you hate me, we all hate tele-tubbies.. do I owe the that old man some money now?
who thought of the policeman from Half-Life 2 before reading the summary?
Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
and have a big sloppy hug from Me to You!
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Agreed on Britney. I don't even recognize her face any more. Just look at these. Looks nothing like her in the second pic.
"Piracy" copyright infringement means that you are unlawfully stepping over somebody's exclusive "right to copy", that is, to produce duplicates of a work. When the RIAA sues (whether with merit or not) they claim that you are illegally making a copy of something for which you don't have the right to reproduce. If I download a song from a P2P network for which I didn't pay the legal copyright holder for the rights to do so, then I'm breaking the law because I created a copy without authorization.
If I make a copy of a CD that I purchased through legal channels (including second-hand purchases) and then make a copy of that its fair use.
Parody is somewhat different because I'd be producing a copy or an altered copy of something in order to make a statement. In this case, what matters is not the copy itself but the intent. In the case of the music it's the other way around because one wants to have an exact replica of the "original".
Please, if you reply to this, take into account that I'm not saying whether I'm for or against the status quo, merely trying to depict it.
+Raider of the lost BBS
Making fun of a silly children's character is an important right we wouldn't want to lose. I'm glad they didn't spend their time and money on less important issues.
I've got you both beat. My first mental image was of Barney Fife furiously trying to load his single bullet into his revolver, dropping it, then throwing his hands into the air in front of a bunch of suit-clad agent types.
Original Barney FTW.
Fill in your four or five-letter word of wisdom here _ _ _ _ _.
It's their copyright, why can't they sue?
Mod me to -1: Flamebait all you want, but I don't care. I think it's absolutely stupid when someone sues over a copyright violation (which they are more than entitled to do), and the entire internet community goes "omg, information/music/images/barney should be free, no suing." Now of course I don't necessarily agree with this particular case; it was stupid to be suing over a parody site, and I do believe that parodies have a certain level of artistic freedom, but they do need to tread the line carefully between parodying something and defacement of that something.
Basically, I thought it a stupid case, but a perfectly legitimate case nonetheless.
... because it's very thorough, covers all the bases for a way around exclutions. if only more coders were so diligent.
take a look at a security update pach some time, in many cases the diff shows 5 lines of original code expanding to 10-15 lines of "secure" code, just to prevent a single type of exploit. that legalese manages to cover 11 types of expoits, if you will, in one single sentance. nice, i say.
- Disclaimer: Information in this post deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
At the time, the web site (for stupid, complicated reasons) was registered in my father's name. So, imagine my old man's surprise when one day HE gets a letter from Barney's lawyer threatening (purple) fire and brimstone. Without much of a good alternative, we caved. I was really, really mad, and I suppose that I still am. To this day, it's the only legal 'trouble' that any of my web sites have stirred up, which is actually somewhat surprising.
Now that someone has finally stood up to the purple bully, can I finally dig into my old backups and put up the page of Barney jokes again? Whether or not Barney jokes are still relevant at the end of 2006, I suppose that I should, merely on principle.
...you love me, we're best friends like friends should be. Or apparently NOT!
Dang, Barney, follow some of your own lessons. If my 18-month-old didn't love that purple freak so much, I'd be putting up a boycott. But as any parent of an 18-month-old will agree, anything that makes them happy is worth it.
:q!
I truly thought I would never live to see the day,
I mean actually witness,
SOMEBODY pulling FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS OUT OF A DINOSAUR'S ASS!
I can die in peace now.
"A microprocessor... is a terrible thing to waste." --
GeneralEmergency
The site they're talking about seems pretty harmless (and even a little immature), but I guess the case isn't about one particular site as it is about setting a precedent. Still, I think it's kind of silly that a bunch of high-powered lawyers spent so much time arguing about a Barney parody page.
I'm glad the EFF won, and I'm glad the EFF exists, but there have to be more important problems to spend time and money on than this one - like human rights and hunger, to name a few. Nothing against the EFF... it's just that this whole case rates a 9 on the WTF? meter.
I produce electronic music and write little games. Have a look.
All they needed was a sing-a-long. The one Barney episode I remember being forced to watch (in 1998 or so) had a part in it where he said:
"Everyone wins with a Sing-A-Long!"
I've been tormenting my friends (and fellow US Marines*) with that phrase ever since..
(*yes really - 2171 Electro-Optics Repair, USMC 1st Battalion/8th Marines, Camp LeJeune NC, H&S Co. You would probably be suprised at the looks and laughs it gets to this day..)
=)
Sir Charles Barkley.
This sig will self destruct in 5 seconds.
By contrast when you see the kids run into Miss Hooley's school in Ballamory (for example), you know those kids really think they're meeting Miss Hooley for real. Or Sesame Street which had a few actors but usually had plenty who weren't, who really thought they were talking to Big Bird. There is something more powerful and innocent about that kind of kids TV.
In summary Barney and his massive marketing machine sucks.
Barney is the Anti-Christ! I have this information from a highly reliable source... A security guard in front of a Barney display in the Las Vegas Hilton circa 1989. We saw the Barney display, said "No, not Barney!" and made the sign of the cross. The security guard calls us over and, after looking around to ensure no one else could hear whispered this information to us. Needless to say, we were ROFLOAO (rolling on the floor laughing our a__es off).
They better watch their ass! Barney's one mean bastard when you piss 'em off.
Ean St Eian
boingboing.net shows Barney getting his tail beat by some guy with a clever nick name, at an EFF function.
How about everyone take a minute to go become a member of the EFF? I just paid the 25 bucks. I would imagine a couple hundred slashdotters paying 15-25 bucks each (15 for a student) would help with their other projects as well. You will also get a cool sticker (I did). It's tax-deductible!
Grandpa: My Homer is not a communist. He may be a liar, a pig, an idiot, a communist, but he is not a porn star.