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Canon Tries To Shut Down "Fake" Canon Blog

Posted by kdawson on from the what-part-of-fake-do-you-not-understand dept.

Thomas Hawk writes "An interesting twist over at the Fake Chuck Westfall Blog. Fake Chuck (like Fake Steve before him) has a blog out parodying Canon's real Technical Information Advisor Chuck Westfall. It seems that Canon and their lawyers over at Loeb & Loeb are none too fond of all the fun that Fake Chuck and DSLR geeks everywhere have been having at their expense and have sent Fake Chuck's blog hosting company, WordPress, a notice to take the blog down. Canon's lawyers cite that Fake Chuck's blog is 'calculated to mislead recipients,' even though the blog has 'fake' in the title, 'fake' in the URL and 'fake' just about everywhere else in the blog. What in the heck is wrong with Canon? Do they really think that trying to shut down a parody blog is going to make their new 5D Mark II ship any faster?" After Fake Chuck removed the Canon logo from his site, WordPress is standing behind him and has rebuffed Canon's demand.

5 of 125 comments (clear)

  1. Bad Summary by the+eric+conspiracy · · Score: 5, Informative

    The take down letter asked for 4 things:

    1. Stop using the Canon logo.
    2. Remove references to violence.
    3. Remove references to Chuck's family.
    4. Changes to the look and feel of the blog so it would not be
    confused with actual Canon corporate sites.

    It wasn't a totally unreasonable blanket take-down demand, and as such Fake Chuck will easily be able to comply and continue as a source of satire and humor.

    1. Re:Bad Summary by rcw-home · · Score: 4, Informative

      I looked at the PDF of the takedown. Yes, it mentioned those four things as "particularly egregious" but it was a blanket take-down demand. Let's examine the basis they list for their complaint and their demand:

      http://fakechuckwestfall.wordpress.com/ (the "Blog") - is using our client's trademark and Mr. Westfall's name and likeness without authorization

      Accordingly, we hereby demand that you immediately remove the above-mentioned objectionable and harmful content from your website, as well as terminate the Blog author's account.

      (emphasis mine)

      If Wordpress hadn't exhibited some common sense, Fake Chuck would have had to find a new home.

  2. Re:You'd think by now... by Stuart+Gibson · · Score: 4, Informative

    He's not pretending to be a real person other than himself, he's pretending to be a fake person other than himself

    --
    It's all fun and games until a 200' robot dinosaur shows up and trashes Neo-Tokyo... Again
  3. I would not even have removed the logo by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 5, Informative

    since using it in obvious parody is protected fair use.

  4. Re:You'd think by now... by Miseph · · Score: 4, Informative

    "Also, but I'm not sure if it's because of my browser's ineptitude, posting something to undo moderation doesn't give you the modpoints back."

    That is intentional, check the moderation FAQ. The stated reason is that it allows an abusive mod to mod up/down a post in a new article, then post once it comes off the front page (making it a lot less important) and get the points back to use again.

    --
    Try not to take me more seriously than I take myself.