Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

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.

2 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.

  2. 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.