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Apple Forces Steve Jobs Action Figure Off eBay
Hugh Pickens writes "Kevin Parrish writes in Tom's Guide that last month, just in time for Christmas holiday gift-giving, M.I.C. Gadget began the manufacture and sale of a Steve Jobs action figure featuring an oversized head, Steve's trademark black shirt/blue jeans outfit, and a new iPhone 4 like a magical world-saving talisman in Jobs' left hand. The action figure, selling for $79.90, came with an Apple logo stand and cartoon balloons for writing custom messages. Soon a warning letter from Apple stated that the figurine violated a California statute prohibiting the use of a person's likeness in a product without prior authorization and sales ceased. But shortly after production stopped, the figurines began to appear on eBay selling for up to $2,500. Now Apple's lawyers have raided the online marketplace, zeroing in on one Canadian eBay seller who had already sold the figurine for $1,125 and eBay has removed other listings, telling sellers that the object for sale 'violates a celebrity's right of publicity.'"
And I was going to buy one to stick pins in!
Perhaps we can still use it here on Slashdot, as the icon for Apple stories.
If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
Completely on target. As a Sarah Palin supporter, I'm really looking forward to when strong protections against character use like this become the norm. Celebrities like Sarah need to be able to control when their image is used and what is said about them. Think about how much better our political process would be if presidential candidates could expunge anything negative said about them or any negative use of their image. We would have never had to find out that Sarah doesn't know what newspapers she reads. And the world would be a better place. There are going to be whiners who say that it limits speech but who cares.
I think they did a good job capturing his essence. http://imgur.com/hMuXQ.jpg
Obviously, his sig was being played by William Shatner.