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AOL Sues Over "You've Got Male"
A reader sent us today's stupid
lawsuit. AOL is suing a Denver-area woman to get her to stop using the phrase "You've Got Male" in her book to online dating. *sigh* Put your own pithy comment about stupid lawsuits here.
I used to be a cab driver and I used the phrase "Where do you want to go Today?" a lot. Way before Microsoft started using it. If AOL can sue so can I.
Cab drivers of the world unite. We could start a class action suit against Microsoft.
This screams stupidity yet again. Do we remember this?
1) Unix has said "You have mail" for a long time.
2) AOL has never gone after the people who parody them on The Simpsons, etc.
3) As usual in these cases (such as WB against their FANS), AOL is trying to sue someone for parody.
The problem isn't whether this woman meant it to cause harm to AOL or not, but whether AOL has a right to restrict the use of a phrase they don't even own! Since the words "mail" and "male" are completely different, and merely homonyms, this lends me to believe AOL's assertation will be this book serves to "confuse the public" or somesuch. Such confusion would be hard to find:
1) The book will be in the "self help" section.
2) Books about AOL are not.
3) Any 1st grader knows the difference between "mail" and "male"
To me this "small potatoes" bookwriter is not worth their time.
Lowmag.net