Danger, Wil Wheaton (Donna Wentworth)
Danger, Wil Wheaton (Donna Wentworth): "
It looks like Barney is back for a second round in the fair use fight, but in the past four years, the ground rules have changed a bit.
Barney's lawyers at the New York firm of Gibney, Anthony and Flaherty sent stiff warning letters last week to Web sites displaying less-than-flattering images of the plump saurian.'Your Web site depicts a plush Barney toy in a violent manner or position,' Matthew Carlin wrote Tuesday on behalf of Lyons Partnership, which owns the Barney trademark. 'We are writing to request that you remove this violent content toward Barney on your Web site.' [...]
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco civil liberties group providing legal representation to Frankel, dismisses the legal threats as nonsense. 'I think that Barney is unfortunately looking like he's becoming a recidivist in phony copyright claims,' said Cindy Cohn, EFF's legal director.
In 2001, EFF took on Barney's lawyers after they sent out similar cease-and-desist letters. At the time, Cohn wrote back saying that anti-Barney screeds were protected by the First Amendment rights to publish parodies, and Barney's owners never pursued the matter further.
Since then, the EFF managed to break new legal ground by forcing voting machine maker Diebold to write a check to settle allegations of copyright misuse. 'We were very happy to cash that check for $125,000 from Diebold when they made phony copyright claims,' Cohn said. 'I'd be happy to cash one from Barney.'
The Diebold reference is explained here; Wil Wheaton reference here. These photos ought to give Barney a few more reasons to be shaking in his boots, eh?"
(Via Copyfight.)