Brad Templeton sends along the following:
Two years ago, rec.humor.funny published a sick satire of the Mastercard
“Priceless” ads (There are some things money can’t buy, for everything
else there’s Mastercard) based around the Columbine tragedy. I won’t repeat
it here, since it was pretty sick and offensive, though you can find it
on the web site at:
http://www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/99/Apr/columbine.html
Today we received a “cease and desist” letter from Mastercard’s lawyers
demanding that the parody be removed from our web site, falsely claiming
it violates their trademarks and copyrights, in spite of the well
established rules protecting satire and parody from such attacks.
The letter can be found at
http://www.netfunny.com/rhf/price.html
Here, however, is my response…
Web site hosting for anybody: $10/month and up
Threatening letters to people who satirize you, hoping
they won’t know the law: $500Reputation as giant corporation required to intimidate
small publishers: $billionsSupreme court decisions protecting parody and
satire from accusations of copyright and
trademark infringement: PricelessThere are some rights money can’t buy. For everything
else, there’s Mastercard’s lawyers.