Penny Arcade vs. American Greetings 496
ferrocene writes "Penny Arcade's American Mcgee/Strawberry Shortcake spoof posted last Monday was pulled because someone at American Greetings got wind of it and set their lawyers on them. PA's forums are abuzz with activity. I'm pro-funny, myself."
Isn't it protected? (Score:5, Insightful)
If it didn't, how could anyone talk about anything?
Hope the lawsuit gets thrown out, if there is one (Score:5, Insightful)
Didn't you get the memo? (Score:5, Insightful)
Fair Use (Score:5, Insightful)
As much as I hate lawyers (and who doesn't?) it appears we need a new case or two at the highest level to reaffirm our rights to fair use in parody.
Re:Hope the lawsuit gets thrown out, if there is o (Score:5, Insightful)
What was the purpose of getting the image pulled - to stop people seeing a ripoff of their product/image/whatever
Now the story's on 2 places online, has the attention of the slashdot crowd, and shall be mirrored in dozens of places it never would have gotten to.
Thanks guys - I wouldn't have seen it if you hadn't wanted it pulled!
That'll teach 'em a lesson (Score:5, Insightful)
It's now on Slashdot and the cartoon is being mirrored all over the place... can't ask for more publicity than that!
It's not a parody of Strawberry Whatshername... (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a parody of American McGee (or maybe of the flood of crap pseudo-gothic grotesquerie of which he forms but a small part). It just happens to refer to Strawberry Thingy.
Sorry, I'm so pedantic I just had to point that out, because some people seem to have the impression that it's a really childish parody of Strawberry Doodad. Whereas in fact it's an okay (but not hilarious) parody of American 'Alice' McGee and his belief that giving anything at all a big fanged grin and some pseudo-bondage chic will make it entertaining.
This is of course a false belief, similar to the belief (popular in Asia and, I'm told, elsewhere) that giving something cat ears, a cat tail, and enormous big eyes makes it automatically entertaining.
Not the target (Score:4, Insightful)
And the sad thing is: American Greetings were not even the target of the parody. That honor goes to American (coincidence?) McGee. Looks to me like they didn't even bother to read the site.
Re:There's a boycott (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I'm pro funny too... (Score:1, Insightful)
If you had read the strip in it's original setting and read the accompanying explanation(as al PA readers would have), the intent and message would have been clear - that it was a parody, and not even on Strawberry Shortcake/AG.
It was the action by them (and subsequent reaction of the PA fans) that might have led you to misunderstand the message of the comic.
etc.
Dispepsi (Score:4, Insightful)
It's only a parody if it only promotes the brand. Never EVER harm the brand. You can speak out against your corporate masters as long as it projects their product in a positive light.
Re:Think of the children. (Score:2, Insightful)
-MDL
Re:Weird Al Yankovic Interview (Score:3, Insightful)
I think Weird Al and his hillarious music is a different kettle of fish alltogether; after all, he almost always uses the original music (even if he seems fond of adding some accordion) and changes the lyrics - thus retainign a significant portion of the original work. Had he instead written a new melody to go along with his altered lyrics, I think he might not have needed to ask permission.
Besides, which recordlabel would have dared publish his records if he hand't had permission in the first place?
Voting with my wallet this Mom's Day (Score:2, Insightful)
I am disappointed in your response to Penny Arcade's (http://www.penny-arcade.com) spoof of American McGee's Alice game by using Strawberry Shortcake characters. When I was young, Strawberry Shortcake was my favorite cartoon. I watched it on tv, had all the toys, and even had the bedroom set. Rather than overreacting when I saw Penny Arcade's use of the characters in their spoof, I saw if for the humor and the fun they were poking at American McGee, not Strawberry Shortcake. As a consumer of your products, I see no problem with that comic and would request that you stop harassing/threatening Penny Arcade. They aren't rich like your company and can't afford to defend themselves against corporate bullying. Please recognize humor for what it is, that they're not hurting you, and that you're not gaining yourselves any fans or new customers with this action. In fact, due to the issue's coverage on Slashdot (http://slashdot.org), you are more likely to LOSE customers and support. We vote with our wallets, and with a bunch of holidays coming up, do you really want us to switch to another greeting company because of a silly comic? I'm sure Hallmark will be sending you a thankyou card soon; maybe you'll get lucky and it'll be an American Greetings card.
Re:Weird Al Yankovic Interview (Score:5, Insightful)
Had he done the above, I believe he would have written an entirely original song, and there would obviously be no need to get permission.
Re:Fair Use (Score:5, Insightful)
Now *that's* justice
Re:Mirror that won't get slashdotted: (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Hope the lawsuit gets thrown out, if there is o (Score:5, Insightful)
It clearly picks out the absurdity of the original's cuteness and lack of sex-appeal and the fact that the character never grows up or misbehaves, and parodies these points by giving her curves, age and a bad attitude.
If the references to Mr McGee were removed, the comic would still function as a humorous visual parody of the work American Greetings is claiming it infringes.
I suggest PA put the picture back up, but change the words to read "What if Strawberry Shortcake was as nasty as American Greeting's Lawyers?"
This would clearly be a parody of the material in question.
Re:Hope the lawsuit gets thrown out, if there is o (Score:2, Insightful)
Because "redundant" is a stupid moderation. Most people load the story page once and read all (maybe not ALL...) of the comments on that page without hitting reload, so by the time they respond to something halfway through, others may have posted the same thing, but you can't see it because the page you are reading is 10 minutes old. That and the fact that the same argument can be used in many different places in the comment threads.
Re:My email to the company (Score:3, Insightful)
American Greetings is an international greeting card, candle, and merchandise company that sells far more than just Strawberry Shortcake merchandise. Plenty of adults buy their greeting cards for special occasions and I doubt that their primary market for candles is six year old children in Toys R Us. Since just about every adult in the countries in which they do businesss celebrates birthdays and weddings, an adult's assertion that they will never buy anything from American Greetings again will indeed be a customer lost.
Re:Legal Precedent is not with them.... (Score:3, Insightful)
It parodies American McGee's "taste" in character manipulation for videogames--clearly the image PA did was something that American *might* do, thereby making it funny--and parody; and it parodied Strawberry Shortcake by putting that "wholesome character" (gag) into a situation (for use or abuse) that that character would not normally exist--making a point via juxtaposition in relation to the "picking on" being done at the expense of American McGee.
The imagery that PA had does meet the criteria of "...in part target the plaintiff's copywrited work..." I call that parody and I call it funny.
But that's my take on it.
Re:Hope the lawsuit gets thrown out, if there is o (Score:3, Insightful)
Almost correct. No content created by American Greetings was used, so there is no copyright case here. This is either purely a trademark case, or a crock.
Re:There's a boycott (Score:3, Insightful)
The Ironic Distribution Effect (Score:3, Insightful)
This image (at least in my case) has now become subject to the "ironic distribution effect". What I mean is, I never would have seen this image, and if I had seen it I never would have saved it on my drive--except that they tried to ban it. Now, I've downloaded it into a folder on my desktop. Periodicly I round up all the junk on my desktop into a folder, name the folder by date, and copy it over to my other drive. Ultimately, these folders get burned onto a CD forming a kind of personal diary of what was on my desktop. Thanks to American Greeting's attempt to suppress this image, it's now being immortalized on my archive CDs. Now that's ironic.
Re:Not the target (Score:3, Insightful)
Corporations can lose their trademark protection if they don't actively persue infringements. As you say, AG wasn't the target, but their trademarks were openly used in a parody of a video game maker.
Had they done nothing, someone else could have used it in an infringement suit later to say the trademark no longer was defended.
This is just sad that not only was this in YRO pointing to AG as the problem, but that so many people want to boycott them because of how mean they were.
But it is! (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Hope the lawsuit gets thrown out, if there is o (Score:3, Insightful)
This would clearly be a parody of the material in question.
It would also be quite lame, both creatively and in humorous terms.
A lot of people are suggesting various alterations to the image that would allow it to be reposted. To me, that's even worse than its removal. What kind of statement are you making by altering a creative piece of artwork to satisfy a bunch of copyright lawyers? Removing the images show a lot more artistic integrity - you're making a statement that basically says "your attitude will lead to no art." That's a strong statement.
It would be just as funny with someone else... (Score:2, Insightful)
You misunderstand, I fear. The PA strip has nothing to do with Strawberry Shortcake (on a side note, how the hell can that get to be a registered trademark?).
I have no understanding of (or belief in, sadly) the USA's laws regarding free speech or copyright. What it is important to not is that the fact that Ms. Shortcake's appearance here (however modified) means nothing in itself. The idea is that should American McGee get it into his head to do a game about SS, it would probably look a lot like that, as shown by his 'interpretations' of Alice in Wonderland and, now, The Wizard of Oz.
American Greetings shouldn't take the PA strip to be unfavourable, but in fact acknowledge the obvious homage to what Messyrs Krahulik and Holkins clearly seem to think is some sort of epitome of sacharrine children's fiction. To anyone who understands the strip, the idea that SS is incorruptibly nice and sweet is reinforced, not diminished, by the comment of the strip (said comment being that American McGee is a conceptually unoriginal hack artist, little better than generational legions of bored teenagers sitting in Maths lessons, who would see the same depravities regardless of the subject matter he chose to defile).
American Greetings should see this as a kind of Blessing: Penny Arcade puts Strawberry Shortcake (which, frankly, no-one's heard of outside the US) right up there with Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz (both of which are widely known and highly popular outside the states)!
My main point is this. The way I see it, it would be just as funny (much more to non-americans) to use, say, Snow White (though Rammstein got there first) or Little Red Riding Hood (bestiality, hmm?). The equivalent in the UK would be to fuck with these early reading books which had characters such as "Roger Red Hat", "Billy Blue Hat", and "John and Jennifer Yellow Hat". They did nothing much more advanced than walk around saying hi to each other, but it would be soooo easy to make a schoolbook porno version.
Its a mystery why PA chose Strawberry Shortcake, when there are a heck of a lot more recognisable "wholesome" kids characters out there. Thats basically the joke. American McGee has no original talent above making wholesome kid's characters abuse themselves. My solution to this whole debacle? Just do another strip, just without this relatively obscure Strawberry Shortcake person, and with some nursery rhyme played out in bondage gear. Its the same strip, but American Greetings don't get the credit.
I would be sending this to them via email, but right now there's no point because I don't believe they are even going to check the inbox. She's probably already got a new inbox set up (unless the IT dudes are still trying to recover the server). Whatever happens, she won't see my message amongst the million others in there.