Wal-Mart Parody Site Censored by DMCA 469
davidwr writes "Wal-Mart used the Digital Millenium Copyright Act to temporarily shut down a university student's parody of the Wal-Mart Foundation." The story's details are also available via BusinessWeek. From the article: "Papasian launched the Web site April 16 for an art class at Carnegie Mellon University called 'Parasitic Media.' The class teaches students about the political uses of satire in the media. He acknowledged using Wal-Mart's graphics on his Web site but said he believed he could use the images as part of a parody."
Just call it MalWart (Score:5, Insightful)
If you alter the content, they have no claim against DMCA. MalWart != WalMart.
Foolish boy... (Score:5, Insightful)
Exceptions to copyright for parody, fair use, etc. only apply to those who have lawyers.
This is waaaaay overblown... (Score:4, Insightful)
Walmart Foundation: www.walmartfoundation.org
Parody Site: www.walmart-foundation.org
Walmart is NOT bitching about this.
He basically has a site where people probably stumble onto when they are trying to go to a legit site. Walmart's ONLY beef was that he was using their images.
I can't tell you how we ALL have known since the web was invented that you don't steal other peoples graphics. Sure, there may be some grey area with parodies, but its the same thing we knew when we were just getting into making HTML.
But, since this kid wants press, he starts using "CENSORED BY THE DMCA" so we'll all cry fowl.
He rolled the dice and lost... and all it was was over the stupid graphics.
I say, "its an art class, how about making PARODIES of the IMAGES too?"
No extra publicity in that, though...
Ahhh, good old fair-use, remember the days? (Score:4, Insightful)
Due to all the retarded behavior that our fellow citizens exhibit on a daily basis I am never surprised when I see people falling for direct parody.
I am also not surprised that corporations are allowed to shutdown *what was likely fair use*. Sadly, someday, we will all look back on this and say, "look how free we once were. It survived 400 hits before it was taken down. They didn't even have to approve the webpage before it was posted."
Parodies are great, but... (Score:2, Insightful)
Making a parody is cool. Using the original artwork to create your parody isn't.
Even when making a parody of a song, you must pay royalties on the original and you must obtain permission should you use any portion of the original mechanical.
If you're gonna create a parody site, you simply cannot snag artwork from the original, and you certainly can't use the company's actual logo!
What does the DMCA have to do with this? (Score:3, Insightful)
I still hate the DMCA..
How to shoot yourself in the foot in three easy.. (Score:5, Insightful)
How to shoot yourself in the foot in three easy steps.
Simon.
Look alike graphics would be OK. (Score:2, Insightful)
WalMart's Import Policy (Score:5, Insightful)
Now they're further hurting our trade deficit by importing clamp-down tactics from the Chinese communist government!
Re:In Soviet Wal-Mart (Score:3, Insightful)
Good censorship quotes (Score:5, Insightful)
"Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books that nobody can read." ~ George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright & novelist
"The Internet treats censorship as a malfunction and routes around it." ~ John Perry Barlow (1947-) Wyoming cattle rancher, a lyricist for the Grateful Dead
"I believe in censorship. After all, I made a fortune out of it." ~ Mae West (1892-1980) American comedienne from "My Little Chickadee," 1940.
"Censorship is almost systematically the weapon of first resort for governments in uncertain political situations. So not only are the famous writers and bold journalists in danger; at every level of public and private life, the freedoms to think, read or write are denied. In the absence of a free press, other human rights abuses flourish unabated. Nothing is reported, criticized, questioned. The example of imprisonment, torture or execution imposes a further silence. A blindly obedient mob mentality is encouraged, driven by extremist religious or ethnic loyalties. The citizens do not know what is happening. Fear and ignorance permeate discussion." ~ Marian Botsford Fraser
"Censor: A self-appointed snoophound who sticks his nose in other people's business." ~ Bennett Cerf
[quotes from zaadz.com]
Re:This is waaaaay overblown... (Score:5, Insightful)
You're right, they're not bitching, they're having their lawyers shut the place down.
Walmart's ONLY beef was that he was using their images.
Which is irrelevant, as (according to Section 107 of the US Copyright act) it was fair use:
Parody is both criticism and commentary.
there may be some grey area with parodies
Uh, no. There is no gray - it is very much black and white.
he starts using "CENSORED BY THE DMCA" so we'll all cry fowl
And rightly so. His First Amendment rights are being violated.
Re:This is waaaaay overblown... (Score:4, Insightful)
How is that fair? By all means, use the DMCA and whatever other laws to request that he remove the offending graphics. But remove the site from public access? That, too, is crossing the line.
Also, IANAL, but aren't parodies deemed fair use?
Re:What does the DMCA have to do with this? (Score:4, Insightful)
No Credibility (Score:2, Insightful)
This guy lost all credibility with this one statement. What does the ability of someone to mistake this site for a real one have anything to do with absurdity within corporate America? This guy is just spouting off rhetoric. Plain and simple.
Re:How to shoot yourself in the foot in three easy (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Do the teachers at the lefty propaganda mills.. (Score:3, Insightful)
'Scuse me? You want professors to offer a reward - presumably, higher marks - for producing specifically right-wing propaganda?
Lefty or just tired of consumer-oriented everythin (Score:2, Insightful)
Sometimes there is no choice, the town has one WalMart and the rest of the small businesses go under leaving you no choice in where to buy -or- you must travel far away to go to a small independent shop.
Greed is the driving factor among everything these days, the competition is brutal and the labor is cheap....is this a lefty view? or just a rational one?
Re:Walmart (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:This is waaaaay overblown... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Do the teachers at the lefty propaganda mills.. (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:I was under the impression... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: Just call it MalWart (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, wait!
Not to mention that Gangsta's paradise. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Foolish boy... (Score:3, Insightful)
anyway - the standard for parody is something like - is a a reasonable person likley to confuse the parody work as the work of the original
Yes, however I believe that deciding if something is a parody or not is a different issue than whether a parody is protected.
The previous poster said that parody is not considered fair use, and that it's a violation of copyright to use someone else's material in a parody, and I was correcting him (or her?)
those kinds of arguments can be expensive to prove
Which is why we (well me, and probably the people who modded me up
protection really does only apply to those who can afford to at least get the issue in fromt of a judge
Which (again) is another issue entirely - and (if I may say) is a sad, sad comment on the state of free speech in the country that claims to value its' freedom so much.
It's low wages that does this! (Score:5, Insightful)
As an example, my wife graduated from HS in 1974 and her first job was at paper plant. The job was union and paid $7 per hour and worked 40 hours a week. This, mind you, for a HS grad with no college and no special skills in a small city north of Seattle. By the time she left that job (in 1980) she was making over $10 per hour and getting full medical.
Then wages went into the toilet. Now kids are lucky to get a $7 job (at Wal-Mart) and work 20-hours a week.
In 1974 you could buy a house ($35,000 for a 3br/2ba home in the Seattle area) with a $7/hour job. In 2005 houses there average $250,000. Try buying one of those right out of HS.
So ya... people shop for cheap prices but only because we don't have much of a choice any more.
It's *parody,* people (Score:3, Insightful)
Libel applies whereever you attribute something in writing to someone who does not hold that belief. It is always legally actionable.
Check out the Flynt case, before the Supreme Court. Said libel also has to be *believable.* Hence, when Flynt published things about Falwell's mother's, ah, *taste*, it was found to be parody because no one in their right mind would believe it.
That's kinda what parody is.
Warms my heart (Score:2, Insightful)
But what I enjoy even most is when this leads to the conclusion that it's because of the powerful corporations that these sorts of evil things happen.
This is the progressive circle of life. Progressives decide the establishment has a problem. Progressives pitch legislation that sucks to solve the problem. The legislation is enacted and then (shocker) it starts to suck. Progressives then use legislation sucking as proof that the establishment has a problem. Progressive pitch new legislation that sucks even more. Elton John starts singing ...
Re:What does the DMCA have to do with this? (Score:4, Insightful)
The relevant part of the DMCA [eff.org], in fact, is just the opposite. Sec 512, "Limitations on liability relating to material online" provides a means to ESCAPE liability for copyright violation. Specifically, it allows an ISP not to be held liable as long as it follows a certain procedure. The ISP has to publish an address for complaints; upon receiving a complaint from a copyright holder, it has to take down the material and notify the client who posted it; and then the client has the option to contest the takedown order, in which case the ISP has to put the material back up, absent a court order.
This part of the DMCA is actually end-user- and ISP-friendly. Without it we would see much less support for possibly copyrighted materials appearing online.
Re:Foolish boy... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Foolish boy... (Score:3, Insightful)
walmart sucks (Score:2, Insightful)
Why smart executives don't legally harass parody (Score:5, Insightful)
Then the parody gets recognized far wider than it would have from its initial presentation. This brings recognition to the parodist and simulates discussion on the practices of the corporation and the contrasts between its business practices and its manufactured image. Smart business execs usually know this and will work to avoid publicity amplification. Walmart execs tend to be more mean than savvy.
Perhaps the clearest example of this publicity effect is the Disneyland Orgy [illegal-art.org] which would have disappeared as an urban legend if clueless Disney execs had not have gone batshit when it appeared and mounted a huge effort to destroy it. As you can see, it lives now on the web forever. It still is pretty funny.
Re:This is waaaaay overblown... (Score:3, Insightful)
He further stated this is not a legal requirement, just an attempt to keep relations between him and the music industry on good terms.
I, for one, always make my legal decisions based on Weird Al quotes.
Re:Foolish boy... (Score:3, Insightful)
A corporation can easily afford to pay the legal bills of their opponent if they loose. How many individuals can say the same? Individuals would be even less likely to face off against corporations if the consequences of loosing was a mamoth corporate legal bill. You'd only attempt it if you were certain to win - and how often in legal disputes is victory certain?
It's more than just DCMA (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Ahhh, good old fair-use, remember the days? (Score:3, Insightful)
Will we ever rise above hording goods and looking to the sky for answers?
DMCA Abused Yet Again (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:This is waaaaay overblown... (Score:5, Insightful)
Why? Because that store carries other parts Walmart just won't carry. That little store has a guy who will do some free fixing and adjustment on my chain-saw just to sell me a new chain now and then, and when I needed a file to sharpen it, that store had one in stock that was 'right', not 'halfway close'. That store will sell me one washer or Woodroffe key from a bin, and for the washer, Walmart wants to sell me a pack of a dozen with a dozen-minus-one sizes I don't need, while for the Woodroffe key, Walmart wants to sell me a blank stare. Go compare a section of Walmart with a specialty store that sells just that section, and that 'low selection' is 'on the other foot'.
I can save money at Walmart now. When that drives the little hardware store out of business, I will spend all that money I saved, and a whole lot more, doing things like hiring a professional to completely replace that window with the busted crank, instead of replacing a simple assembly myself, because only a few full-time pros can now afford to keep the parts for thousands of different windows in stock, and the only way they can make money is to charge for more repairs than are strictly needed.
I'm one of those jack of all trades guys. I build my own PCs, do my own carpentry, plumbing and wiring, rebuild my transmission, and even have liscences and paperwork for some of these skills. The only time I turn a car, a plumbing job, or electrical work over to a pro is when it would take me more than my time's worth, and they are actually cheaper. Walmart is pushing out the supplyers I need to keep this up, and even the original poster's claim to detest Walmart and all it stands for doesn't seem too strong. Frankly speaking any more politely than that about Walmart feels about like saying "This pesky Multiple Sclerosis is getting in the way of my laying a new tile floor in the bathroom and I find that a trifle inconvenient.".
Re:It's more than just DCMA (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Look alike graphics would be OK. (Score:1, Insightful)
Parody is still parody even if you're too stupid to "get it".
Re:Ahhh, good old fair-use, remember the days? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Ahhh, good old fair-use, remember the days? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:It's more than just DCMA (Score:5, Insightful)
The MAFIAA [mafiaa.org] has successfully killed most fair use through technological methods coupled with laws like the DMCA. Add in a dose of SLAPPs (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) and the Walmarts of the world can do whatever the hell they want to you.
One solution (Score:2, Insightful)