White House Cease & Desists to The Onion 781
raj2569 writes "You might have thought that the White House had enough on its plate late last month, what with its search for a new Supreme Court nominee, the continuing war in Iraq and the C.I.A. leak investigation. But it found time to add another item to its agenda - stopping The Onion (soul sucking, life sapping, irritating, obnoxious, but still free registration), the satirical newspaper, from using the presidential seal." The only joke here is that our tax dollars are being spent on this.
Opympic Rings (Score:2, Interesting)
First amendment? (Score:3, Interesting)
Well they're hardly using it to promote a commercial venture, and if you can find someone who reads one of these Onion pieces and believes it suggests presidential support, could you point them in my direction, as i've got this bridge i'd like to sell them.
Wouldn't this be covered under the parody rulings made based on the First amendment?
I thought this was all public domain (Score:2, Interesting)
But from what I remember, when the movie Contact used President Clintons image and voice they too were in the clear even when Clinton complained. They said hey, you're in the public domain pal.
Thought that the Presidential Seal was also in the public domain.
Re:First amendment? (Score:3, Interesting)
Not necessarily. They can say the same things equally effectively without attaching the seal to them, so I don't see that it is necessary for them to have such protection.
no way to stop it (Score:3, Interesting)
The Onion should be able to get around this by the smallest of photoshops to make the seal different. And if it's done in a parodic manner (like everything over there), then there's just nothing that can be done.
As someone else posted already, your tax dollars at work! (not that it matters, this'll be a drop in the bucket compared to everything else)
Trademark Dilution (Score:5, Interesting)
The great point, which the NYT dutifully points out, is that someone in Washington with access to powerful ears reads The Onion. Whether or not this individual has a sense of humour is another story entirely.
-theGreater.
The Onion crosses political borders... (Score:3, Interesting)
Regardless of the legal issue - as I am not a lawyer and cannot claim to speak to the limits of Satire and protected speech - many people who read the Onion are so called "Independents." Now, in this day and age, when the country is looking polarized, it can only further reinforce those who may only drift to the Democratic side into becoming much stronger Partisans.
With the 2006 midterms coming up, and considering that it's those with strong partisan feelings who vote in midterm elections, this is really a part of a larger trend that may drive people away from the Republican party.
...wait, I'm a Democrat. Keep suing Bush! Keep suing!
Re:Opympic Rings (Score:3, Interesting)
Neither did this bank. [integrabank.com]
I'm sure there are more out there. But I'm not sure you are accurate on this. Check out the International Trademarks Association site for more information found here. [inta.org]
Re: Trademark Dilution (Score:5, Interesting)
So, for-pay encyclopedias can't include it in an article?
Re:Big deal. (Score:1, Interesting)
Seeing an Onion story picked up by the AP would be about the funniest thing ever and a sure sign that we need to kill the all the news media and get a fresh start.
Re:no way to stop it (Score:2, Interesting)
Seriously, nobody reading the Onion is going to believe that they're really the mouthpiece of the President. It's obviously a satirical news site.
Re:This is called a "joke?" (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Well... (Score:5, Interesting)
Perhaps they might have a special dislike for The Onion too. Their headline the day after the 2000 election:
"Bush - our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is finally over!"
Re:I dunno (Score:5, Interesting)
Not everyone [snopes.com].
Re:This is called a "joke?" (Score:4, Interesting)
Don't be so sure. [mit.edu]
Re:Everyone else is clamping down on their IP righ (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually, no, that's not the case:
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/casecode/uscodes/18
Now, don't get me wrong; I don't get this law AT ALL. I think it's kinda goofy. Then again, there are goofy laws all over the world.
Anyway, satire doesn't overrule everything; if it did then people would use that as an excuse for dang near everything they do.
Some people do hide behind satire as a way of expressing their political opinions. Frankly, I think that's pretty cowardly, because it's not satire. It's just plain old libel, hiding behind a satire label. Go check out the spine of various "political" books, and you'll see what I mean.
To be clear, I *DO NOT* think The Onion falls into this category. They're in it for the humor of the situation, no matter who or what they're writing about.
Similar thing happened with nasa (Score:3, Interesting)
At the time, nasa.com was a porn site, so visitors got quite an eyeful. The real NASA invoked some government edict from the 1960s that stated the acronymn NASA was reserved for use by their agency, and were able to unseat them. Yet when I go to nasa.com today, I find some sort of private detective agency, I am not sure what happened in the meantime...
Domestic ones too... (Score:3, Interesting)
Sadly, there are lot of people within the USA who think articles in the Onion are real.
I heard Carol Kolb, the Onion's head writer, comment on NPR that their office gets a LOT of snail mail from church groups in rural Texas. Not as a reaction to the Onion's offensiveness, mind you: The Texans sincerely believe the content.
Case in point, one of my favorite headlines: "Chinese Woman Has Septuplets: Has One Week to Choose". You get the idea, right? Some poor fictitious mom in China has to choose one child due to government policy, while the rest are thrown over a cliff. Really vicious and mean-spirited (so of course I adored it).
After that headline hit the newsstands and the Net, the Onion was beseiged by heartfelt prayers for the poor woman via the U.S. Postal Service. And pleas for contacts to find out what good Christians could do to help. No, I am not making this shit up.
And it keeps happening. Again and again.
Re:no way to stop it (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Everyone else is clamping down on their IP righ (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Everyone else is clamping down on their IP righ (Score:4, Interesting)
Because the government is supposed to represent the people, and therefore not to hold any exclusive IP. As others have pointed out, though, this is not an IP issue. Using the seal is more akin to copying someone's signature than copying their trademark, and it's forbidden by other laws. That doesn't mean that the government's action in this case is right or a good use of taxpayer money, but it's necessary to understand which laws and principles are involved before we can make that determination.
Re:I dunno (Score:3, Interesting)
I wish this was just satire.
Re:Endorsement? Oh please... (Score:3, Interesting)
If I were the president of the United States, then yes. After all, any true American knows that the press should be there to do exactly that. Of course, it doesn't actually work that way in America these days, because of the corporate ties that the mass news media has. Perhaps that's why so many government mistakes, intentional or not, are allowed to pass over there.
I can't wait..... (Score:4, Interesting)
Oh wait.
About That Trademark (Score:3, Interesting)
1. Until Congress pays the agreed fees, the rights to the Seal are solely that of the Hopkinson family;
2. The White House has no legal claim to it's use.
other official documents (Score:5, Interesting)
__________________________________________________ ___________
My "It would be funny but it happened to me too" story:
I was driving through South Dakota when I was pulled over for having a headlight out. This was about a year ago, and the police were still worked up about that little Sept 11 thingy.
A little background first: I have a bad habit of not throwing anything away, and happened to be playing/running a Live action vampire game when I lived in Houston. Certain Individuals and I created some items as "Props"
that looked pretty authentic, especially to the untrained eye. If the individual in question wants to tell ya what we made he can do it. The only hint I'll give is that they definitly looked official.
So, anyways, I got pulled over by this SD state trooper, K-9 no less. My hair was about 2 feet long, shaved on the sides and back, pulled into a pony-tail. I was wearing my "Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke -- God"
shirt. Ratty assed blue jeans, with a pile of trash in my backseat. He takes one look at me and says, "Sir, I am going to need you to step out of the vehicle."
Well, like I said, I used to live in Houston. So, I unbuckeled my seatbelt and put my windows up (Second nature when I get out of my car). In one fluid motion, I took my keys out of the ignition, locked the door and slammed it shut. As I did this he yelled at me to "leave the car running and the doors unlocked." After slamming the door shut, he told me to unlock it. Being the good subversive asshole I am, I said, "Nope."
Then he asked if I had any weapons on me, luckily I had already taken my pocket knife outta my pocket to open a bag of beef jerky and it had fallen on the passenger side floor. I said no, and he told me to empty my pockets.
Seems I had a weapon after all, fingernail clippers, in my pocket. Then he asked me to step into his SUV.
As soon as I got in, his dog went apeshit and he asked, "Do you have any contraband in your vehicle?" To which I replied, "What do you mean by contraband?" Chalk one up to being either stupid or an asshole who really had no plans to get home that evening. He explained, "Drugs, Weapons, other illegeal things." My smartassed reply, "Do you mean illegeal in the state of South Dakota, or just plain illegeal." Then he asked, "May I search your car?" I figured that I am already fucked right now, so I say, "Hell no."
We sat in silence for about 20 minutes, then he got out with the dog and had it sniff the car. He got back in and asked, "Where are you headed?" My reply of "Home" didn't seem to improve our relations much. Then he asked, "Where is your home?" To which I said, "South."
"Where were you comming from?"
"The east."
About 20 more minutes of silence. Then, "Can I search your vehicle?"
"Nope, Am I being detained?"
"Uh, no sir."
This went on for about 3 hours, eventually I was able to spot the in vehicle camera and noted that it was still recording. So he asked to search again.
Finally I capitulated! I said extremely clearly and loud, "Since I have now been detained against my will for 3 hours and I am very tired, I will, under duress, consent to an illeagle search of my car at this time." Then he asked me for my keys, and I told him they were on the trunk. He was a little pissed as he took the dog outta the SUV.
He tore the hell outta my vehicle, finding the item in question along with several wanted posters from a certain federal agency. Sadly these posters had my pic on them and Zeds pic too. *sigh* So this cop calls in the, according to him, "Forged items".
I explain to him back in the SUV that I did not attempt to impersonate anyone, nor did I identify myself as belonging to any organization. He said I was going to jail. I asked to sp
Re:Well... (Score:2, Interesting)
The "balanced budget" was only "balanced" using accounting tricks that would probably result in felony convictions if done in the private sector.
2 - Plame WAS undercover at the time, according to ABC News.
That's an Associated Press article, and it does not say that Plame was undercover at the time. The article does say, however: