I'm improving and reposting my comment in reply to Kos's misleadingly titled diary earlier today,
Suing Bloggers, since it didn't receive a reply in the 600+ comment pie fight, because I think people need to know since Kos used the bully pulpit to talk out his ass, and maybe just because I've got the right to... This diary will be deleted in 5..4..3..2..
This article from twincities.com (which, ironically, was found in the comments section of the site which Kos
linked) should lend a lot more insight on this.
These T-shirts (and others) were designed to profit off the situation with a movie being made in the bloggers town, and (it appears) to take a potshot at Lindsay Lohan.
I don't think they get to take the high-road of free speech on this. If they want to actually use their First Amendment rights to put forth some substantial and worthy criticism of Garrison Keillor, I'm 100% behind them. I've never listened to the guy, so I don't have a horse in this race. But that ain't the case.
I also think that Kos is full of shit and his legal expertise and $4.50 wouldn't buy a grande latte. Parody is an affirmative defense which must be raised at trial; Keillor has to go to court to stop the person from profiting off the shirts and his trademark, whether they're selling "Prarie Ho Companion" t-shirts as a crack at Lindsay Lohan or whether they're selling official Lake Whoa-begone souvenirs. (Hey look, they changed two or three letters!)
There's clearly a question of infringement, which ought to be decided in a court (by those liberal activist judges we've heard about) and the infringement is clearly for the intent of making money. Just because they say "hey, it was just a joke, and there's only 10 shirts left, so let's call it even?" doesn't mean they can't print up 100,000 more shirts the next day.
I would point out the situation of Penny Arcade vs. American Greetings as an example. Unfortunately I can't find a link with a good summary, but (as I recall) the online comic Penny Arcade drew a comic showing a grown "Strawberry Shortcake" as a dominatrix being spanked.
Penny Arcade happens to deal very much with computer and video games, and the intent was to poke fun at the creations of American McGee, a video-game designer who had created a game reprising Alice (in Wonderland) in dark, gothic tones, and was planning a second game based on The Wizard of Oz.
The artists received a C&D from American Greetings, owner of the Strawberry Shortcake copyright, and fully intended to fight it, but were eventually convinced by their own lawyers that they would lose, due to the fact that they did not appropriate the likeness of Strawberry Shortcake to parody Strawberry Shortcake, but to parody something else altogether.
Mind you, this and the Prarie Ho situation are about trademark infringement, not copyright infringement. Trademarks, since they are used to uniquely identify a business in trade (and don't contribute to the Arts and Sciences like copyrighted material should) are protected indefinitely, as long as the owner continues to use them and can protect them from dilution - for instance, from being diluted by being printed on T-shirts for an unfunny joke about some 'allegedly slutty' ingenue.
I'm not going to get into the argument that the legal system is most definitely unbalanced in favor of corporate interest, in part because it's not the cause of this situation, and in part because the system and more importantly the law in general does protect the interest of 'the little guy' every single day. Whether you're Garrison Keillor or some 'little guy' harmed by corporate malfeasance, you're not an idiot for seeking redress of perceived harm in a court.
Pissing on the law because you think corporate lawyers have too much power doesn't make you progressive or a Democrat, it makes you an anarchist.
Reproduced for reference below is an excerpt from the twincities.com article, redacted so as not to reproduce the whole thing, since we know this site respects copyright and trademarks so much.
'Prairie Home' spoof fits its creator to a T
It's about time somebody had a little fun at the expense of the movie "A Prairie Home Companion."
...the movie's impressive cast -- Meryl Streep, Lindsay Lohan, Maya Rudolph, Lily Tomlin, Kevin Kline, Garrison Keillor and Woody Harrelson.
...
MNSpeak co-mastermind Rex Sorgatz, ... came up with the idea of T-shirts to promote his homegrown Web site...
...it's the green shirt adorned with "A Prairie Ho Companion" in white letters destined to become a classic.
...
As for the cast member that inspired the "A Prairie Home Companion" shirt, it may or may not be tabloid fave Lohan.
"It's not directed at her," he says. "But if she weren't in the movie, I don't know if I would have thought of the idea." -- Amy Carlson Gustafson