२१ ऑक्टोबर, २००९

The blogger's response to a legalistic letter: mockery.

"... copious mockery, so that it becomes highly ranked in search engines where other people you threaten can find it and take heart."

There are new moves in the law game, and the old moves may backfire. It's fun to watch the way power evolves on line.

ADDED: Obviously, I need to link to BoingBoing to help the strategy.

AND: Nice to see Instapundit linking to BoingBoing again for this, really helping the strategy. And I like his "You're ugly too" kicker:
Plus, even the clothes were ugly. As ugly as the behavior. Ugly, ugly, ugly. Just thought I’d point that out.
IN THE COMMENTS: EDH said:
Well, if they are required to take it down, they should replace it with a crudely drawn stick figure with the caption "artist rendering" underneath it.
Chip Ahoy responds:

२० टिप्पण्या:

Big Mike म्हणाले...

Yes. Some things deserve to be mocked, and men who don't like curvy women and lawyers who try to use the threat of a bogus-but-potentially-expensive-to-defend lawsuit ought to be very high on that list.

MadisonMan म्हणाले...

Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

It's not an original sentence, but apt.

Wince म्हणाले...

Well, if they are required to take it down, they should replace it with a crudely drawn stick figure with the caption "artist rendering" underneath it.

Balfegor म्हणाले...

Well, if they are required to take it down, they should replace it with a crudely drawn stick figure with the caption "artist rendering" underneath it.

Or they can apply a few photoshop layers, Sheperd Fairey style.

Bob From Ohio म्हणाले...

In the UK, there was some secret injunction that got lifted.

On a libertarian site, Samizdata, it mentioned the company's name about 50 times is a 100 word post.

On the merits, BoingBoing is almost certainly right. If the use of one photo in that context is not fair use, the concept is meaningless in the photo context. Use of multiple ones would probably be different.

Chip Ahoy म्हणाले...

^^^ Oh, EDH, that's a very good idea.

What I intended to say, though, before being sidetracked by that great idea, I know what they mean by "dodgy photoshop" but dodgy is an inapt adjective when talking about Photoshop because within Photoshop dodge is a tool that reduces exposure to an applied area, burn is its opposite. Ha ha ha.

This could be confusing. Burn for a dodgy Photoshop.

JAL म्हणाले...

^^ Oh CA

The boobs are way too big.

Jeff with one 'f' म्हणाले...

That "disemvowel"-loving Boing Boing is taking a free speech stand is hilarious...

Phil 314 म्हणाले...

Hmmmm.... an interesting tactic. not unlike Scientology, MoveON etc

Chip Ahoy म्हणाले...

^^Oh, JAL, you're right. I should shrink them.

Synova म्हणाले...

Has everyone seen this picture?

More of the same... creepy photoshoping and I suppose this is advertising that works?

And Ralph Lauren claims the other photo was released and run in Japan by *accident*? (Or that's what I thought the story was.)

Synova म्हणाले...

Oh, and the caption....

"Although Ralph Lauren have apologized for their last outrageous bout of Photoshop exuberance, they still haven't apologized for the original DMCA their lawyers issued to this blog.

Which makes it quite difficult to resist showing you this window display from Sydney, Australia. Thanks to PG!
"

I guess the Ralph Lauren lawyers have been busy.

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

@Chip Instapundit linked to your pic.

http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/87117/

miller म्हणाले...

Hilarious.

They made a bone-headed mistake and then tried to pretend it never happened?

Do they even understand the Intertubes?

I'm Full of Soup म्हणाले...

Ah the pipe cleaner look......good for when you want to lay some pipe!

Joe म्हणाले...

Ralph Lauren apologized. Then did it again. Don't have the link, but the touchup fakery is even worse.

Synova म्हणाले...

Is it the link I provided?

J Lee म्हणाले...

If Ralph ever played 'hangman' on a blackboard when he was a kid, he probably thought they should have been using a thinner piece of chalk.

jaed म्हणाले...

men who don't like curvy women

This isn't about curvy women. This is about human women! The Photoshop literally looks like an alien dressed in Ralph Lauren, not a very slender human.

Jarby म्हणाले...

The use of mockery in response to legal threats has been going on for a while--the best example I can think of is the website SomethingAwful, which has its own "lawyer" (really the website owner under a fake name) who basically leads them on until they give up.
For frivolous legal threats, it is incredibly effective. Embarrassment suits are easily squashed with the threat of more embarrassment.