Don't Ask Oprah To Run For President; She Might Sue You
from the seems-a-bit-problematic dept
Oprah Winfrey certainly has a lot of devoted and passionate fans out there. Some of them have even spent years trying to convince the queen of daytime talk TV that she ought to run for president -- creating a website and even a book to push Oprah towards that goal. However, it seems that, not only is Oprah not interested in running, she's not interested in anyone pushing her to run. In fact, she's ready to sue them. Larry Lessig points out that the authors of the book and related websites have received cease and desist letters accusing them of copyright infringement, trademark infringement and violating the right of publicity law in Illinois. Just about all of these seem questionable. The strongest case may be made for copyright infringement, as Oprah's lawyers claim that images used in the book and on the site are copyrighted images. It's not clear if the images really are owned by Oprah's organization or not -- but a case could still be made that the use of the images is "fair use" -- similar to the way concert posters published in a book can be fair use, despite the book being "for profit."The other claims seem to have even less to back them up. Trademark law, as we've pointed out repeatedly, is to prevent confusion, not give the trademark owner full control over the mark. No one reading the book or the site are likely to confuse them as being part of Oprah's empire -- and just because some of the URL's have the word "oprah" in them, doesn't give Oprah the right to shut them down. While trademark law does say you need to actively pursue violators to keep the trademark, it's difficult to believe anyone would find this an actual violation. Finally, while if you read through Illinois' right of publicity law, it's hard to believe it would ban someone from putting up a website or writing a book urging someone to run for president. It seems like the book falls under the first exception listed in the law, as the book is being used to portray or describe Oprah. Still, the most important part of all of this is that these are clearly some of Oprah's biggest fans. For her lawyers to think that it's intelligent business practice to send a nastygram to them is pure business folly.
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Oprah ate my cat
BTW, i'm going to sue TechDirt for posting my comment. i know i typed it and hit the submit button, but somehow i now feel as though my thoughts have been stolen and are being published on the internet without me getting any royalties for my thoughts and time i spent typing these words. :P
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Oprah understands the American way
Oprah has grasped what is rapidally becoming America's favorite pasttime and semi-profesional sport: Sueing people for something that is either not illegal, or that actually benefits you.
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Dude...
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Don't get Oprah to review you false memoirs...
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Re: Don't get Oprah to review you false memoirs...
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I knew it...
And it just manifested itself. I knew it.
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Re: I knew it...
Most of these social leeches associate themselves with charity work (publically and vociferously) to offset any criticism that might come their way. A tiny fraction of their yearly income and a couple of well chosen photo ops is a small price to pay for this shit-shield.
"Leave her alone - she does great work for charity!"
I find her cries of discrimination distasteful. I think her show promotes increasingly simplistic views about human relationships (or is that the other one? The bald, giant self-hater with the southern US accent and constant look of bewilderment?) and her audience creeps the shit out of me... never trust anyone who smiles all the time, man. Some of 'em look like they're about to bust open with frustration... Their superego's gonna crack wide open right there and expose the glistening, screaming viscera within.
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Re: Re: I knew it...
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Re: Re: Re: I knew it...
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Re: Re: Re: I knew it...
Well, that's almost a sentence.
"Millions" is a tiny fraction of her yearly income. She could give away 2 mil and it wouldn't amount to even 1% of what she makes.
She might be hounded by the press but you can bet she's orchestrating as many press events for herself as she can.
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Re: Re: Re: I knew it...
She's just like Bill Gates and all the rest.
Yes, they give a way a lot, but they can afford it, and it has zero impact on their life.
If you want to see a true giver, look to the person who actaully makes a sacrifice to give to others.
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Just so you know...
"www.IhateOprah.com"
Let the countdown to lawsuit clock begin...
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Phone number too?!
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I think you're wrong...
While its true, tradermark laws doesn't give the owner of that mark total control over it, per se, this is a case where folks COULD confuse the presidential push with her own activities.
As a celebrity and a person under the public eye she has to watch her image even if the causes seem noble.
Most likely what these folks should do is make it VERY clear on their website (and everywhere else for that matter), if they do not, that they are an indepedant operation and are in no way related to the Oprah juggernaut.. then perhaps her case might have less permit.
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Re: I think you're wrong...
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An interesting point
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time to write her off
Time for America to fixate on another undeserving moron.
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Phil
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What the fuck
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Re: What the fuck
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Re: What the fuck
Also, if you're going to leave, then do so. Don't send in posts about how you're fed up and you're leaving. That's not being fed up, that's being starved for attention.
Finally, insulting the people who run the place? I'm sure they're going to listen to your creative input on how to run the place since you're so supportive to the site.
Now, shouldn't you be in school little boy? Or is it a Teacher's Planning Day?
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Brad and Angelina!
Who gives a shit about any of those clowns, Oprah, Bard Pitt etc? Overpaid circus clowns all of them, same with pro sport's...
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black, female, lesbian running for president. hilarious! gore would even have a chance running against her!
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Stupidity
So what if she want's to sue, what do you expect from someone like her.
And so what if TechDirt wants to post it, what do you expect from them (by the way it is their website...)!
If don't like it, don't read it...
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Oprah and Tech Dirt
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Pros and Cons
Then I want to know how far they get with their frivolous law suit.
If Oprah objected to the direction of the books and website, perhaps she could have tried persuasion and argument before launching a full legal assault?
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I know I'm grasping at straws with what I just said, but I see very few non-tech related articles when I come around TD most of the time, so it's defo not worth getting into a tizzy over.
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The "Tech" in Techdirt
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