Don't Say Something Bad About John Dillinger; His Great-Nephew Might Sue
from the intellectual-property-run-amok dept
Against Monopoly points us to yet another article highlighting a ridiculous end result of excessive intellectual property laws. You're probably familiar with the name John Dillinger, the famed bank robber who was eventually gunned down outside a Chicago movie theater. Apparently, his grand-nephew is now claiming rights over John Dillinger's name, threatening to sue anyone who refers to Dillinger as a killer or trying to profit off of Dillinger's name. This for a man who died over 70 years ago. This idea that someone's name is "owned" by someone else, seems pretty ridiculous, but is the result of a misreading on an already bad Indiana law on privacy rights. The law was passed in 1994 and only applies to people who died after 1994 -- meaning that Dillinger isn't covered. Also, courts have been striking back against such laws, noting that they're problematic when they end up limiting free speech or giving someone ownership over how factual information can be used. This is an unfortunate result of too many in our society believing that ideas and information can somehow be "owned" and controlled.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: intellectual property, jeffery scalf, john dillinger, privacy rights
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John Dillinger
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Here they come
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little piss ant
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Re: little piss ant
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Don't sue the band.
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Beats working...
And he's trying to capitalize on a law that doesn't apply to John Dillinger. I bet his grand uncle would take him out behind the barn and whoop him good for being such an idiot.
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ignorant
mooresville here
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Dillinger is a killer. Send me a dollar.
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MCP: There's a 68.71 chance you're right.
Dillinger: Cute.
MCP: End of line.
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sf
My favorite megaupload search engine is megauploadfiles.com it’s the most powerful an easy to use. megauploadfiles.com has incredible speed of searching rapidshare links in the internet.
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The real John Dillenger
I really can't stand people who blab on about things without doing any research about them. I don't agree with his great nephew's crap but at least know what you are talking about.
I just worry that their are people out there who vote based on the same lack of research.
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John Dillenger's reputation
I really can't stand people who blab on about things without doing any research about them. I don't agree with his great nephew's crap but at least know what you are talking about.
I just worry that their are people out there who vote based on the same lack of research.
What a joke calling me Anonymous Coward when no one here uses a full name. It must be easy to know who someone called artic actual is(no offense to artic-just an example of how foolish the Anonymous Coward moniker is.
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Religious background
Ray
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are my great aunts.
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John Dillenger
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