Lady Googoo Gone Gone After Lady Gaga Gets Injunction Against Parody
from the Gaga-goes-Googoo dept
Lady Gaga is notoriously protective of her image. So much so, that it often seems that, to her, copyright is not about her music but her image. This attitude has led her to go on the offensive over random things that she (or her people) see as attacks on her image or brand -- such as ice cream. Now, she has taken to task parodies of her songs. While parody is protected in the US under fair use laws, the same cannot be said about the UK.According to a Guardian report, Lady Gaga has won an injunction against Moshi Monsters developers, Mind Candy, over a parody character name 'Lady Googoo'. Lady Googoo is one of many parody characters in Moshi Monsters. Mind Candy had planned to build upon this character and had gone as far as creating animated music videos parodying songs by Lady Gaga (I have embedded one below for those feeling adventurous and/or masochistic). Unfortunately, Lady Gaga doesn't have a sense of humor about the situation and it appears that neither do the UK courts.
Justice Vos has ruled that Mind Candy cannot play or offer for sale any Lady Googoo songs. However he did rule that the character, Lady Googoo, herself is safe to be included in the game as long as it is not associated with any of the songs.
Lady Gaga stated that this move was to protect her image as people may be confused and think that these parody songs and videos have an official connection to her. In response, Michael Action Smith, Mind Candy's founder, said, "It's pretty obvious that kids will be able to tell the difference between the two characters." I can certainly tell the difference, but Lady Gaga and the courts couldn't.
What is really troubling about this is that it exemplifies what damage can be done when fair use is limited. As UK copyright law is currently written, parody is not legal and many artists are limited because of it. As Alastair Shaw, counsel at law firm Hogan Lovells said:
Tribute bands and parody songs have been around for years but what this case shows is the potential power of registered trademark law to put a stop to some of their activities.Without parody protection in copyright law, artists like Weird Al would have never become successful. Based on proposed changes to UK copyright laws, this type of parody could be protected in the future. Until the government of the UK takes action, more artists and companies will be harmed through lawsuits such as this. Not only will artists be harmed, but consumers and fans will be as well. As Smith says:
This may be particularly important for tribute acts or characters with names which are similar to the original acts, as they frequently are, who want to comercialise a track parodying a well-known song.
The shame is that millions of kids fell in love with Lady Goo Goo's debut single on YouTube and now won't be able to enjoy her musical exploits. It was all done in the name of fun and we would have thought that Lady Gaga could have seen the humor behind this parody.So much for humor when faced against copyright laws.
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Filed Under: lady gaga, lady googoo, moshi monsters, parody, uk
Companies: mind candy
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Maybe
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Sigh
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Re: Sigh
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As for Gaga's sense of entitlement, well, she is entitled to it unless she gets legally slapped down. You may not like it, you may not like the way she manifests it, but it's legal and up front.
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Anyway, TL;DR; Weird Al is aware of his right to be able to parody and has explicitly stated so before, but chooses not to exercise that right.
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Please correct if I'm wrong..
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He approached Lady Gaga (the company, not the individual) with the idea of a parody. He presented them with the parody lyrics, but they made the unusual demand to hear the song before deciding to give permission or not. He said on his blog that this is something he does not do, because of the costs involved in producing the song are such that he wants to be sure he can use it before shelling out the bucks.
He made an exception in this case, and produced the song. After Team Gaga heard it, they declined to give permission. This pissed him off pretty royally, so he hedged a tiny bit on his "I always get permission" rule and released the song online only. After the ensuing bad press for Lady Gaga, they changed their mind and gave permission.
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From the horse's mouth: http://alyankovic.wordpress.com/the-gaga-saga/
He did something similar with "You're Pitiful" (parody of James Blunt's "You're Beautiful" -- although, in that case, the artist had given permission, and it was the publisher that told Al no, so his internet release was to spite the label, not the artist. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You're_Pitiful
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Re: Sigh
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Isn't a persona a scarce good?
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Re: Isn't a persona a scarce good?
The sad thing about it is she really has a good voice but rarely uses it to its potential, and she is an accomplished pianist but wastes that talent as well. Sadly, she has chosen to market herself as performance art instead of creating music as art.
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I dont really see the problem
The reason parodies are allowed is to prevent stifling of free speech, enabling people to mock sources.
But this video does not mock anything at all. You could argue its a tribute, but by no stretch of the imagination is it a parody.
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Re: I dont really see the problem
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Let the Streisand Effect be with you
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So she says her fans are idiots
So she's basically telling us that her fans are idiots who can't tell the two apart.
She clearly has a particularly low opinion of her own fans. I'd feel pretty insulted if I were one.
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Re: So she says her fans are idiots
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Agreed, because they're born that way.
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History...
At this point, I think the Republicans would stamp out parody in the US if they could. They're really easy targets, and have lost elections with parody playing a big part. (Bob Dole and Palin jump to mind.) On the other side, the Democrats would just stamp out anything that hurt anyone's feelings.
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do we know...?
is this really her instigating this? or is it just more lawyer/record label bullshit?
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Re: do we know...?
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Re: do we know...?
I don't know the answer to your question, but Alfred E. Neuman's lawyers are holding on line 2 for you.
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As the Streisand effect kicks in...
And, yes, using her given name means what it does when a parent uses it to a kid, "ya screwed up".
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Anybody Else Getting “Aqua” Flashbacks?
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My kids can tell the difference
My 7 year old is concerned about the Moshi Monsters "Justin Beaver" character's future.
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