'Kony 2012' Filmmakers Can't Take Parody; Send Cease-And-Desist Claiming Copyright & Trademark Infringement

from the hello-copyfraud dept

Wed, Jun 20th 2012 9:34am — Mike Masnick

It's really quite amazing how frequently those targeted by parody freak out and reach for intellectual property law in an attempt to silence the speech directed at them. The latest is the group "Invisible Children", which became quite famous (or infamous) earlier this year for the viral success of the "Kony 2012" video, which sought to build support for arresting Joseph Kony. Apparently a group of NYU grad students created a website called Kickstriker, which is a parody of Kickstarter, but to pretend that it's a crowdsourcing campaign to hire people to go get Kony.

However, as Wired's Danger Room blog discovered, Inivisible Children doesn't like being parodied. So they sent a cease-and-desist arguing that it violated both their copyrights and trademarks.

“It has come to our attention that you are causing public confusion through your use of Invisible Children’s copyrighted and trademarked property on www.kickstriker.com. This impermissible use is a blatant and egregious infringement of Invisible Children’s valuable copyright and trademark rights,” reads a letter Invisible Children sent last week and acquired by Danger Room. “[F]ailure to cease and desist your unlawful use of Invisible Children’s intellectual property will result in legal action.”

Among Invisible Children’s demands: “Confirm in writing that you have permanently deleted all electronic copies of the unauthorized and infringing materials from any computers, servers, or other distribution media”; take down any links to Invisible Children’s material; and declare “in a prominent location” that Kickstriker is “in no way associated with Invisible Children, Inc. or the Kony 2012 campaign.”

Thankfully, the students behind Kickstriker appear to know that these demands are ridiculous and have replied, with an explanation of fair use. You would think, in this day and age, that someone might have explained all that to the Invisible Children folks before they sent the takedown.

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Filed Under: cease and desist, kickstriker, kony 2012, parody
Companies: invisible children

19 Comments

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blaktron (profile), 20 Jun 2012 @ 9:54am

Wouldnt the next logical step be Joseph Kony sending Invisible Children a takedown request? Can they not see that?
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- BentFranklin (profile), 20 Jun 2012 @ 10:32am
  
  Re:
  Er, sorry I did not read your comment carefully enough before posting mine. You were first.
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BentFranklin (profile), 20 Jun 2012 @ 10:25am

Someone please send a DCMA takedown to Invisible Children signed by josephkony@aol.com!
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Donnicton, 20 Jun 2012 @ 10:30am

I'm very surprised now that they haven't tried to do a C&D at this point for psychicpebbles' KONY2012 video.

That one is bordering on 5 million views and is a hell of a lot more crass about it(not to mention hilarious).
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stompsfrogs (profile), 20 Jun 2012 @ 10:42am

By describing their trademark as "valuable," are they not kind of admitting they're a for-profit disguised as a non-profit?
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- samoanbiscuit (profile), 21 Jun 2012 @ 12:35am
  
  Re:
  Well, to be fair, the term is "not-for-profit" not non-profit. It's not that they're not allowed to make money, just that it's not supposed to be their primary goal. I still think they're a bunch of attention hogging idiots who haven't actually done any good.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Jun 2012 @ 11:07am

when there is no punishment for falsely claiming copyright infringement, patent infringement or trademark infringement, why would anyone worry about trying this sort of thing? a lot of instances are won because those accused know no better so, if it can be gotten away with, there are those that will try it on
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- Anonymous Coward, 20 Jun 2012 @ 11:25am
  
  Re:
  Actually, many of the laws regarding the enforcement of IP come with penalty of perjury for takedowns done in bad faith. The DMCA has one such penalty applied to it for false takedown requests.
  
  Of course, none of those are actually enforced because feigning ignorance about the law seems to be a good enough defense for the offending party, but not a good enough defense for the defending party. So we never hear about the thousands of false DMCA takedowns ever being addressed in court.
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- Anonymous Coward, 20 Jun 2012 @ 2:55pm
  
  Re:
  I'm waiting for someone to send a takedown notice to ICAAN. If they'd just shut down the internet, all of this infringement would stop!
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JustMe (profile), 20 Jun 2012 @ 11:50am

Confused
How, exactly, is Kickstriker supposed to be infringing on Kony 2012? It seems to me that any projects which help to raise awareness of dictators are a good thing, unless Kony is claiming to be the arbiter of such things now?

Also, this is clearly protected speech so Kony can go pound sand.
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- Benjo (profile), 20 Jun 2012 @ 12:10pm
  
  Re: Confused
  The site is a work of satire. I think it's coming from the angle that the general online populous likes to pat themselves on the back for "supporting" a good cause. The KONY 2012 lacked direction and purpose. Kony was just the most marketable dictator in Africa, and removing him or killing him would do nothing to help the people living there.
  
  KONY 2012: stopping terrorism one Reddit upvote / Facebook like at a time.
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Sallo (profile), 20 Jun 2012 @ 12:15pm

Raise money
In the Kickstriker about page they say, "We hope to roll out a project submission process in the coming weeks, contingent on the success of the initial round of projects."

Maybe they could raise money with a Kickstarter campaign!!!
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Jun 2012 @ 2:41pm

* KONY 2012 *
He's better than Obama or Romney.
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- Benjo (profile), 20 Jun 2012 @ 6:25pm
  
  Re: * KONY 2012 *
  KONY 2012: Why settle for the lesser evil?
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  - That Anonymous Coward (profile), 20 Jun 2012 @ 8:24pm
    
    Re: Re: * KONY 2012 *
    I represent Cthulhu Dagon and I must insist you stop using our trademarked phrase "Why settle for the lesser evil?" as it is likely to cause confusion with the public.
    
    Please clear this matter up before my Lord strikes you down with madness.
    
    Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn
    
    Bob Bul Head Esq.
    Intellectual Property Law LLC.
    R'lyeh
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    - Anon #41, 21 Jun 2012 @ 10:34am
      
      Re: Re: Re: * KONY 2012 *
      Shouldn't that be "likely to cause panic"?
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Jun 2012 @ 2:52pm

Let me get this right, the campaign created to make Kony famous sent a cease and desist letter to someone mentioning the campaign to make Kony famous. Don't they understand what fame is?
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- blaktron (profile), 21 Jun 2012 @ 8:08am
  
  Re:
  Fame is masturbating in public in San Diego.
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PT, 21 Jun 2012 @ 9:41am

I think the objection is probably less to the mention of the Koni 2012 video and more to the implied criticism on the 'about' page -

"While "Kony 2012" succeeded at raising awareness and connecting potential activists with an issue, it ultimately failed due to suspicions regarding the role that Invisible Children played as a middleman."

In other news, expect them soon to receive a takedown from Academi, for reminding the public that this friendly-sounding company used to be called Blackwater.
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