Philip Morris Sends Cease & Desist To Artist For Using Marlboro Box In His Art
from the have-you-met-ms.-streisand? dept
Every time you think that lawyers may have finally caught on to the fact that sending out ridiculous cease and desist letters to silence things they don't like will backfire on them, you hear of yet another case of it happening. This time it's tobacco giant Philip Morris, who sent a cease & desist letter to artist Brad Troemel for some artwork he had up on his Etsy page. He had two different pieces for sale on Etsy, each involving a Marlboro box. One of them is still up. It's the "dean & deluca low calorie snack inside Marlboro box w/ Cerebral Palsy Tissue/Organ Kidney Cancer Green Ribbon Glittery Sticker (Ethical) 1/2" (catchy name):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: art, brad troemel, marlboro, streisand effect, trademark
Companies: philip morris
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But Philip Morris might be right...
:-)
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Re: But Philip Morris might be right...
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Re: Re: But Philip Morris might be right...
Our government stops us from using lots of substances that kill us at lots of different rates.
This one just has better lobbyists.
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Re: Re: But Philip Morris might be right...
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Re: But Philip Morris might be right...
Most people start smoking as teenagers, so yes, you're probably right.
What happened with that painting of a soup can? Wasn't there a lawsuit involved, and didn't they get bitch slapped back?
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Re: Re: But Philip Morris might be right...
Also, soup companies can CwF too: http://blogs.geniocity.com/friedman/2010/08/campbell-soups-response-to-andy-warhols-appropriation/
http://madisonian.net/2012/08/30/warhol-and-campbells-soup/
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One notion is that ANY publicity is good.
I've noticed product placement here and there across teh internets, I suppose mostly on the Cheezburger sites: I don't claim to know, or even cast aspersions, but has struck me that would be good for subtle free advertising. -- If I've thought of it, so has everyone with a direct interest. Just saying.
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Re: One notion is that ANY publicity is good.
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Re:
Is there anyway they can be made responsible for not protecting their IPR?
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Warhol.
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respect
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He should not only be sued for violating their trademark, but he should be thrown in jail for child abuse. Even though smoking wasn't seen as a big deal at the time, HE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN.
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Cigarettes SUCK
Tobacco/cigarette companies *** S U C K ***.
Laws that protect the deception by tobacco/cigarette companies over the truth about the ingredients and carcinogenic chemicals purposely sprayed on tobacco that kills my friends and family *** S U C K ***.
Lawyers that attempt to protect tobacco/cigarette companies from looking like they *** S U C K ***, *** S U C K ***.
Anything tobacco/cigarette companies do to protect their [death by manufacturing] products makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, and only makes it crystal clear that in making their living, producing these death sticks, they are not the least bit concerned with the health of the world. Oh, but guard that mark.
That *** S U C K S ***.
Its time to quit smoking if you haven't already. Don't give them any more of your money.
Don't *** S U C K ***.
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Fair use and transformitive arts
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They have a point...
So, apart from the discussion of whether it is ok to use IP in this specific case, there might be other reasons to stop these kind of use. One of them being indirect advertisement to minors, even if not done directly by PM. If PM doesn't do anything to combat this use, they can get bad press from anti-tobacco organizations that they are not doing enough to combat advertising to minors.
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