Hasbro Sends Sharron Angle Cease & Desist For Monopoly-Like Game Board On Website

from the cultural-commentary dept

It does seem odd that Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle (who apparently has a half-decent chance of winning) keeps running into intellectual property issues. Angle, of course, was the candidate who promised to sue Harry Reid, whose job she's trying to take, for copyright infringement, because his campaign reposted an older version of her website to suggest she was changing her positions. As far as I can tell, no such lawsuit was ever actually filed. However, Angle got into some infringement hot water herself when Righthaven sued her for copying a LVRJ article on her website. Now we can add Hasbro to the list. Hasbro, the notoriously overprotective game maker, is threatening Angle because she put up a fake gameboard for a game which attacks Reid. Apparently, the boardgame looks too much like Monopoly for Hasbro's tastes. Apparently, Hasbro wants to make sure it keeps its monopoly on Monopoly... If Angle actually wins, it would be nice if she then used her new job to help fix problematic intellectual property laws that get in the way of free speech, but seeing as she seemed willing (at least in talking) to use the laws herself in the same manner, I doubt we'll see anything productive from her on this topic.

Filed Under: harry reid, monopoly, sharron angle, trademark
Companies: hasbro

Sharron Angle Insists She's Going To Sue Harry Reid For His Reposting Of Angle's Own Website

from the political-calculations dept

Earlier this week, we wrote about the bizarre decision by Nevada Senatorial candidate Sharron Angle to send a cease-and-desist to Sen. Harry Reid (who she's challenging in the election) over Reid's decision to put her old website back online. Reid was doing so to point to statements Angle made on her old website that were toned down on her new website. The idea, of course, is to suggest that she's hiding her real positions. Whether or not that's true, Angle accused Reid of both copyright infringement and trying to trick users into giving the Reid campaign their information.

The Reid campaign originally complied with the cease-and-desist and (of course) went public with it, generating much more attention to the original issue. With so much publicity, Reid's campaign has put the website back up. Assuming that the reposted website is the same as what was up before, it's clearly done by the Reid campaign -- so the claims of possible confusion or tricking users is ridiculous.

However, Angle is now saying that since Reid has put the website back up, she's definitely going to sue:

"Well your website is like you, it's your intellectual property," Angle said. "So they can't use something that's yours, intellectual property, unless they pay you for it or get your permission... And he didn't ask me for it, and he didn't pay me for it. I would have sold it to him."

Angle was asked: "So the latest is that it is up again, and you are just going to have to see as far as pursing this in court? Is that the plan?"

"Well we are going to pursue it," Angle replied. "I don't think that Harry is above the law. He needs to obey the law if you and I need to obey the law. Harry isn't immune. He needs to obey the law as well."

Now, at a first pass, Angle (while a bit confused on the terminology) is probably correct that Reid is technically "infringing" by posting the website, but the Reid campaign would (I'm sure) hit back with a nice fair use defense that would have a pretty high likelihood of succeeding. That said, the whole idea of actually going to court over this is preposterous. This is clearly not what copyright law is about and the whole point by the Reid campaign is to draw more attention to Angle's old website. If she were politically savvy, she would just drop it, rather than drawing more attention to it herself. Going to court makes her old website the story, even as she's trying to hide it.

Filed Under: copyright, harry reid, nevada, politics, sharron angle, websites

Senate Candidate Angle Accuses Senator Reid Of Copyright Infringement For Displaying Angle's Website

from the that's-not-how-this-works dept

The internet never forgets, but apparently, someone involved in the Senate election campaign for Sharron Angle was unaware of this fact. It appears that Angle and her staff are also quite unaware of The Streisand Effect. As you may or may not know, Angle is running for US Senator in Nevada, where she's challenging current Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Reid, apparently, has been using images from Angle's primary campaign website against her. Angle apparently totally revamped her website after winning the primary, apparently to tone down some of the rhetoric on the website. So, she's not very pleased that Reid is showing off her old website -- which his staff apparently reposted at a new domain.

So, what does she do? She sends a cease-and-desist to Reid for publishing her own website claiming that it infringed on her copyright. No, seriously. You can read the cease & desist here and laugh along with it. Her lawyers claim that Reid only did this to capture email addresses under false pretenses, but it seems pretty clear that Reid's campaign just wanted to highlight some of Angle's more incendiary comments from the primary campaign, which she's now trying to back away from.

And, of course, because of all of this, Angle and her lawyers handed the Reid campaign a perfect peg to highlight exactly those statements.

Filed Under: campaigns, copyright, harry reid, nevada, senate, sharron angle