Hey, I’m About to Be Sued!
So a long time ago, I posted an image I made of a Buddha holding a bottle that kind of looks like mountain dew. Later I intentionally altered the bottle so it didn’t say Mountain Dew, changed the design of the bottle so it was more generic, and in so doing created a unique design that nobody except myself would hold ownership of.
Not only is parody covered by fair use (this image is definitely a parody) but my parody is of a product design and type I created myself. So I am immune to claims of copyright infringement except by me.
Anyway to make a very long story short, I’m challenging a claim of copyright infringement by PepsiCo, and waiting on their legal department to define their claim and provide evidence of my infringement.
The sad part is, this is the highlight of my day.
This is literally the first thing I read this morning. So I going to need more details.
How long ago was this? Where was the image posted? How could they trace it back to you as the author? Any reason why they’re targeting your parody and not any of the million others? Just how serious is all this? How do you plan on getting this matter resolved?
Also, how bad of day do you have to be having for this to count as a highlight? You doing all right, buddy?
Sue them back. Make them pay for your dental bills and your low sperm count.
Well… Here’s life for me lately: I’m taking a medication for a jaw infection whose primary side effect is the total loss of smell and taste (this may or may not be semi-permanent), I live in constant pain from seven exposed tooth nerve roots (and one infected tooth socket) which I don’t have the money to deal with right now, am exhausted from staying up until 5am every night getting homework done, discovered the cost of keeping my skin condition in check (and not winding up with fish scales for skin) is going to run me $400 a month for maybe forever, and yesterday I found out I am basically flunking my math class because I can’t really focus on anything due to the above, plus pretty severe depression and excrutiating muscle injuries which are being exasperated by the extreme high quality of PCC’s chairs. So that’s why this whole ‘could be sued’ event actually counts as a positive experience. I’ll post up more about this stuff later on. For right now, I’m going to watch shit my TiVo recorded for me and wait for Futurama to start up.
I’m sorry to hear about all of the bad stuff that seems to be piling up. Do you have a “checkpoint” in sight? Sometimes if you can just make it to the next semester, or even the next free weekend and properly recharge your batteries you’ll find that situations which seemed hopeless now seem less so.
I hope we’ll see you for Geoff’s game on Sunday.
Last night’s Futurama was pretty great. I’ll get a review up later.
But please, could you elaborate on this whole PepsiCo thing? Just what the fuck is going on? It seems strange for me to be so fixated on this. It would be like if I found the most interesting thing about hurricane Katrina to be its effects on catfish mating habits. With all the stuff going on, I should put my mind on other things. And yet, I can’t. This story is just too bizarre for me to let go of. What is going on with this?