Okay, I'll stand up for Garrison.
Obviously, I AM NOT A LAWYER.
It seems to me MNSpeak.com's case rests on the fact that the t-shirt is parody, and could not be mistaken for the real thing.
BUT, MNSpeak.com repeatedly mentions that Garrison Keillor is a liberal. Being known as a liberal, isn't it likely that someone seeing the t-shirt might think it is endorsed by Garrison Keillor?
Sure, MNSpeak.com has a disclaimer viewed on their website when they sell the t-shirt, but the public viewer of the shirt when it is worn will not see the disclaimer.
Keillor already faces attacks from the right-wing machine. Why should a fellow liberal supply them with ammunition?
Instapundit: So many sharks, jumped so long ago.
A lapse of judgment like this one isn't sufficient for dickhood. He might need to surrender his mensch card, though.
Keillor became a dick when he dumped the mother of his children for the nanny.
Maybe if Jude Law moves to Minnesota and converts to Lutheranism, we'll be even steven.
I dunno, six, seven years ago? I lived about half a mile from him for a few years--word gets around.
If it's any comfort, the wife he dumped for the nanny was herself the much younger woman that he left his first wife for. (So maybe that's when he first became a dick. I dunno.)
Tia--I would very much like to see Jude Law eat jello with shaved carrots in it. And lutefisk.
As long as everyone got paid, I'm not sure we should care that he changes spouses with tie width. It doesn't fit his image, though.
According to this biography, his first marriage (from which he has a son, who works for his radio company) ended in 1976. At some point thereafter he had a relationship with one of the producers of his show, and in 1985 married a Danish woman he met at a school reunion. This marriage, which ended in the early nineties, apparently produced no children. He's now married to a violinist, with whom he has a six year old (at the article's writing) daughter.
This doesn't on its face support the nanny theory.
This piece has more details. It seems it was leaving his producer that gave Minnesotans a snit.
I'm not convinced this is a lapse in judgement. (I mean the C and D letter).
He might be obligated to defend his trademark or risk losing it.
The dicks are all the MNSpeak ignoramuses who think being liberal means letting yourself get ripped off.
It appears that I was incorrect. Everything I've heard locally supports not just the dick theory, but the major dick theory.
If it turns out that his failure to enforce his mark eliminates it altogether, I'd think he was being less of a dick. Not being a lawyer, I don't know anything about this, but it strikes me as implausible that there's a de facto legal requirement to threaten even in cases that are pretty obviously within fair use. Couldn't Keillor just say, well, this case looked like fair use to our lawyers, and so it wasn't worth fighting over?
In other words: surely there's some discretion, and surely this is a case where it's called for.
Maybe GK is making the case that the parody represents trademark dilution—which seems partly the point of parody, no?
Also: No one here actually listens to Prairie Home Companion, right?
If it's on when I'm in the car, usually I won't change the station.
I find the show incredibly grating. I do, however, like Mr. Blue.
If I'm in the car when it is on I do. I like the slower pacing. I also like the choice of music as a change of pace.
There's a very strong argument that this is parody. I don't know whether that militates in favor of GK being a dick or not, but his case isn't great.
And I doubt he's being ripped off -- in the sense that, I doubt that he is losing money, market cache, whatever, through the sale of these shirts.
Dilution can result in loss of trademark, but that requires a lot more than something like this. I think, as a matter of law, parody cannot constitute dilution.
But I don't really know anything about IP law.
While I don't know anything about GK personally, I wouldn't say that this means more than that his lawyer is a dick. While I'm pretty sure (and I'm completely not an IP expert, so 'pretty sure' may include 'wrong') that there's no danger of GK's waiving any rights by letting this go, given that it's clearly a parody, IP is a technical enough area that I'd expect the client to be deferring to the attorney about what is a necessary response. I wouldn't blame an overreaction like this on the client.
Kellior may still be a dick, of course.
The blogger in the linked post says he talked to Keillor's lawyer, who said he'd check with his client about withdrawing the C&D demand, and then came back saying that his client wished to proceed.
Does it make a difference if we learn that the attorney is Keillor's brother-in-law?
(The claim was made over at MNspeak, in comments. I dunno if it's true.)
BTW, a good friend of mine, Bietz, is one of the posters there (he's also the guy who started paranoidandroid, the intermittent group blog where I hang my blog hat).
came back saying that his client wished to proceed.
It still doesn't mean that GK wasn't heavily influenced by the way his lawyer presented the legal situation. This could be GK being an ass, I just wouldn't take it as established without knowing what his lawyer's telling him.
which way does it cut that the t-shirts aren't actually funny at all?
text, I was just wondering about that. What is a prairie ho companion? Is this like an "I'm with Stupid" t-shirt?
one that resides in a grassland of some sort, yes.
I recently saw a "I'm no longer with stupid" t-shirt, and I envied for it.
Were I able to get pregnant, I'd never stop wearing this shirt.
you could wear it anyway, in reference to the second brain.
A very skinny friend of mine once wore an "I'm not fat, I'm pregnant" shirt, and as he was not with child, or fat, it worked on many wonderful levels.
Prarie Home Companion sucks, but the trademark laws do pretty much require you to be a dick about these things or you will lose your trademark. For example, R. Crumb lost his ability to restrict those "keep on truckin" t-shirts because he waited too long to sue people.
I am not sure how the parody defence plays in here. You are likely to be more succesful on a parody defence when the target of the parody is the actual holder of the trademark rather than some other thing. If the shirts were making fun of something related to the show they would have a better case.
Garrison Keilor can be quite funny. The "Update" article seems silly and bitter, and to take PHC too personally. And, while I have not read any of them since HS, the comparison of the PHC to the Spoon River Anthologies, seems unfair as one is written out, and the other is largely impromptu performance.
Joe--Did R Crumb trademark "Keep On Truckin'," or was it just a copyright? Though (non-lawyer) I'd expect preserving trademarks to require more active behavior.
Trademark dilution was how MAD magazine got to keep Alfred E. Neuman as its mascot, so it's not all bad.
The article is about Writer's Almanac, not PHC. And WA *is* pretty smarmy.
RE 38
I can't find the case, but it looks like I was wrong and it was a copyright case.
WA is smarmy. But, it isn't really the poem selection that makes it smarmy. Keilor surely has an intern pick the poems. The smarminess comes from Keilor's solemn tone. Writing isn't religion.
Which makes me discount Kleinzahler's discussion of the book as opposed to the radio show. Kleinzahler would require that the poems be written in a manner that they couldn't be spoken in a pompous manner.
Kleinzahler even critizes a poem that isn't in the book for being the kind of poem that Keilor would like. And, it isn't even a bad poem. Just too popular for its own good.
It appears that I was incorrect. Everything I've heard locally supports not just the dick theory, but the major dick theory.
You know, maybe it's time to stop trading in minneapolis gossip when the first item turns out to be totally wrong. There's a certain amount of midwestern enforced sameness in the resentment of the man.
I find it funny that people are surprised and angry that he might be a dick. You've gotta be pretty invested in that persona he plays to get so worked up about it. And I actually go out of my way to listen to the show sometimes (I'm just a fogey before my time - don't get me going on girls with tattoo's... we'll all regret it).
girls with tattoo's
Girls with tattoo's what? Accent? "De plane! De plane!"
Well, I would rather he not be a dick. But if he is, I'm not angry about it, just jolted out of my preconceptions. It was easy to confuse the man with his persona, having had nothing else to go on.
It would be a mistake to measure my anti-dick-meme zeal by my enthusiasm for debunkery.
It would be a mistake to measure my anti-dick-meme zeal by my enthusiasm for debunkery.
Point taken. I wasn't thinking of you as much as some diffuse band of GK haters. Though I suppose they're motivated more by distaste for his style - kind of like us bush haters saying again and again - see he's totally disingenuous!
btw, sb, I for one didn't take you for a phc type. but i'm a notoriously poor judge of character.
In exchange for Keillor's millions, I would be perfectly willing to continue to be a dick.
Lake Wobegon, where all the dicks are above average.
I actually do live in Lake Wobegon now, you know. I sneer at Chopper's faux-Wobegon act.
Or whoever it is who claims to be from Minnesota.
btw, sb, I for one didn't take you for a phc type.
Well, I knew that ogged would have guessed so. That was enough to make me feel blandly predictable.
That ogged. How does he know so much? Does his one shirt, in exchange for his undivided loyalty, grant him powers unknown to the many-shirted?
he does have access to all of our IP addresses. Yours must say: I like schmaltzy radio programs.
Oh, I'm from Minnesota, too, but I hardly pull a faux-Wobegon. I'm in the Twin Cities. Tripp is in Rochester.
Also, and perhaps this goes without saying: kiss my ass.
That ogged. How does he know so much?
I think there's some ineffable correlation between John Denver and Garrison Keillor. Something eerily wholesome....
I should say that my anti-Keillor rant wasn't motivated by love or hate for his show or his public persona. It's more the "rich famous dude throwing his weight around vs. some relatively unfunny but harmless anonymous parodists." Like negativland vs. U2 or something.
Something eerily wholesome
That's actually not far from the reason I figured SB as a PHC fan. SB is so nice, I'm beginning to wonder if he's Canadian.
Also, and perhaps this goes without saying: kiss my ass.
Thanks for spelling it out. I don't read context well.
On the other hand...
Some evidently "sick and twisted" people are, deep down, "eerily wholesome". This is the obverse of the well-known neighbor's comment on the serial killer: "but he was such a quiet, polite man". Also, as long as we're slandering our neighbors to the North, I well remember Paul Bernardo and I have no illusion about wholesome Canadians.
SB: too sick and twisted to be sick and twisted. We hope.
Oh, I'm from Minnesota, too, but I hardly pull a faux-Wobegon.
The term is "fauxbegon".
I find it funny that people are surprised and angry that he might be a dick. You've gotta be pretty invested in that persona he plays to get so worked up about it.
It cuts to the quick of his neighborly-Joe thing,
That Keillor's a dick about parody clothing.
That was worth the wait, I'm sure.