Another Nail in the Coffin for Free Speech

[Renegade]

Yeah, it's stupid, but...

http://www.guardian....oo-goo?newsfeed=true

Lady Gaga may call her fans "little monsters" but it appears she has no love for Moshi Monsters, after taking legal action in an effort to stop the children's social network using an animated character, singer Lady Goo Goo.

The Paparazzi singer gained an interim injunction against the parent company of the wildly popular Moshi Monsters, banning Lady Goo Goo from performing songs on YouTube, the Guardian has learned.

Isn't this covered by parody?

[Stoic Joker]

Isn't this covered by parody?

-Renegade (October 16, 2011, 09:35 AM)

I should certainly think so.

[Carol Haynes]

Maybe the Queen should tell her she can't use the title 'Lady'!

And the group Queen should assert the right to Ga Ga!

How is Lady Goo Goo even related as a name (except as a parody).

I think Moshi Monsters should just launch Lady Ba Ba, Ta Ta, Fa Fa, Na Na, La La, Ka Ka etc. one at a time and keep her in court for the next six months.

[Renegade]

Wouldn't it be nice to see people like "Lady Gaga" and corporations sued for using English?

Really. Like WTF? The English language belongs to the people that speak it, and allowing 1 person or corporation to co-opt portions of it is theft.

So on second thought, forget suing them. Let's just throw them in prison.

(God... I love logic~! )

[Stoic Joker]

Apparently imitation was the sincerest form of flattery...Until somebody decided to get hypersensitive about their cyber bullying platform.

What ever happened to the "Sticks & Stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me" adage that server my generation so well??

[40hz]

Why is anyone surprised!

Lady GaGa is in it purely for the money.

Once you understand that, everything else she and her handlers do follows naturally from it.
 

[Paul Keith]

It seems Gaga just hate baby parodies and not all parodies.

Before Lady GooGoo was a baby, she was a game developer in Kairo Soft's Hit Android/Iphone Game, Game Dev Story:

The character sprite should be the one on the top right if it isn't Maria Sharpovich. Both sprites nearly look the same.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHARACTER'S NAME
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

###############################################################################
IN-HOUSE
###############################################################################

Newb Ownerton
- Newb owned (Newbies getting owned)
- Newb owner (Someone who owns Newbies)
- New Business Owner (suggested by Bryan)

Biggs Porkins
- A combination of Biggs Darklighter and Jek Porkins', fans of Star Wars
  universe should recognise this

Sam Ulation
- Simulation

Cokie Bottleson
- Coke Bottle

Gilly Bates
- Bill Gates

Lady Googoo
- Lady Gaga

[Renegade]

Why is anyone surprised!

Lady GaGa is in it purely for the money.

Once you understand that, everything else she and her handlers do follows naturally from it.
 

-40hz (October 16, 2011, 11:54 AM)

It's fine to be in it for the money, but this whole, "I'm going to co-opt language/words for myself and call it copyright/trademark," or "I'm going to co-opt mathematics for myself and call it patent," is just nutty. "Googoo gaga" is common, and I don't see how a court can possibly rule as above.

As far as I can see, it's fine for Lady Gaga to sue like she did as there is no law against being an idiot. However, it's not the job of the courts to be idiots. Somewhere that distinction got lost.

[IainB]

It's fine to be in it for the money, but this whole, "I'm going to co-opt language/words for myself and call it copyright/trademark," or "I'm going to co-opt mathematics for myself and call it patent," is just nutty. "Googoo gaga" is common, and I don't see how a court can possibly rule as above.

As far as I can see, it's fine for Lady Gaga to sue like she did as there is no law against being an idiot. However, it's not the job of the courts to be idiots. Somewhere that distinction got lost.

-Renegade (October 16, 2011, 05:57 PM)

Well, as the old saw goes, "The law's an ass.".
Components of the legal system - including lawyers, courts, and judges - have long demonstrated a parasitic and self-serving capacity for complicity in arriving at nutty rulings. This is a "good thing" for the legal profession, as it feeds the whole legal machine with more makework, so that the appeal courts have something to do to overturn the nutty rulings - except that they might come up with alternative nutty rulings too. Then there will be more appeals and paid work for the lawyers. Oh dear, what a pity, never mind.

There is no law against being an idiot, but there is probably an unwritten law for lawyers to ensure that where there is an idiot litigant with lotsa money, the two should be separated as expeditiously as possible - "A fool and his money are soon parted."

Anyway, in LGG's case, who knows? For example, it may well be a case of any publicity is deemed as being good publicity - notorious or otherwise. One thing you can be sure of - the lawyers will never be heard to complain.

[Renegade]

One thing you can be sure of - the lawyers will never be heard to complain.

-IainB (October 16, 2011, 07:44 PM)

b r o . . . k e n . . . s y s . . . t e m . . .

Wonder if these people would have anything to say on the topic:

http://en.wikipedia..../wiki/GooGoo_Cluster

The GooGoo Cluster is an American candy bar sold since 1912 in Nashville, Tennessee.

[CWuestefeld]

Bear in my that this is Great Britain. I don't know how their law works, but it's a no-brainer that this wouldn't work in the USA.

First it's not IP law. The name "Lady Gaga" can't be copyrighted; indeed, it's encouraged for others to use it, as in, "I'd like to buy that Lady Gaga record". And obviously it's not a patent.

It can't be some kindle of libel law, because it doesn't even claim to be referring to her.

That pretty much leaves trademark law. But trademark law isn't there to protect the maker, it's there to protect the consumer from being misled/confused into buying a product other than the one that they think they're buying. But in this case, there's no confusion because (a) Lady Gaga isn't an animated monster; (b) the Googoo people aren't actually selling anything (at least not in this context).

[Paul Keith]

“English trademark law allows parody songs and tribute bands, but not if the names are too similar and one takes unfair advantage of the other’s goodwill,” he said.

http://www.washingto...IQAYpznjL_story.html

[Renegade]

“English trademark law allows parody songs and tribute bands, but not if the names are too similar and one takes unfair advantage of the other’s goodwill,” he said.

http://www.washingto...IQAYpznjL_story.html

-Paul Keith (October 18, 2011, 12:36 AM)

Hmmm... that gets me thinking...

Is "Woman B!+ch B!+ch" too similar, or would "Female Meanie Meanie" work better?

Meh... I really have no interest in trying to understand the logic behind how the two are "too similar". Besides, I don't drop acid or do other psychedelics (anymore), so I'm handicapped there.

[JoTo]

Well, I'm not astonished at all.

In germany the term "Ga-Ga" has also the meaning of being an idiot, insane, crazy, lunatic, retarded anyway. Like we germans say "Er oder Sie ist Ga-Ga!" (He or She is Ga-Ga - replace the Ga-Ga with your most preferred word from my above mentioned list).

I knew already for a longer time that this useless carbon unit (i avoid calling her a human being intentionally), that others call her a singer or worse an artist (EEEEEEK!) is DEFINITIFELY GA-GA! Look at her outfits, performances and last but not least horrible music (if you insist to call it music).

So i think, YES she have the right to insist in this name and all derivations. Because she is "THE GENUINE GA-GA" in the german meaning.</ironic>

What concerns me much more is, that there are so many dumb kids around that like her and her <vomit>music</vomit>.

Poor poor world.

I feel fear for our human future and our world
JoTo

PS:
To be serious, i hate when this copyright topics happens. Remember that someone tried to "patent" the word Webspace to get money from everyone that uses that word in any context? Thanks god that patent was refused by an intelligent person. And the freeware author of FTP-Explorer (an ftp client) that got sued to not use the word "Explorer" for his app? WTF! Where will all this end? I think i should patent the word "the" for me and become a billionare from all the license fees i'll get. And jugdes that decide this way have either NO IDEA what they are doing or are GA-GA too. Well in both cased, they should be removed from their job. Just my 2ct. *ShakingMyHead* Tsk Tsk Tsk!