Hacker B*****


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Hacker B*****

We have removed this satirical joke because we received a letter from an attorney representing Mattel, Inc. that alledged that this humorous article unlawfully diluted their "BARBIE trademark" [1]. They demanded that we immediatedly remove this satirical article from the internet.

Attorneys advised us (not official legal advice [2] ) that Mattel has no credible claim because the Lanham [3] act states that jokes and satire are not actionable. They also indicated that this would not prevent Mattel from taking action against us and that it would cost us about $100,000 in legal expenses to defend ourselves against this claim.

Since Mattel has very deep pockets and we have virtually no pockets at all, we have no choice but to comply with Mattel's demands.

We feel we were exercising our right of free speech as protected by the First Amendment, unfortunately, we do not have the wherewithall to protect ourselves against major corporations and their lawyers.

Hence, you may not read and enjoy the funny story about Hacker B***** [4] as we were forced to remove it from our site. :-)

Some discussion of this matter and the issues involved may be found in the newsgroup: misc.legal

[1] "15 U.S.C 1125", according to the Mattel attorney.

[2] We can't afford legal advice. [5]

[3] Section from the Lanham Act:

"(4) The following shall not be actionable under this section:
[dilution]

(A). . .
(B) Noncommercial use of a mark.
(C) All forms of news reporting and news commentary."

Jokes and satire fall under B, and usually C.
There is also the matter of the First Amendment, which C is designed to cover.

[4] At least not here, but you can use Infoseek to search on the string: "Hacker-Barbie" [6], without the quotes and locate the same joke on about twenty five other sites which still published the joke at the time of this writing. Hmmmmm. I wonder if Infoseek and the other search engines have gotten one of these letters too. And I wonder if these other websites will be silenced by Mattel and their attorneys by the time you go to look for this joke. I wonder why this whole thing isn't a joke!

[5] Anyone want to setup and/or contribute to a legal defense fund for us? :-)
Contact me - Ken [7] Churilla

[6] "BARBIE" is a registered trademark of Mattel, Inc.

[7] Not affiliated in any way with a doll bearing the same name. This is my given name.

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