Tuesday, March 09, 2004

Beating Mastercard in Court: Priceless

During the 2000 elections down in the States, Ralf Nader created a parody of the Mastercard Priceless commercials critiquing the corporate interests behind the Bush and Gore campaigns. Mastercard sued Nader and his campaign claiming copyright infringement. After four years of battles, the court has finally ruled for Nader.

Threatening letters to people who satirize you: $500

Reputation as giant corporation required to intimidate publisher: $Billions

Trial court decisions protecting parody and satire from overzealous accusations of copyright and trademark infringement: Priceless

There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's Mastercard's lawyers.
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