Apr 24 2008
Parents of soldier killed in Iraq sue maker of “Bush Lied” t-shirt featuring his name
Via Hot Air:
The Smoking Gun has a copy of the complaint. Turning KIAs into political props is bad enough; getting rich off it — profits may reach $75,000 in this case — is execrable. Any tort lawyers in the audience want to skim through and weigh in on the likelihood of victory? If the parents can get it to a jury they’re golden, but can they? One of their claims, negligent infliction of emotional distress, is sketchy. Another, intentional infliction of emotional distress, is sturdier, but a judge might use the precedent of the Falwell case to find that the t-shirt maker’s First Amendment rights trump. (Falwell dealt with parody, not political speech, but it’s easy to imagine how a court might extend it.)
The real issue for the lawyers has to do with the remaining claim, the right of publicity. I’ve always understood that to be a specie of trademark jurisprudence: Your name and likeness can’t be used without your permission to hawk goods if people would be misled into thinking it was an endorsement. As far as I know, there’s no right of publicity at stake in a shirt that reads “Tom Cruise Sucks” since no one would be misled into thinking Tom Cruise had licensed it. Featuring the names of dead soldiers on an anti-war shirt isn’t quite as cut and dried as that, but I’ve personally never assumed that the families of the fallen have licensed the names and/or images of the troops used in those dopey mosaics of Bush’s face, so in no sense am I really being misled. The question, then, is whether the right at stake is a simple property right — you can’t use anyone else’s name for any reason, period — or whether there has to be some element of trying to “pass off” the name being used as an endorsement. Not sure where the law stands on that, but note what the Smoking Gun says in its introduction about the Arizona statute passed last year. I’m guessing the parents have an uphill climb here.
LSU hopes the lawsuit wins. If these people do not have the sense to be respectful they shouldn’t be allowed to get rich off of their callousness.
Trackposted to Rosemary’s Thoughts, third world county, Faultline USA, A Newt One- help us catch a monster, Woman Honor Thyself, Adam’s Blog, Maggie’s Notebook, Right Truth, Shadowscope, Celebrity Smack, The Pink Flamingo, The Amboy Times, , Conservative Cat, Right Voices, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
16 Responses to “Parents of soldier killed in Iraq sue maker of “Bush Lied” t-shirt featuring his name”
Leave a Reply
You can track future comments on this post via this RSS feed. You can trackback this post by pinging this URL.
Allowed HTML: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
I agree with you. This is very low, but then again, they are scum to begin with anyway. I sure pray the parents win. They may have a chance at ‘disrespecting the dead’, what do you think? We’ve always been keen on this. Especially our servicemembers.
Flight 93 Blogburst 4.23.08…
Angry over the Islamic symbolism contained in the Flight 93 Memorial Design, which appears to honor both the heroes and the terrorists, a group of concerned citizens asked Harry Beam (Lt. Col. U.S. Army Retired) to lead an organized effort to have th…..
I hadnt heard this at all..absolutely unforgiveable my friend!!
Politics Sucks…
Today we are told there is “video evidence of North Koreans working at a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor just before it was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike last September.” The Syrian facility is code-named Al Kibar. “The belief is that…
I not only hope the parents win the suit, but I hope against hope that damages assessed are so great as to impoverish the family(ies) of the offenders for seven generations.
Fatwa over printing of holy names on bottles…
Hat tip, Random American.99 bottles are banned on the wall, 99 bottles are baaaaanned,take them down, change them around,or else there’ll be a fatwa caaaall!A fatwa has been issued by Dubai Islamic Affairs Department (DIAD) to ban printing of names…
Stocking up…
WSJ’s Brett Arends opined the other day that “maybe it’s time for Americans to start stockpiling food.” Maybe it is.
……
McCain’s Calendar…
Tags: President McCain, calendars, schedulesTrackposted to Diary of the Mad Pigeon, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Right Truth, The World According to Carl, The Amboy Times, Leaning Straight Up, , Conservative ……
Former (I like saying that) President Clinton Flayed for Rare Moment of Truth…
…attacking a mentally disabled guy for speaking the truth (even though he later stupidly denied it…) is just not nice.
……
Surrender Monkey Friday: Just Get Over It…
This is making Surrendie nuts, and is sure to make the Nutroots even nuttier
People who believe the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision giving the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush was politically motivated should just get over it, says Justice…
Surrender Monkey Friday: Just Get Over It…
This is making Surrendie nuts, and is sure to make the Nutroots even nuttier
People who believe the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision giving the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush was politically motivated should just get over it, says Justice…
Wright on Obama: “he says what he has to say as a politician”…
Wright says his words were twisted:
“I felt it was unfair,” Mr. Wright said, according to excerpts of the interview released Thursday. “I felt it was unjust. I felt it was untrue. I felt for those who were doing that, were doing it for some very …
We are seeing more warnings about Cooling…
We are seeing more and more reports regarding the threat of Global Cooling and even an impending Ice Age. The global warming alarmists right away jump to their usual claim that the data is being “cherry-picked” while discounting the effect that the s…
U.N. Declares Rising Food Costs a ‘Silent Tsunami’…
This is the legacy of trying to solve the so-called man-made global warming problem….
Should TIME apologize for offending our military?…
I am outraged that TIME magazine has compared the “war” on global warming to our nation’s great world wars — and that TIME defamed the iconic photo of the Marines landing at IwoJima by putting a tree in the hands of the Marines!…
NaPoWriMo 26…
……