"The action was a brilliant piece of political theater, but it had a serious purpose: calling attention to the Chamber's political activities," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Corynne McSherry. "This is core political speech, protected by the First Amendment. We're very pleased that Davis Wright Tremaine -- with its long, successful history of protecting free speech rights of Americans -- has joined us in helping these activists battle a transparent attempt at censorship."EFF to Represent Yes Men in Court Battle Over Chamber of Commerce Action (Thanks, Rebecca!)"U.S. courts have recognized that political parody lies at the heart of the First Amendment," said Davis Wright Tremaine LLP partner Bruce Johnson. "Even if the party parodied refuses to giggle--or even panics and sues--free speech will ultimately triumph. We look forward to a prompt dismissal of this case and a reaffirmation of the rights of all Americans to poke fun at the pompous and powerful."
The Chamber has pulled out all the stops in its effort to silence the activists. First, it sent an improper copyright takedown notice to the Yes Men's upstream provider, demanding that a parody website posted in support of the action be removed immediately and resulting in the temporary shutdown of not only the spoof site but hundreds of other sites hosted by May First/People Link. Next, the Chamber filed suit against the activists in federal court, claiming among other things the activism infringed their trademarks.
EFF to represent Yes Men in Chamber of Commerce lawsuit
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Trademark infringement? Don't those trademarks belong to...us?
The chamber of commerce is not a public institution, so the trademarks do not belong to "us".
You could sort of make the argument that because the chamber represents lots of large companies, and since those large companies largest shareholders are often retirement funds, then indirectly we all own a piece of the chamber of commerce. That's a good argument for the Chamber of Commerce not acting like dicks towards the public, but I don't think it would be a viable legal argument for claiming their trademarks for the public domain.
They should represent themselves and you know, like pretend to be lawyers.
The Yes Men are my heroes! Hmm, the EFF are also my heroes.
This lawsuit is going to be like a DC/Marvel mashup!