Judge Says Artist Can Make Fun of Barbie
It’s about time we regain some of our rights as Americans and making fun of our products is one of those. Thank you, activist judges!
Mattel was instructed by the courts to pay artist Tom Forsythe $1.8 million in legal fees after a series of lawsuits for copyright and trademark infringement. Forsythe’s artwork included photographs of Barbie™ to convey, in Forsythe’s words, “Barbie’s™ power as a beauty myth.”
Jonathan Zittrain, a professor at Harvard Law School who specializes in Internet and copyright law, said, “It’s enough to give corporations with brands they want to protect and expand pause to consider whether to simply reflexively unleash the hounds the minute they see somebody doing something that relates to their brand of which they don’t approve.“It may send a signal that a ‘take no prisoner’ litigation strategy against the little guy has new risks for the plaintiff,” he said.
Barbie as beauty myth? How about Barbie as beauty?
Myth implies ideal; Barbie is now more than real.
They even got the slightly big-busted Maria Kowroski of the New York City Ballet to impersonate her for the computer-animated “Barbie in the Nutcracker.”