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Brand Name Bullies: The Quest to Own and Control Culture
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 346.73048
EAN: 9780471679271
Edition: 1
ISBN: 0471679275
Label: Wiley
Manufacturer: Wiley
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: January 17, 2005
Publisher: Wiley
Studio: Wiley
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Editorial Review:
Imagine if today's far-reaching laws on copyright and trademark were sent back in time to the days of William Shakespeare. On the opening day of Romeo and Juliet, the heirs of first-century Roman poet Ovid would surely have filed the case of Estate of Ovid v. William Shakespeare, alleging that the Bard had made unauthorized use of Ovid's Metamorphoses, which is also based on two lovers from warring families. The legal conflict would have scared off theaters, and the play would have dropped into obscurity. It might seem ridiculous, but David Bollier, author of Brand Name Bullies, says this scenario is common under today's copyright and trademark law, which he calls "replete with tales of the bizarre and hilarious."
Bollier is co-founder of Public Knowledge, a non-profit group that aims to defend the "information commons." In Brand Name Bullies, he argues that creativity and free speech are being shut down as entertainment conglomerates and other companies push intellectual-property law to unprecedented extremes. The result is a sweeping privatization of culture and knowledge with the connivance of Congress and the courts. It is a dangerous development, Bollier suggests, because science and creativity are built upon what others have done before us. At the heart of his book are dozens of real-life stories he says show how silly things have gotten. In one case, Warner Bros. threatened young fans of the Harry Potter movies with legal action after they created Web sites to celebrate and discuss Potter. In another case, Disney challenged an anti-pornography group for quoting a single line of Walt Disney's in a brochure. Bollier also cites filmmaker Spike Lee's suit against Viacom over its Spike TV network. Even though there have been many other famous "Spikes" in American culture, Lee claimed Viacom chose the network's name to trade on his reputation. He won an injunction against the company, which agreed to an out-of-court settlement and said it incurred $17 million in losses in the case. Through these stories, Bollier succeeds in making a knotty but important legal issue both accessible and relevant for readers. --Alex Roslin
An impassioned, darkly amusing look at how corporations misuse copyright law to stifle creativity and free speech
If you want to make fun of Mickey or Barbie on your Web site, you may be hearing from some corporate lawyers. You should also think twice about calling something "fair and balanced" or publicly using Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. It may be illegal. Or it may be entirely legal, but the distinction doesn't matter if you can't afford a lawyer. More and more, corporations are grabbing and asserting rights over every idea and creation in our world, regardless of the law's intent or the public interest. But beyond the humorous absurdity of all this, there lies a darker problem, as David Bollier shows in this important new book. Lawsuits and legal bullying clearly prevent the creation of legitimate new software, new art and music, new literature, new businesses, and worst of all, new scientific and medical research.
David Bollier (Amherst, MA) is cofounder of Public Knowledge and Senior Fellow at the Norman Lear Center, USC Annenberg School for Communication. His books include Silent Theft.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Freedom of expression? Oops! Thats copyrighted!
This book shows copyright industries- film, music, publishing, information- routinely raid the public domain for material in the classic Disney modus operandi- to privitize. Then they and the likes of Microsoft & McDonalds use their battalions of lawyers to use trademarks as blunt instruments in cultural intimidation and censorship. Free speech and artistic expression be damned! Add a little chicanery and you have automatic retroactive copyright protection to works THAT WERE IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN! ... Read More
Rating:  - My Opinion (C) (R) tm
The topic of this book is incredible. Hard to beleive it's gone this far. It boggles the mind.
That said, I found large parts of the book to be repetitive, and didn't really give enough background/details on the various examples. I would have liked some more finger pointing, but as it stands, I'll boycott Ralph Lauren-Polo for being a putz about the name!
Recommended reading, but wish the writing was a bit better.
Rating: - Exposing copyright bullies
I've recently begun reading up on the subject of corporate efforts to take control of our culture,. While the material here may be familiar turf to many , it was eye opening to me. I had no idea that copyright law had been distorted and bent against the interests of those it was meant to serve: the public (for it's a bargain between the creator and the public, not simply a property right interest, as many people commonly assume).
Bollier's book brings these issues to light in an entertaining, ... Read More
Rating: - Take this book seriously
Take what this writer has to say seriously, All the branches of intellectual property law (copyright, patent and trademark) are in a dreadful mess, driven that way by the usual suspects--powerful interest groups and greedy lawyers. Heck, even the fact that I just used an expression from the 1942 movie, Casablanca, "usual suspects," could get me sued. Someone lost a copyright dispute because they used two words of business jargon someone else claimed to own.
I know this from personal experience. ... Read More
Rating: - Exposing copyright's crazier side
For the past few years, intellectual property law has been the playground of lawyers, geeks and scholars. Now comes David Bollier to explain why this seemingly arcane field should matter to the rest of us.
In "Brand Name Bullies," the author of Silent Theft: The Private Plunder of Our Common Wealth is back with a painfully comic look at how big corporations are bullying the little guy and locking down culture with the backing of one-sided copyright, patent and trademark laws.
Bollier ... Read More
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