This has to be the oddest free speech case I've seen in a while. The artist won the right to sell pictures of Barbie in "suggestive" poses with blenders and mixmasters.[g]

See: http://www.msnbc.com/news/613460.asp.

Of course, this strikes me as a tad hypocritical on Mattel's part; *THEY* designed the doll to have (the equivalent of) a 50DD bustline. Did they honestly think that no one would notice?

Or that I, as a young man, wouldn't be *astonished* at the girl's ... erm, endowment ... the first time I ever saw one of my sister's dolls unclothed? :)

My wife used to collect Barbie(tm) dolls, and I remember that Mattel(tm) was anal-retentive and paranoid about anyone using the Barbie name for any reason, much less the doll's images.

For that matter, Mattel seemed to resent the collectors to begin with. Yeah, the collectors could get annoying. I remember seeing a little girl in a Toys R Us crying because the collectors had swarmed in to buy all the Seasick/Smashface Barbie dolls, leaving none for kids like her.

But I always suspected that the REAL reason was that Mattel didn't like the fact that people could buy a limited edition Barbie collectable for $200, then turn around and re-sell it six months later for $1000.

(Especially considering that THEY didn't get that money.[g])

(And call me cynical, but I *have* to wonder if that's not PART of the reason why they went after this artist. HE was making the money and not THEM.[g])

-- Anonymous, August 13, 2001

Answers

I know someone who has a license for just one "Barbie" thing from Mattel. He and they make a ton of money and the guy is willing to pay them their fees just so long as he gets a long term contract. (Now over 7 years left).

The most valuable is a thing like ANY DISNEY "thing". Even their also rans. Warner tried it but its not as good as Disney.

I don't fool around much trying to evade copyrights. Good Companies like IBM and General Foods or Kraft or P&G or MSFT ...... are entitled to protect their intellectual property as long as they don't act like jerks about it. One company DID try to intimidate me long ago. So I discovered something about the name I was using and their past actions. It seems they had sent the same form letter to someone in the same industry about 15 years before they came after me. The President of that company laughed and told me he had a copy of the letter but had never responded. He also told me they were pricks of the first order and the worst thing I could do would be to even answer them. But I had already done that. At that point, I wrote a "Whats in a Name" cited their Prior Failure to protect their name and 3 other examples and then just to Screw them over: sent a certified copy to Andy Rooney at 60 Minutes suggesting that he investigate why these jerks were bothering small business people and ordinary citizens. I knew Rooney would NEVER do the piece but I also knew the High Toned Lawyers from Park Ave. would never bother ME because I would get them publicity which would make them a laughing stock in Wholesale. They were hated anyway because they were "direct" and would never use either Mfgr. Reps or Distributors or Dealers. They WERE ANAL.

I can't tell you how happy I was when I saw they were finally merged into another company and about all the Execs "retired".

I got a cease demand from MSFT for using the Wizard animation on my web site. I thought I had filled out the forms for them (it was free) years and years ago but they may have lost it. I was wondering why they were bothering me or even found me. So since I like MSFT I removed the GIF and replaced it with one from IBM. I notified MSFT and they sent me a nice note thanking me for doing it.

THEN, about 3 months ago, I noticed they are using the Wizard gif again for WIN XP and Office XP. They have good taste. That was why he was on my site for so long as the Director of Email for DAMA for the Y2k area.

-- Anonymous, August 13, 2001

this guy is supposed to be an artist?! he stinks! a two-year old could take beter photo's and certainly come up with a more creative "nude" subject.

some people will do anything to get their name out there.

-- Anonymous, August 14, 2001