Brazil's Largest Newspaper Sues Parody Blog For Making Fun Of It
from the thin-skin dept
Marcos alerts us to a story coming out of Brazil, where the country’s largest newspaper publisher, Folha de S. Paulo is apparently suing a parody blog that was set up to mock the publisher. The parody blog is called Falha de S. Paulo. Obviously, the names are similar, but it’s a parody and it’s apparently somewhat clever in Portuguese. “Folha” is apparently somewhat akin to “Journal” in English, while “Falha” means “failure.” See? Clever. Apparently the Folha folks didn’t think so. They got a court order demanding the site be shut down and then filed suit, demanding monetary damages. The claim, of course, is trademark infringement. Not being too familiar with Brazilian law, I don’t know if there are parody exceptions, though obviously I think there should be. However, the claim is that it probably doesn’t much matter either way, as many expect Folha to win simply due to its political clout. That would be unfortunate if true. Either way, it’s a pretty sad statement when the largest newspaper in a country can’t handle a little parody.
Filed Under: brazil, chilling effects, free speech, parody
Companies: folha de s. paulo
Comments on “Brazil's Largest Newspaper Sues Parody Blog For Making Fun Of It”
Bully
The biggest bully in school probably coudn’t handle being bullied if they had never had to deal with it before.
Re: Bully
In my experience, the biggest bully in school also cannot handle being on the receiving end of an ass-whooping. Just saying…
Re: Bully
Which is what made it so easy to bait the biggest bully into getting themselves in serious trouble, or so I thought?
Folha = Leaf, sheet of paper.
Falha = Failure
The Brazilian courts are notorious for their corruption, although they like to pretend otherwise.
About the limitations of copyright and trademarks in Brazil there is almost none, but that is not surprising in a country that coded in their new constitution that anonymity is illegal.
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2010/08/no_satire_or_parody_in_brazil.html
http://www.managingip.com/Article/1321310/Channel/194878/Brazil-How-to-protect-famous-trade-marks.html
http://www.serioninfo.com/us/brazil/BrandingBrazil.html
Now that is just wrong.
http://www.managingip.com/Article/2701920/Does-it-matter-if-the-judge-laughs.html
The ambiguity of the law make it almost sure the “Falha de Sao Paulo” will be stomped.
Re: Re:
Notorious for their corruption? How do you know?Fucking loser!!!
EPIC FALHA
Falha
This case happenned some time ago, during the national election proccess. Folha is a right-wing neocon newspaper (I.E.: they released in the front page a large acusation calling the left-wing candidate, Dilma, a TERRORIST and used a false document in order to try to prove it).
The parody was about this kind of thing.
It’s about politics, nothing more.
Re: so 'Folha' is a typo that Falha has not yet fixed..
that explains the validity of the trademark complaint 😉
This story makes all the fun of it one would ever want to see. It seems the newspaper made themselves look like a real tabloid-level joke.
I concur with thublihnk as well: “EPIC Falha”
Falha Epico! (Epic Fail)
Folha d S.P is indeed an organ of the gov’t there. I don’t know why they are bothering with trademark infringement when they can just have them brought offline; probably need the cover since it’s a connected world now.
One thing about using capitalists tools to suppress what you don’t like, is that they are sharp at both ends. Playing the trademark card opens up a trademark debate.
-C
Re: Falha Epico! (Epic Fail)
Actually Falha is NOT an “organ of the government”, as you say, it is a private newspaper (and part of a huge media group).
Re: Re: Falha Epico! (Epic Fail)
Sorry, I meant FOLHA. 🙂
chocolate
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