November 10, 2006 -
Get over yourself, ESA. Grow a sense of humor, ESRB.It's only a t-shirt.
If the ESA believes that a novelty shirt which lampoons the ESRB rating system somehow infringes upon their brand, they should pursue whatever legal action they deem necessary against T-shirt Hell, the company selling the parody item.
Respected video game blog Kotaku, however, isn't peddling the shirt. They simply wrote about it - as in free speech...
Why menace a video game news site for reporting the news about this shirt? Kotaku regularly dishes not only on games, but gamer culture, including its more offbeat aspects. This t-shirt certainly qualifies. That the ESA, an organization which is continually waging court battles over First Amendment rights, would take this ham-handed action is an extremely troubling development.
Apparently the website that broke the story on the offending T-shirt, Bits, Bytes, Pixels & Sprites, bowed to the ESA's pressure tactics. BBPS is a one-man blog, operating without a safety net. GP's been there, we understand perfectly. Kotaku, on the other hand, as part of the Gawker network, is in a better position to stand up to the ESA's bully tactics.
What's makes this situation even more distasteful is that the ESA's game publisher members are perfectly happy to have Kotaku mention their video game products day after day after day after day.
In fact, ESA member companies like Electronic Arts, Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, Activision and others - who, through their sponsorship of the ESA, are ultimately responsible for this attack on free speech - certainly enjoy and benefit from publicity generated at big blog sites like Kotaku and Joystiq as well as a host of smaller ones.
Beyond that, GamePolitics finds it quite amazing that the ESA does nothing when a certain individual regularly likens its president, Doug Lowenstein, to all manner of vile historical figures. Yet the game publisher's trade group goes to the legal equivalent of Defcon 4 with Kotaku over this nonsense?
The ESA should do the right thing and back off.
UPDATE: Chris Bennett writes about the legalities of this case on the excellent Video Game Law Blog.
Comments
well, more accurately "H" for hypocracy but yeah you get the idea.
On some level, petty as it may be, the ESA might just be paranoid. I mean, have you seen a shirt mocking MPAA labels? The rating system is the meat and potatoes of the ESA and they are very defensive of it. Think about the well-known trademark bully, Monster Cable. They went off and sued the companies behind Monsters Inc., Monster Garage, Monster.com, Monster Energy Drink, not because they necessarily think they own the English word "monster," but because they didn't want to look "soft" in defending what they perceived to be some kind of trademark. Of course, Monster Cable's situation is an extreme, but you get where I'm going with this. Some companies can be very protective of their intellectual property. When John Doe starts mocking you, then Jane Doe does the same and can argue "Well, you didn't stop John Doe, why are you coming after me?"
But despite all of this, just like Monster Cable, it doesn't make them right. Their reputation is damaged over a very insipid choice on their part. The ESA does need to relax a bit. When you have a small fan-made operation making T-shirts like this, it's hardly a problem. When they start showing up at Hot Topic... then you might want to get your panties in a knot. XD
I think that says it all right there.
- Oh yeah thats right, we're not invited - thanks a lot E$A..
You just lost the internet mr. Onion, which is a shame because the Internet is serious business. (Much like caturday)
caveing in and going sue happy against anything but the politicians and TV media?
Paradoy is in the law and the ESA has no leg to stand on...becuse this dose not break the law the ESA is mindlessly going after the wrong people....
"Kyouryuu, the 'First Amendment' knife cuts both ways. The ESA does not make decisions lightly, so this is just blatant bullying on their part. Their behavior is simply inexcusable, considering they rely on the U.S. Constitution to fend off misguided politicians. By attacking an enthusiast website, it’s a minor (for now) PR blunder, plain and simple. Note-this behavior does not surprise me considering they are not “pro consumer” but 'pro industry,' but it is a bit disappointing."
Nowhere am I defending the ESA, in this post or the other. What they did is, to be blunt, absolutely stupid. My original post was mostly in protest of GP lumping all ESA member companies as being some sort of evil consortium that must therefore support this kind of action. That was a cheap, completely unfounded shot, plain and simple.
It would be 'wrong' only to believe we should get up in arms about the first amendment only when it does something that does effect us, otherwise we should ignore it. It applies to everybody, even those we don't like, or those who have no impact on us.
Or are you saying that all those times we parodied the Anti-gamers they also had every right to sue, that every Web-cartoon involving a politician or a game console should be sued for copyright infringement? Because that's where thinking like this leads. And like the game laws, they only have to get away with it once.
Oh and I like how its the fault of EA and then all the other big publishers. Way to be sensationalist. Your appeal to hating internet flameboys has just gone up a few points.
Yoshinoya should be fucking brutal. Two guys sit facing each other across a U-shaped table, and you never quite know if they'll suddenly just start a fight right there. It's stab-or-be-stabbed, and that's what so damn great about the place. Women and kids should stay the fuck away.
Well, I finally found a seat, but then the guy next to me goes, "I'll have a large bowl with extra gravy!". So now I'm pissed off again. Who the fuck orders extra gravy these days? Why are you looking so goddamn proud when you say that? I was gonna ask you, are you really going to fucking eat all that gravy? I wanted to fucking interrogate you. For about a fucking hour. You know what? I think you just wanted to say "extra gravy".
Now, take it from the Yoshinoya veteran. The latest thing among the Yoshinoya pros is this: Extra green onions. That's the ticket. A large bowl with extra onions, and egg. This is what someone who knows his shit orders. They put in more onions, and less meat. A large bowl with the raw egg, that's really fucking awesome. Now, you should know, if you keep ordering this, there's a risk employees might write you up. This really is a double-edged sword. I really can't recommend this for amateurs.
And you, Cripple_MrOnion, well, you should really just stick to today's special.
Note: If you want to be taken seriously, don't start off by quoting Bill O'Reilly. Sheesh.
"ESA represents for ESRB and a whole lot of other companies. It’s ESRB’s copyright and no, they don’t have to attack parody in order to keep copyright."
Xerox? Band-Aids? Heard of some of these? It's called avoiding genericide. You might want to look into it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genericized_trademark
@Kyouryuu - Parody is still permitted.
I don't intend to be taken seriously, sir.
PG, G, R, those have been used all over the mother fucking place, yet it doesn't dilute the meaning of the ratings. Seems to me that they want a piece of the action, don't be suprised to see "your momma" shirts on esrb.com.
And yeah, parody is protected freedom of speech. You don't want to have first Amendment rights? Go to China. The economy is booming there.
The man can't be more incompetent.