Oh you gotta see thisApparently the MPAA has decided that one particular slash website is illegally using their trademarked "NC=17" label--and has sent the owner a Cease & Desist order
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The MPAA created the NC-17 label because it hadn't defended its trademark on "X" as a movie rating. I suspect that the site in question might have a case if it does not have movies, though I think the MPAA would have a very good case against any site which uses G, PG, PG-13, R, or NC-17 for movie clips which have not been rated by the MPAA. The case would be weaker for images and text content only.
The MPAA also has the argument that "X" rating is not trademarked, and thus is available for use by anyone who wants it; while the NC-17 rating was specifically intended to replace "X" as the trademark had been lost.
The site in question doesn't have movies. Text stories, maybe artwork.
They sent a note to one particular site... but not fanfiction.net, or skyhawke.com, or any of dozens of other fanfic sites.
They might have *something* of a case, if it hadn't been common for fanfic for about 10 years. Trademark rights are something you lose if you don't defend them. (Especially when they're something as simple as a letter-code. Hm. I wonder if they've already lost G, PG & R for text things because people have been using them, at least casually, in reference to comic books for a long time.)
I'm not even sure they could defend it for movie clips... a quick google turns up several fanfic sites with flash movies with standard MPAA ratings.
That *IS* amusing. I wonder what legal mire *THAT*'s going to crawl into? For the most part, the site owners are just going to panic and change it most likely...
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They sent a note to one particular site... but not fanfiction.net, or skyhawke.com, or any of dozens of other fanfic sites.
They might have *something* of a case, if it hadn't been common for fanfic for about 10 years. Trademark rights are something you lose if you don't defend them. (Especially when they're something as simple as a letter-code. Hm. I wonder if they've already lost G, PG & R for text things because people have been using them, at least casually, in reference to comic books for a long time.)
I'm not even sure they could defend it for movie clips... a quick google turns up several fanfic sites with flash movies with standard MPAA ratings.
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They're just now noticing??? Wow. I'm not even into fanfiction that much but I still knew about it.
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That *IS* amusing. I wonder what legal mire *THAT*'s going to crawl into? For the most part, the site owners are just going to panic and change it most likely...
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