Kanye West takes on ‘Evel’ Knievel
p2pnet.net News:- Isn’t imitation the sincerest form of flattery? Robert Craig Knievel doesn’t think so.
Darryl Moore, creator of Pvt Infringer, a player in the Captain Copyright farce, now zeroes in on the Knievel, Kanye West saga where the former (better known as ‘Evel’) is suing the latter.
“The lawsuit, filed on Friday in U.S. District Court in Tampa, Florida, says Knievel’s image was tarnished by the ‘vulgar, sexual and racially charged nature’ of West’s video for his hit single ‘Touch the Sky,’ which co-stars actress Pamela Anderson,” says Reuters.
“He’s just a disgrace to me,” it has Knievel, 68, a resident of Clearwater, Florida, saying. “What a cheap shot. What a cheap, two-bit shot.”
Or as The Los Angeles Times sums it up, “Seventies daredevil supreme Evel Knievel is suing the rapper for damaging his reputation with Touch the Sky’.”
In a video clip, “West sports protective clothing that closely resembles Knievel’s signature star-and-bars jumpsuit to portray ‘Evel Kanyevel’,” the story says, going on:
” ‘That video that Kanye West put out is the most worthless [thing] I’ve ever seen in my life, and he uses my image to catapult himself on the public,’ Knievel, 68, said last week. Citing the video’s ‘vulgar and offensive sexual images,’ one of the suit’s main sticking points is the portrayal of Pamela Anderson as Kanyevel’s girlfriend. ‘The guy just went too far using me to promote his filth to the world,’ Knievel said.”
Here are Darryl’s thoughts.
There is actually no doubt that Kanye is copying large portions of this event. That undoubtedly is his intent.
The real question is, should that be illegal? Should Evel Knievels unquestionable trademark rights extend to controlling other peoples artistic impressions of Evel’s cultural legacy?
I’m not a lawyer, so I’m not going to make legal arguments on this stuff, except to say that originally trademarks were designed to protect businesses in the same industry from profiting off of a competitors logo or other identifying marks. In recent years the scope of trademark protection has widened significantly to the point where now artistic expressions which draw on cultural references are becoming legal targets.
With regard to trademark dilution or unfair competition. I’m fairly sure that in order for Evel Knievel and Evel Kanyevel to compete, they’d necessarily have to be in the same industry.
Until such time as Evel Knievel starts making rap music videos or Kanye West goes into the daredevil business, there’s little chance of that. If anything, I’d say Evel Knievel’s parapheneilia business has been helped by this because it has reminded people about Knievels otherwise forgotten career.
As for unauthorized use of Knievel’s persona, well, I don’t think there’s any argument there. The question of course is why should Kanye need his permission?
More and more celebrities have been trying to claim control of other people’s use of their persona, and more and more the courts have been giving it to them. Erroneously I think. Celebrities, in particular those that have sought celebrity status have the least claim to that control. Once they have allowed their persona’s to become a part of popular culture, they have to allow people to make reasonable use of their likenesses. That’s the price for popularity. There’s precedent for this of course: in copyright law you can copy protected works for research or criticism and in the US you can do so for the purposes of parody as well (not in Canada I’m afraid so watch out Air Farce)
It’s time that we reign in intellectual monopoly laws. There have already been many examples of art lost to too strong of IP laws. This may become the next casualty. Rest assured there will be many more if we continue down this path.
If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
Also See:
Pvt Infringer – Capt Copyright vs Pvt Infringer, June 5, 2006
Reuters – Evel Knievel sues rapper Kanye West over video, December 12, 2006
The Los Angeles Times – Kanye sued by Evel Knievel, December 16, 2006
Darryl’s thoughts – Knievel Sues ‘Kanyevel’ over trademark, December 15, 2006
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