p2pnet - rss feed: EFF backs SpankMaker
p2pnet.net news:- SpankMaker helps people parody a tacky marketing campaign, launched in connection with a Discovery TV production.
SpankMaker carries pix from the campaign and Discovery’s corporate websites and users can add their own captions.
“Here’s the Spank My Monkey photograph, which was used to spam the Hotrodders Bulletin Board in a failed marketing promotion involving Gas Monkey Garage, Coker Tire, Newstalgia Wheel, SEMA (the Specialty Equipment Market Association), and The Learning Channel,” says SpankMaker, going on:
The photo was posted by Dodgy Monkey Media on behalf of Gas Monkey Garage. The gentleman with his arms crossed is Richard Rawlings, owner of Gas Monkey Garage. Rawlings is wearing women’s thong underwear, available online from the Gas Monkey Garage store. The thong underwear is emblazoned with his garage’s slogan: “Spank My Monkey”. Below Rawlings’s crotch is the logo for the Bullrun rally, which he represents.
“Spanking the monkey” is a slang phrase for male masturbation, similar to “choking the chicken”, or “flogging the dolphin”.Gas Monkey Garage’s slogan is the equivalent of the phrases “Jerk Me Off” or “Masturbate Me”.
But a lawyer for Discovery has demanded that SpankMaker take down the template, “claiming it infringes Discovery’s copyright and is used to defame the company,” says the EFF (Elecronic Frontier Foundation).
However, the EFF says the images in the template are clearly “non-infringing” parodies, also saying comments that offended Discovery, “are not libelous and that, in any event, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act protects the creator of the SpankMaker from liability for comments written by others.”
The EFF says its protest is part of its campaign to protect online free speech.
Also See:
EFF - Media Giant Bullies Internet Critic, February 15, 2005
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
