Briemberg, Moiseiwitsch, Murray v Canwest
p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- Activist Mordecai Briemberg was sued by CanWest for producing a fake edition of the companys Vancouver Sun and supposedly infringing its trademark.
A four-page parody from the ‘Palestine Media Collective’ had zeroed in on what they charged was biased reporting of the Israel/Palestine conflict in the Vancouver Sun.
“The fake Vancouver Sun was a rather innocuous jab at the blatantly pro-Israeli reporting in Vancouver’s major daily and the rest of the newspapers, magazines and television stations owned by Canwest, Canada’s largest media company,” said AdBusters, continuing »»»
Articles in Canwest newspapers, especially the National Post, routinely blame Palestinian militants for Israeli air strikes or paint heroic portraits of Israeli civilians fending off Palestinian rocket attacks.
Amused by the parody, Briemberg took the copies back to his Vancouver suburb and passed them out so that others could share in the laugh.
Canwest, however, didn’t find it as funny.
The next day the real Vancouver Sun ran a story about how 12,000 fake editions had taken advantage of the paper’s brand and, even though Sun publisher Kevin Bent admitted there had been few reader complaints, promised legal action.
In a statement in June this year, Carel Moiseiwitsch and Gordon Murray said as the Palestine Media Collective, “they were the sole creators of the June 2007 newspaper parody of the Vancouver Sun”.
They, “did not receive assistance from nor consult with any other individuals or organisations to conceive, produce or finance the parody,” they emphasised.
Says Straight Talk »»»
Canwest MediaWorks has dropped its lawsuit against retired college instructor Mordecai Briemberg, according to a citizens’ group formed to assist his cause. Anne Roberts, cochair of the Seriously Free Speech Committee, told the Straight that Briemberg and his supporters are “celebrating a victory” over Canwest’s decision, which came after an extensive public campaign against the media giant.
Roberts said that Canwest is continuing its lawsuit against two other defendants, Gordon Murray and Carel Moiseiwitsch, in connection with a parody of the Vancouver Sun that was distributed in June 2007. Murray and Moiseiwitsch, two vociferous advocates of Palestinian rights, have publicly acknowledged that they created the newspaper parody, which satirized Canwest’s coverage of the Middle East. Briemberg, who is also an advocate of Palestinian rights, always denied that he was involved in the production of the parody.
“Of course, Mordecai and all of us are going to carry on with the defence committee and work with Gordon and Carel,” Roberts said.
The pic is a clip from a November 15 Real News video report.
CanWest is, meanwhile, in dire straits.
“Weighed down by debt,” CanWest Global Communications Corp, “isn’t ruling out possible asset sales after buying itself some wiggle room by renegotiating debt covenants and cutting 560 jobs across the company,” says the Toronto Star.
“Leonard Asper, the chief executive of CanWest, said the conglomerate is ‘continuing to look at our asset base,’ but warned that observers shouldn’t assume that oft-cited properties such as the money-losing National Post or Australian TV network TEN would be on the block.”
(Cheers, Steve on Twitter)
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producing a fake edition – The Canwest Law Suit Against Mordecai Briemberg, March 20, 2008
AdBusters – Media Bully, May 6, 2008
Straight Talk – Canwest drops lawsuit against Mordecai Briemberg, November 6, 2008
Toronto Star - , November 15, 2008
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November 15th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
ya what he should do now is take foxnews logo’s and post them onto canwest news broadcast
thats more funny
Sue me now
November 15th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Making wrong use of trademark of companies is punishable by law.
November 16th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
” Making wrong use of trademark of companies is punishable by law. ”
In the US, parody is covered under fair use.
Might be more difficult in Canada, but here, as long as it’s
a parody, it’s fine.
So, how long have you worked for Canwest ?
November 16th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
@above is correct in my opinion; parody is fair use, and could be arguably fairdealing in canada.