John Joseph Bachir’s blog
The brilliant and prolific Kembrew McLeod is at it again. The intellectual property scholar, author, filmmaker, and prankster has put together a new website promoting his book and newly released film:
http://freedomofexpression.us.
Also be sure to check out his recent interview with Jonathan Lethem, and op-ed in the LA Times.
See previous Kembrew coverage here.
Remember Leo Stoller? Get caught up on The Story So Far here.
Well Lance Johnson has written in again to let me know:
If you or your readers happen to be in Chicago on July 24, 2007 the bankruptcy court will be conducting an auction of Stoller’s trademark portfolio and corporate stock. A newly formed company, The Society for the Prevention of Trademark Abuse LLC, has tendered a bid. All are, however, invited to attend the show and try to take home a piece of IP history.
Wow, does that sound like a good time or what? If you or someone you know is a writer and will be in Chicago on the 24th, this could make for a fantastic quirky feature story. Justice is brought to a 21st century con man via the mass auctioning of his intangible belongings. Surreal, hilarious, and awkwardly relevant.
The auction will take place in the courtroom of Judge Schmetterer at 221 S. Dearborn Street. One hearing is at 10 am, another is at 11:30 am.
Lance also sent along a few documents relevant to the case: Exhibit 1, Motion for Sale, Sale Procedures Order
Update: Looks like things have changed a bit. From Lance’s comment here:
The auction process has not yet been completed. Stoller has been given a last opportunity to provide documents to the trustee. These documents would have to establish an intrinsic value for each of the marks in Stoller’s estate and corporations that is higher than the bid offered. He has until July 31. (Stoller has testified numerous times before this judge that he did not have these documents. Where he plans to “discover” them is anybody’s bet although parties experienced in Stoller litigation will likely have a pretty good idea of where the documents will come from.)
The hearing on the sale will commence on August 7.
[snip]
from [boing boing]
This was funny enough, but I suspected that it was a direct parody of another poster and I got curious. Googling only for “dvd piracy poster” (without the quotes) I found this wipo site (thanks for representing my interests, wipo…) which links to this industry group which distributes this pdf. Here is a screenshot of the original:
Billions of civilization citizens ask of content distributors:
Why should we purchase music/movies/television/software when we can download/share it for free?
Content distributors have two answers:
