Posted on 08/03/2007 11:54:49 AM PDT by Registered
Many of you are familiar with the images I have created. For those of you that might not be that familiar you can see a gallery of images at www.registeredmedia.com/gallery and an overview of some of the many images that have made it into the mainstream.
Since 1998 I have been expressing my political point of view mostly through the graphics I have created in the form of parody and satire. Many have been created from the direct suggestions by many of the readers of various conservative websites (including this one) and emails from people all over the world. I have created hundreds if not thousands of images posted at my site and others, some for humor, some for activists. Some of the images I have been involved with have been used to impact public opinion, such as the Sore-Loserman logo. This was a collabrative work developed by a team of forum participants which ultimately ended up being used by activists around the country during the 2000 Presidential Election recounts. I have been fortunate in the fact that many of the parody images holding my political point of view have been re-posted, emailed, published or displayed on the net, in magazines, talked about on radio and even displayed on television.
Since the middle of 2005 I have been involved in a copyright lawsuit that is attempting to shut me up and kill my Freedom of Speech when it comes to creating images. The image that prompted the lawsuit was a satire-parody I created involving John Kerry and Jane Fonda. This image was created without profit and for no commercial reasons. I did it very quickly in response to current events at the time. The image was created at a time when John Kerry was denying his linkage to Fonda (April '04 or thereabouts) to garner the veteran vote and hammering President Bush over his National Guard service. Around this time I was sent an actual speaking schedule that showed the two of them had indeed been on the same stage, on the same day speaking out against the war in Vietnam. It was obvious they knew each other and the direct linkage was true. I therefore created an image, a satire-parody retro image that looked like a newspaper article, showing them speaking on the same stage. It was a joke - he denied being on stage with Fonda, yet it was all over the "front page of the newspaper".
I posted this satire image for approximately 2 hours on FreeRepublic.com and then after seeing that some people were taking it in a way I had not intended, I became concerned and pulled it down and removed it. I did not email it out or send it anywhere else. It was simply posted on the internet for only 2 hours. When the image ended up in print it surprised me, and it confirmed the fact that major media rarely verifies their sources or checks the credibility of their information.
Like any satire I create, the finished image was comprised of a number of elements, a John Kerry portion, a Jane Fonda portion, and a Newspaper-like print that had a little blurb about them speaking together.
The John Kerry portion of the satire was from an image of Kerry speaking at an anti-war rally. This photo was taken by a photographer named Ken Light in the early 1970's. Mr. Light who is a UC Berkeley professor, did not appreciate his John Kerry image being used in the manner it was, which I partially understand because he is a photographer and liberal activist himself. However my free speech is my free speech and in satire, I felt I needed to illustrate an actual historical event the way I did. Of course, the fact that I did what I did can be debated endlessly (which it has), but the fact of the matter is, I did it to express my political view regarding the absurdity of Kerry denying that he and Fonda had worked together during the anti-War days.
After the image was posted, it "made the rounds", being picked up by many in the media, websites, blogs, etc, etc. I never intended this to happen. What occurs after an image is captured by people is outside of my control, so I sat and watched in horror as the image was used and manipulated in ways I never intended.
Apparently seeing an opportunity to gain a name and subsequently more income for himself, Ken Light began granting interviews, from CNN to print media, about the John Kerry parody image I created. Ken Light has given speeches and has even created his own college course curriculum based entirely on my parody image. In other words, he has benefited entirely from the parody I created, gaining notoriety and making money from something I created and posted on the internet for a few hours.
Mr. Light wasn't satisfied with my removing the image, he wasn't satisfied with the interviews he gave, or his new celebrity status and notoriety, or the huge additional income he was making from my satire-parody image. He decided, or someone suggested to him, to sue me for copyright infringement for $200,000. Not in Michigan where I live, but in New York. Now Mr. Light lives and works in California. Not in New York.
So why sue me in New York? Well, his side says I should be sued because Ken Light's photo agent is located in NY (which by the way, after my image "made the rounds", his agent moved the original Ken Light image into their "Premium Collection". This is an obvious indication that there was an increased demand for his original Kerry picture only AFTER I created my satire-parody thereby bringing him an increase in royalty fees.)
The second reason Light is suing me in NY is that the image I created was displayed and printed by a host of NY media. I have NEVER been in contact with ANY of them, and to think that I had control over their use of the image is an insane allegation to make.
It isn't a coincidence that Mr. Light is a liberal photojournalist/activist. Frankly, I feel that my Freedom of Speech is being threatened by Mr. Light and whatever "machinery" is behind this lawsuit. They want to shut me up and shut me down.
As this lawsuit is in New York and I am in Michigan, you can imagine the enormous expense (tens of thousands of dollars) to fight for my freedom of speech that this is taking. I am paying MI lawyers and NY lawyers. My attorney bills aren't being paid by John Kerry. They are being paid by me. I have made dime ZERO from this image, yet Light has been paid for interviews on TV and in print, has hugely incorporated my satire-parody image into his entire professional career, even to the extent of using my satire-parody image in his journalism classes at Berkeley - meanwhile continuing to make royalties off his dead image that is now sitting in a "premium collection", thanks to me.
On January 29th, 2007, the US District Court, Southern District of New York granted me a motion to dismiss. Now, over 6 months after that court decision, Ken Light's attorney, David B. Rigney (who attended Yale at the same time as John Kerry), has filed an appeal on behalf of Ken Light even though the Appeals process apparently only allows for up to 30 days to file.
My intent is not to perform fundraising here, though this lawsuit has had an enormous financial impact, costing a crippling tens of thousands of dollars that I will be paying for years to come. Of course if I got a dollar for every time that image was forwarded or if I had a dollar for every time Ken Light used or was paid to use my image the ability to afford a defense would be moot. Rather, I think it is important to be aware that YOU are at a huge legal and financial risk when you exercise your free speech in your posts or graphics, here or anywhere on the internet.
I appreciate the many of you that have let me know over the years that you enjoy what I do.
To all of you that believe in freedom of speech, or may have seen this image and have enjoyed my parodies and satire, please feel free to share this with others.
Be careful. According to our current legal system, free speech is anything but free. That goes for people on the Right and on the Left.
While I sympathize with your plight and I think that your copyright infringment was clearly within the "fair use" exclusion to copyright law, there's a lesson to be learned here. I could probably come up with some old proverb that would cleverly and succinctly explain that lesson, but then if I posted it, it might be copyrighted and I might get sued.
You or your lawyers may want to seek his advice at his law firm Clements, O’Neill, Pierce, Wilson, and Fulkerson in Houston: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Clements%2C_O'Neill%2C_Pierce%2C_Wilson_%26_Fulkerson.
See general background on the suit at: http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/11/18/95310.shtml
I'm not a lawyer, but if Light appropriated your Kerry parody for his own financial benefit--without your permission, you may have grounds for a countersuit. It would appear to me that much depends on how the law views copyright protections for your creations. At a minimum, I would hope the courts would recognize your right to free political speech and would award compensation for legal fees to you. Freepers who are lawyers will be able to advise if this makes sense.
Meanwhile, I've enjoyed your postings. Thanks for providing the spice.
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Ping.
LOL! *snort*
Thanks for the PING!
Bump that! Oh, and Junior, Earl & Earl Jr. have something to say too...but they’ll be a few (lol)
Adios ol’ chum.
Personally I considered you an a**hole, but hey - good luck anyway.
Where’s that swine picture you’ve got?
Were you directing that comment to the owner of this site or to the recently departed poster?
The owner of the site and you.
I hope your stay here is brief.
Totally agree with you.
I honestly thought Registered was gone before today, anyway. (I don’t get out much.)
That was nasty.
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