Scr*w 'em if they can't take a joke!
(I like to have fun)
Click the Pic J
Posted on 01/15/2005 9:03:14 PM PST by new cruelty
NEW YORK - See Dick and Jane. See Dick and Jane get a lawyer. Pearson Education, the publishing company that owns the copyright to the single-named stars of countless reading primers, is suing a division of Time Warner for co-opting the characters in a book called "Yiddish With Dick and Jane," according to The New York Times.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, claims the book violates Pearson's copyright. The book, which has sold more than 100,000 copies since it was published in September by Little, Brown & Company, is billed as a parody.
Not so, the lawsuit says. "Yiddish With Dick and Jane" "is not a parody, but is an unprotected imitation," the suit alleges.
Author Barbara Davilman, who co-wrote the book with Ellis Weiner, told the newspaper that she views the lawsuit as "a good old shakedown for money." The parody book takes Dick and Jane into adulthood, where they're faced with problems like adultery, ailing parents and sexual orientation.
Pearson declined further comment on the lawsuit, according to the Times. Little, Brown — a part of the Time Warner Book Group — issued a statement defending its product.
The book was "entitled to the full protection of the First Amendment and related laws permitting of social company," the statement said.
I have actually seen this book; it most certainly IS a parody.
Oy vey, Dick, oy vey.
If they sold that many books already it makes greedy, yet sound economic sense, to shake the copyright tree at least once.
I can just imagine it. "See Jane schlep. Schlep Jane schlep."
Some people have no sense of humor.
Now what was all that about adultery and sexual orientation? Just part of growing up?
That's exactly what it does say, plus the additional sentence "Schlep, schlep, schlep."
"The parody book takes Dick and Jane into adulthood, where they're faced with problems like adultery, ailing parents and sexual orientation."
One wonders if there is an Open Marriage/Euthanasia/Gay agenda behind this parody....if so I can understand the fury of the creators at such a hijacking....any thoughts, Howlin since you've seen it?
Scr*w 'em if they can't take a joke!
(I like to have fun)
Click the Pic J
Well, it's a miracle I saw it; it was given to my son-in-law as a joke for Christmas; so my little 3 year old granddaughter brings it to me TO READ TO HER.....and the first thing I see is a drawing of Dick and Jane and Daddy going over and finding Grandmother lying on the floor.......LOL.....
Would that mean the movie "Fun with Dick and Jane" is not a parody?
Haven't seen it.
Many thanks for posting this. I saved Matzoh Number Five on one of my old computers, but lost track of it. Now I'm trying to figure out how to get the Quicktime Plugin to save it again on my hard drive. It only seems to want to play it.
How thick does the dividing line need to be between parody and exploitation?
Sounds like a parasitic exploitation of recognizeable names for the perverts' agenda to me. More effective propaganda.
Isn't that a blue movie?
No way.. It is a movie from 1976 about an aerospace engineer and his wife. It is very funny. It is a spoof of upper class mores. Dick gets fired and the two of them resort to petty crimes to pay the bills.
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