By Proof
In a stunning move of crass commercialism, The Walt Disney company wants you to buy "Seal Team 6" merchandise.

In a perfect example of a big media company looking to capitalize on current events, The Walt Disney Company has trademarked “Seal Team 6,” which also happens to be the name of the elite special forces team that killed Osama Bin Laden.
The trademark applications came on May 3rd, two days after the operation that killed Bin Laden… and two days after “Seal Team 6″ was included in thousands of news articles and TV programs focusing on the operation.
Disney’s trademark applications for “Seal Team 6″ cover clothing, footwear, headwear, toys, games and “entertainment and education services,” among other things.
I'm sorry, but doesn't that just strike you as wrong? The fact that they want to merchandise SEAL team logos as if they were mouse ears, is bad enough. But to try to deny anyone else from using what should be part of the public domain, without their permission is just too unbelievable.
You have my permission to boycott all things Disney. Uncle Walt® would have wanted it that way!
Uncle Walt® is a registered trademark of Proof Positive blog. Any attempt by a large rodent like corporation to usurp this title or his likeness will be met by the full force of law. The crack attorney firm of Dewey, Cheatem and Howe has been retained to insure that copyright provisions are strictly adhered to.

As crass as this may be, Disney has it beat by a country mile!
H/T Memeorandum
Cross posted at Proof Positive
As much as I loathe the practice of DHS seizing domain names on behalf of copyright holders, wouldn't it be GREAT if the Navy ordered the seizure of disney.com on the basis of Uncle Sam having first dibs on the phrase "SEAL Team 6"? They have been using it for decades now, right?
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't even begrudge Disney trying to sell a little "SEAL team 6" merchandise, if only they weren't trying to get a monopoly on it.
ReplyDelete