[Legal,Copyrights,Long]

[Christopher Mende <csmende@bayern.me.iastate.edu>]

Howdy All!

I thought I would toss in my 2 cents about the scirocco name/nameplate and
see what I can remember from my media law class.

VW most certainly can't have a COPYRIGHT on the _word_ scirocco, as it is
a commonly used word. Much like I can't name a car, "Mushroom" or
something of the sort and have a hold on that word.

HOWEVER, if I create a new word, like: Kleenex, Xerox, Dumpster(yep!),
THEN I can copyright the word.

Otherwise, if it is a word already in the 'public domain', such as
scirocco/corrado, then the only thing I can do is register it as a
trademark, or service mark. Which means I have the exclusive right to
associate that word with my type of product. This also includes the font
and styling of the word (color scheme, etc).

VW can come after anyone who infringes on their business by using the name
scirocco. There are a lot of grey areas in this. 

For example, I could trademark the name scirocco if I were making bicycle
tires, if: my logo was sufficiently different, and I was in a
non-competing line of business.  VW's and bikes seem far removed -- but
then there's that Jetta trek. ;-) 

Another example would be that I could copyright the word "sciroccco" (yes,
a different spelling). That's cool, but the law still wouldn't let, say,
Honda, sell cars with that new spelling. There's just too much going on
there.

Another thing is other individuals using trademarks or copyrights without
company permissions. Some companies are assholes (pardon), and others are
pretty cool. This would apply to Shawn's t-shirts, or my pink floyd
archive. The trick is that VW or the good men of PF, would have to show
that what we are doing is causing them to loose money, or that we are
making some kind of profit off of these items. My, and Shawn's line of
defense in this situation is that we are not making any money on this, and
are at the same time spreading the nameplate of these two awesome
entities around the country and world.

But then again, if you get a letter from, say the estate of Patrick Nagel,
stating that you will be taken to court if you don't remove images of his
paintings from your site (as a friend of mine received), you start to
think: 1) these guys are being an asshole to one of their biggest fans,
and 2) is going to court really the hassle. 

Most companies, I dare say, while they CAN take action, don't, because
it's a benefit to them, and hey, that's how VW can maintain such a culture
of dedicated crackpost as ourselves who'll scratch, etch, and paint VW
logos all over the place. :)

~Christopher

ps. my floyd site is http://bayern.me.iastate.edu/floyd  knock yourselves
out!


--                                                                 --
     Christopher Mende             ICEMT         O: 515-294-6738 
     www.icemt.iastate.edu           @           F: 515-294-5531  
     bayern.me.iastate.edu    Iowa State Univ    H: 515-292-6658


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