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| Re: UPDATE: NY MTA Claims SFMTA Parody Infringes on Trademarks (829840) | |||
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Re: UPDATE: NY MTA Claims SFMTA Parody Infringes on Trademarks |
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Posted by BMTLines on Sun Sep 6 09:37:09 2009, in response to Re: UPDATE: NY MTA Claims SFMTA Parody Infringes on Trademarks, posted by arnine on Sun Sep 6 08:50:09 2009. Metropod is biased because of his love for the Transit Museum and his "MTA can do no wrong attitude".Studying law is not always the same as practicing law. Look at the Union Pacific case when they tried to stop someone from producing a UP calendar because it depicted rolling stock with logos on it. The case almost blew their entire licensing program out of the water, which they were trying to enforce against model makers, eventually settling and UP now offers royalty free licenses in perpetuity! He won't look at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame case which showed that a trademark has to be consistently used in order to exist. Hence the MTA cannot trademark each and every view taken of the subway, just like RRHF could not call each and every view of its building a trademark. In that case the photographer won in court and RRHF lost a lot more than their ability to control the image of their building - it set precedent. I may not agree with it but I won't dispute the MTA's right to control its logos and bullets when they are the PRIMARY SUBJECT on a mug, t-shirt, etc. OTOH I draw the line when they object because the logo and trademark is part of the background of a photograph - they are an inseparable part of the train and removing them makes the picture both editorially and historically incorrect. Then there is the whole issue of MTA declaring that its data is subject to copyright. This flies directly in the face of rulings that decided that issue in the courts a decade ago. The MTA's Cease and Desist orders work only because it is the 800 pound gorilla in the room. A start-up artist or railfan who produces a postcard will not have $5,000 spare cash lying around to license the image. Lets do the math - he will most likely sell 25 -50 copies of that postcard on Cafepress or Zazzle at a gross profit of $1 each. Obviously he won't have the resources to go to court or pay the licensing fee! A wealthy artist or photographer will someday challenge the MTA just like the photographer did in the UP case and they may end up losing it all in which case - PARTAAAAYYYYY at my house - all you can eat and drink till the Redbirds Sing :-D |
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