To: JustJohn who wrote (601 ) 4/30/1999 12:31:00 AM From: EL KABONG!!! Respond to
JustJohn,I think the law suit should be discussed, but in the courts where law suits belong. I am not an attorney. I don't know all of the laws. I don't know all the aspects of this suit, or the situation which brought it on. Do you? all of the aspects of this case? Most likely not, and I suspect that no one does. But certainly I've brought forth some good points to be considered as have other posters. This case is not simply one of defamation or infringement of trademarks as some would have you believe. The rights to parody are fairly well known in legal circles. (Don't you think that Monica would have sued Jay Leno for all of the parody of her in the recent past if she could have done so?) There are other legal aspects that may come into play here, such as freedom of speech, SLAPP protections, is the plaintiff really just a distributor of news or in doing so are they acting as an agent of the source and therefore liable for content (not withstanding any disclaimers which may or may not be misleading). Is it misleading to label yourself as a news agency when you don't do any independent research or verification of what you publish in a news wire? I'm not providing any answers to these questions because, quite frankly, the answers may be provided by the courts and my answers would be nothing more than my opinion. However, I do want others to express an opinion. Discussion and debate are the proper ways to resolve differences in a democracy.
