June 18, 2014

Ready for Blatant Censorship

By Ethel C. Fenig

Hey you starry-eyed folks with hearts abeating and minds afluttering, you Ready for Hillary™ ® © people. (A phrase totally trademarked, really registered and completely copyrighted so don't you dare even think about imitating it or mocking it. But then again, maybe you should.) If you're Ready for Hillary as the first female president of the United States of America do I have a prediction for what you're really Ready For!

Hillary Rodham (who relatively recently tacked on her husband's famous last name of Clinton to hers for some mysterious reason) is a valiant woman who fought her way up from poverty, despite past financial successful ventures in the cattle futures market. According to Hillary, after her husband was forced to retire from his job as President of the United States, the impoverished couple lacked financial resources with no future job prospects or source of income for Bill. Hillary, with a husband and one child to support, was forced to find work, any work she could. And she did. All by herself. The financially strapped Clinton family moved to New York State, somehow scraped together money for a down payment and qualified for a mortgage on a $1.7 million home in a town inhabited by the upper 10% in wealth. Adapting to her new situation, plucky Hillary soon found a job as U.S.senator from her new home state based just on her totally awesome skills.

After her amazing success in the Senate, again, all on her own talent, she decided to run for president of the United States. Although she didn't succeed, Hillary didn't lose hope and was tapped for the job as Secretary of State.

And now there are some people who feel that Hillary’s next logical step in independent female upward mobility is to once again run for the presidency of the of the United States. They are so Ready For Hillary that they proudly advertise it.

But some people are Ready For Other things. Fun.Profit.Mockery.Truth.

Whoops! Hillary and her supporters weren't ready for that. Or questions about her ambitions. Sensitive types that they are, they took offense. They demanded the removal of all I'm Ready For items that several free market entrepreneurs manufactured. The entrepreneurs fought back.

A Minnesota activist is once again facing the heat for his parody merchandise. Today, in response to a demand from a representative at the “Ready for Hillary” PAC to take down a parody design, Public Citizen sent a letter (PDF) stating that activist Dan McCall’s merchandise does not violate any intellectual property rights and is fully protected by the First Amendment.

The PAC sent notices to Zazzle.com and Cafepress.com -- two online merchants –- demanding they remove McCall’s design that pokes fun at the PAC’s slogan. McCall’s design, which was being sold on T-shirts, mugs, bumper stickers and more, altered the slogan “I’m Ready for Hillary,” to “I’m Ready for Oligarchy.”

Both companies have taken down the parodied merchandise; however, the letter today argues that McCall’s design is protected both under the intellectual property laws as well as the First Amendment. The Ready for Hillary PAC is an independent expenditure committee not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.

In the letter sent today, Public Citizen has given the PAC three days to retract its takedown demand. Absent a retraction, Public Citizen will file an action for a declaratory judgment of non-infringement, seeking damages for lost sales and an award of attorneys fees for the issuance of a frivolous takedown.

The Ready For Hillary and Ready For Mowing Down Anything and Everything That Stands in Hillary's Way group backed down.

(At least for the moment.) As Paul Alan Levy, the lawyer for Public Citizen which represented those who are Ready to Dare Parody Hillary For Whatever Reason, noted

Ready for Hillary may have no more sense of humor than the NSA, but like the NSA, its leaders apparently know when the law is against it. Late last night, just before midnight in fact, we learned that Ready for Hillary had sent a letter to Zazzle retracting its contention that Dan McCall’s Ready for Oligarchy parody infringes its intellectual property rights. Ready for Hillary did not bother notifying McCall of its decision, and it is a good thing that the Eastern District of Virginia does not allow electronic filing of complaints, because our complaint fully drafted and would have been e-filed last night. Had we filed suit, McCall’s a claim for damages for shirts not sold in the interim would have survived the mootness of his claim for declaratory relief, but we have concluded that the case is not worth filing now that Ready for Hillary has, however begrudgingly, done the right thing. (snip)

As for Ready for Hillary, the judgment of its leadership remains in substantial question. It’s a good thing for Hillary Clinton that she can point to the PAC statutorily-required independence from her control in distancing herself from its attack on protected expression.

And the momentarily suppressed are Ready For More Business.