Slashdot Log In
Yahoo! Threatens French-Language Site Over Parody
from the hitting-close-to-home dept.
Morph3us writes "Here's some more info on the cease and desist letter from Yahoo! inc. to the French-language weblog pssst! Actually, what Yahoo! INC. doesn't like in this parody is the fact that it is using the actual logo of Yahoo!, with the single addition of the word "Québec" in a very similar font. Also, the search engine used in the parody was searching in a porn site database. Both of these facts could lure visitors into thinking that Yahoo! inc. was associated with the site and was offering a porn site search engine. Pssst doesn't have any power on the site Yahoo! Quebec and even on the link to it in Pssst, because it was posted by an anonymous contributor (although I guess they could delete it from the database). This contributor is also the author of the site and of the first message posted on Slashdot about this story. The author of the site sent me an e-mail today mentionning he had changed the search engine to seek in the Vatican's web site ("from one extreme to the other" as he told me!). He also plans to modify the logo to Youhou! instead of Yahoo! But there's no intention of removing the site at the moment. "
Wrong target but legitimate claim from Yahoo (Score:3)
Its a bit like when slashdot was named as a defendant in the DeCSS saga
I have visited the website and I find it very very similar to a yahoo homepage and I could not find something like "This site is a parody and is in no way affiliated nor endorsed by Yahoo!"
Moreover, the Yahoo! wording is used and no attempt has been made to change it so that it could mean a parody, like YaHooka! had done in the past.
Well, a co-worker believed it was a Yahoo! site.
I would too, at first sight if I had not followed this story on slashdot.
I think Yahoo! has a valid case here but alas, they have knocked at the wrong door.
Not the authors? (Score:3)
pssst, ce site est une expérience pour voir combien de temps mettrait Yahoo!, à se prévaloir de ses droits un peu comme d'autres l'ont fait avant elle.
Résultat: de la mise en ligne originelle (3 novembre 1999) à la mise en demeure (12 janvier 2000), il s'est écoulé 70 jours. Bravo!"
translation: (in a rush)
psst(link to psst'sites), this site is an experience to see how long Yahoo! will take to make his rights play a bit like others have done before them.
results: from the original cease and desist letter ( november, 3th, 1999 ) to the actual cease and desist letter, it took them 70 days. Bravo!"
I'm wondering what the connection is between psst and the authors of the site... it's quite unclear when reading this as it sounds like the authors received the letter..
Quebec has different [language] LAWS (Score:3)
Others have touched on important issues, and I will add some: Quebec doesn't use common law, it uses civil code (moreso than Louisiana). Furthermore, it has restrictive (and highly controversial) language laws. I'm surprised the letter was in english. Must be from Toronto lawyers.
IANAL, but I don't see why the "Cease and Desist" letter shouldn't be ignored completely. It's written in english to an obviously french-language site. I don't believe anyone in quebec is legally presumed to be able to read english unless they have given indications they can.
Beyond the protection offered parody (and it is obviously such), the fact that Yahoo doesn't have a Quebec site (it does have a section for french language in
If this went to court, it would probably have to be in Quebec civil court. There civil code applies, the chief difference being the judge is not bound by precedents. AFAIK, defendants have choice of language anywhere in Canada, and certainly in Quebec. I doubt an action would succeed and better[worse], Yahoo could well be ordered to pay the defandants legal costs.
-- Robert
No parody, but a cheap way to get more hits! (Score:3)
Since this page would be listed in search-engines under the term 'yahoo' and most people won't see the difference immediately, quite a few would believe that they got on a page produced by the well known Yahoo!
And since quite a few links on the Quebec page lead to sites which contain sexual references or even p0rn (most of it has already been pulled by their respective hosting companies, i guess also because of Yahoo!), Yahoo may indeed get into some troubles with concerned parents.
Even though i don't agree with the cybersquatting laws, which will doubtless be applied here, taking a name of a well known site just to attract more visitors is extremely lame and certainly deserves to be taken action again.
Re:the problem (Score:3)
The second reason is that being nice simply doesn't suffice. There's two aspects to defending a trademark: defending it whenever there's an abuse of it and defending it loudly. The first aspect is necessary for trademarks which have to, unlike a patent and copyright (I think?!), be defended or otherwise they're considered invalid. Arbitrary defense of a trademark doesn't work. The second is to deter others from abusing the trademark -- after all, you have to pay your pack of lawyers for their services, but as long as you're willing to use them, you might as well make the fact very well known. That way Joe Blow from Indiana thinks twice about abusing your trademark.
Canadian Law of Parodies & Language (Score:3)
As background, I am an articling student (i.e. graduated from law school and am now in the process of passing the bar) and I am specializing in IP matters (patents, trade-marks and copyright). I also used to work as a summer student for the law firm which sent the cease and desist letter - and they're one of the top IP law firms in Canada, no dummies usually.
The first legal misapprehension in this post is that the Quebec Civil Code applies to this matter. Copyright and trade-marks are Federal matters, and therefore the Civil Code does not apply. The Copyright Act and the Trade-marks Act, which are Federal Acts, do apply. As such, you can use any of the official languages of Canada in a legal proceeding (which includes English).
The other biggy that people might not understand is that Parody is not a defence in Canada to copyright or trade-mark infringement.
The Perrier and the Michelin cases (trade-marks and copyright respectively) show that in Canada, as opposed to the U.S.A., if you parody someone and it harms the goodwill associated with their trade-mark, then that is actionable and you can be sued for it. The Perrier case involved a mock Perrier bottle dressed-up as a "Pierre-Eh?" bottle (mocking Pierre Trudeau, a famous prime-minister of Canada), and the Michelin case involved a uninionization dispute at a Michelin plant where the Michelin Man was depicted as crushing workers or something like that. In both cases the people sued were forced to stop using the trade-marks (and copyrighted images).
So be careful with your parodies!
qnd translation (Score:4)
the website "yahoo quebec", a parody of the famous american portal Yahoo!, has been created a few months ago by JH Roy, who does the radio show "Branché" at Radio Canada.
Strangely enough, he was mentioned in the threatening letter from Yahoo!, and hadn't even heard of it when we talked to him in the evening. ``I'll start by reading the letter and looking at the laws on cybersquatting and commerce brands, before I see if I take the site down'', he says. ``maybe i'll change the search engine and the logo''.
In his parody, JH Roy used Yahoo!'s logo, with the word "Quebec" added. The search engine searches in the database of a porn site; it's presumably these 2 details that annoyed Yahoo! the most. The letter seems to confirm this.
JH Roy says, ``I thought Yahoo! was the last compay around with a sense of humour. There are several parodies of Yahoo!, some of them are even listed on Yahoo itself!''.
Clément Laberge, who maintains the weblog pssst!, and to whom Yahoo!'s threatenign letter is mostly addressed to, has up to next monday (17 jan) to tell Yahoo's lawyers that he has taken the site down. Which he can't do, since he has no control over the site.
Tanslation of the mmedium article (Score:5)
pssst! formaly warned
Montreal (January 12 2000) - the pssst! website from Quebec has been formaly warned by the American company Yahoo! to have allegedly been the author of the Yahoo!Quebec parody!. The editor in chief of Multimédium, Dominic Fugère, and somenone called Mathieu, whose names appeared with the bottom of the parodied page, are also quoted in the formal warning.
The Yahoo!Quebec site, a parody of the famous American portal Yahoo!, was created a few months ago by Jean-Hugues Roy, organizer of the Branché emission in Radio-Canada.
Surprisingly, this one was not quoted in the formal warning and was thus not well-informed yet when we joined it in evening. " I will begin with carefully read the formal warning and will re-examine the laws on the cybersquatting and other laws on the marks of trade before deciding if I will withdraw the site, answers it. I perhaps will modify the search engine and the graphics of the logo. "
In his parody, Jean-Hugues Roy used the exact logo of Yahoo!, to which it added the word " Quebec ". As for the search engine of the parodied page, it searches the data base of a directory of porn sites. These are the two details which probably exacerbated the susceptibility of Yahoo! Inc. Extracts of the formal warning, sent by the lawyer company Smart & Biggar from Ottawa, seem to confirm this assertion.
" I believed that Yahoo! was the last big company to have the sens of humour, affirms Jean-Hugues Roy. There are several parodies of Yahoo!. Some are even indexed in their search engine! "
Clement Laberge, the person in charge of the pssst! website, to which the formal warning is mainly intended, has until next Monday, January 17, to inform the lawyers of Yahoo! that he withdrew the site, thing which he cannot do by himself because he doesn't have control on the site.
Thanx to Bablefish for the canvas.
Hope this helps
OffTopic addition : Any Linux/Free Software job in Toulouse, France ?
From a Quebecois, why it IS parody: (Score:5)
Here's the thing: spoken Québecois is a variation of France French. Technically, we write the same French (with a few "Canadianisms" thrown in) but our spoken French is radically different, filled with expressions and pronounciation variants that even the French have a lot of problem to understand. When we speak in Québecois before a French, it's not unusual to get a blank stare, followed by 'Pardon?'
There's a whole debate about Québecois slang. Is it a true language? Or is it a deformation brought about by lack of rigor and education? The snobs and well-bred try to mimic Parisian French, but otherwise, you'll hear Québecois everywhere you go. And so, even though everyone speaks it, Québecois is considered 'vulgar' or common by many people. (Some Québecois artists claim otherwise and sing in Québecois, but that's another story.)
So, most of Québec's search engines are coupled with French ones, because we have the same written language. But Yahoo! Québec's humour rests in this: it is written in an imitation of spoken Québecois, and belittles the small-town, close-minded Québecois mentality.
That's why, for instance, under the listing "Régions", you see the following headers: "Us", "Africans", "The South". Most small-minded Québecois without education would only recognise these three distinctions.
Under the news box, we see items such as, "René Simard enceint" ('René Simard [Québec artist, male] pregnant'; cheap joke.) "Gouverne Ment" means 'Government' but is a play on words of 'Govern' and 'lie'. And so on.
So, it's definitely a parody. It's funny, too. Just in case it wasn't obvious, tabarnak!