U.S. Government Seizes Parody Comics At Customs

[Kire]

December 06, 2004
U.S. Government Seizes Parody Comics At Customs

On October 27, U.S. Customs sent a letter to Top Shelf Productions notifying them that copies of the anthology Stripburger had been seized, charging that the stories "Richie Bush" by Peter Kuper and "Moj Stub" (translated, "My Pole") by Bojan Redžić, constituted "clearly piratical copies" of registered and recorded copyrights. The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has retained counsel to challenge these seizures.

"Richie Bush," appearing in Stripburger (Vol. 12) #37, is a four-page parody of Richie Rich, that also satirizes the Bush Administration by superimposing the personalities of the President’s cabinet on the characters from the comic. "My Pole," appearing in Stripburger (Vol. 3) # 4-5, which was published in 1994, is an eight-page ecology parable in Serbian that makes visual homage to Snoopy, Charlie Brown, and Woodstock in three panels. Customs seized five copies of the issue with the Peanuts reference and fourteen copies of the issue containing “Richie Bush.” The stories were both published in the middle of their respective issues and no graphics from either story appeared on the covers.

Top Shelf is the American agent for Stripburger, an Eastern European comics publisher that releases anthologies of comics from cartoonists around the globe. The comics that were seized were sent along as an extra in a shipment of The Miniburger Dirty Dozen, a boxed set of mini comics that Top Shelf imported to offer in the Direct Market and at conventions. Top Shelf did not order the seized issues of the anthology.

Upon investigating the shipment, Customs released the copies of Miniburger, but held the issues of Stripburger, giving Top Shelf thirty days to either forfeit the shipment, request administrative relief, or initiate court action.

More: http://www.cbldf.org/pr/archives/000237.shtml

[Kire]

1. MORE ON THE CUSTOMS COMIC BOOK SEIZURE

MORE ON THE CUSTOMS COMIC BOOK SEIZURE

Writing for the Charleston City Paper, Jason Zwiker reported on the recent seizure of the Stripburger anthology by US Customs. While no new developments were reported (and as of press time, there has been no new action in the case, according to the CBLDF), Zwiker’s article does quote Richie Bush creator Peter Kuper as saying that his comic “Is a clear case of parody both of the Harvey comics characters and the current administration. I have never earned a dime from this parody and in fact had a number of out-of-pocket expenses. The purpose of this parody was to cast a light on the Bush administration’s policies and have a hearty laugh along the way. Lord knows, in times like these we could all use a good laugh.”

Zwiker also checks in with Charleston attorney Edward Fenno, who points out aspects of the case in regards to parody and fair use. Fenno is quoted as saying: “to be a protected against a copyright infringement claim, the author of a parody should at least loosely target the original (in this instance the Richie Rich comics) not just provide commentary on some other social issue by using the style and creativity of the original.”

The article also points out the 1997 case of The Cat NOT in the Hat, which was produced in the style of Dr. Suess’ works, but parodied the O.J. Simpson trial. In that case, a court found that the author of the work did not parody Suess’ style, but merely used the look and cadence of Dr. Suess’ works to get attention.

In that instance, when a copyrighted property is used to poke fun at another target, Fenno told Zwiker that the overall work then “receives less protection against copyright claims than parody. Satire can stand on its own two feet and so requires more justification for the act of borrowing” from the original copyrighted work, according to Judge O’Scannlain in his Dr. Seuss court opinion. Forsythe’s Food Chain Barbie photos were protected because they were ruled to not only critique objectification of women, but also to critique the Barbie doll as a propagator of that objectification.”

More: http://newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=23469