Back in 1992, Los Angeles-based photographer Laura London lived down the street from the singer of the rock band. The singer’s name was Axl Rose. The band was Gunz N’ Roses.
Flash forward twenty years, and London is currently holding a photo exhibition for her project, “Once Upon a Time … Axl Rose Was My Neighbor,” at Coagula Curatorial in LA. The show features photographs from the time London spent living a stone’s throw away from a man who is now considered one of the greatest hard rock singers of all time, along with portraits of Rose wannabes and band photo recreations. One particular image in the show attracted the attention of Rose, and not in a good way — it led to a lawsuit threat.
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In November 2010, Talking Points Memo published an article that included a wire photo taken on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor. Yesterday they received a cease and desist letter from the NYSE claiming that photos of the trading floor cannot be displayed without the NYSE’s permission, and that it owns trademark rights to images of the floor:
NYSE has common law and Federal trademark rights in and to NYSE’s name and images of the Trading Floor [...] NYSE owns Federal tradmark rights in one depiction of the Trading Floor and common law rights in the Trading Floor viewed from virtually any angle [...] Accordingly, NYSE has the right to prevent unauthorized use of its Trademarks and reference to NYSE by others. [#]
You can read the two page C&D letter here. What are your thoughts on this?
(via Boing Boing)
Image credit: NYSE trading floor (tilt-shifted) by champura
Earlier this month we reported on 48 Hour Magazine, a new project that aims to put together each magazine in only 48 hours from start to finish. The team of editors include Heather Champ and Derek Powazek, the founding editors of JPG Magazine.
Shortly after completing “Issue Zero”, they’ve received a cease and desist letter from the lawyers at CBS for trademark violation. The company owns trademarks for their news magazine television series “48 Hours”, and the related “48 Hours Mystery”.
According to the New York Times, 48 Hour Magazine never looked into the legality of the name, nor did they form a corporation. The proceeds of the $10 magazine (which they’ve sold over 1,000 copies of) will be split according to a transparent (albeit semi-complicated) formula.
The magazine has hired a lawyer to represent them, but does not plan to put up a fight, opting to work with CBS to come to an agreement. Since their website 48hourmag.com might soon go offline, they’ve set up a page at has48hrmagbeenshutdown.com to keep readers informed.
