Comments on: Cease & Desist this! Bill Cosby still has no sense of humor.

Cease & Desist this! Bill Cosby still has no sense of humor.

Mijo Bijo — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 15:49:29 -0800

vows to fight Bill Cosby's lawyers and continue to provide hosting to House of Cosbys despite receiving a cease & desist letter [PDF]. Andy Baio, founder of waxy.org, discusses this in the NY Times and provides updates on his site. As previously posted, Bill Cosby's lawyers were successful in getting the creators of House of Cosbys to stop hosting and making new episodes of their parody series.

It appears that threatening letters and lawsuits will continue to be filed against internet parody sites as celebrities try to protect what they view as their copyright, according to the Wall Street Journal.

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 15:55:38 -0800

wow. here's to our own waxpancake. Should we consider doing a collection drive to support him in this?

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 16:04:14 -0800

"A parody is a work that ridicules another, usually well-known work, by imitating it in a comic way. Judges understand that by its nature, parody demands some taking from the original work being parodied. Unlike other forms of fair use, a fairly extensive use of the original work is permitted in a parody in order to "conjure up" the original." -Stanford Guide to Copyright and Fair Use

By: mystyk

mystyk — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 16:30:40 -0800

Ok, let's push for these to get hosted on EbaumsWorld. That way we can get all the lawyers pushing that sight into oblivion instead of a useful site like Waxy.

By: willnot

willnot — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 16:39:14 -0800

Good for Andy. I hate to see companies/lawyers trying to bully smaller creators. It's just too bad that House of Cosby's is not funny and not worth protecting out of anything more than principle.

By: mathowie

mathowie — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 16:43:33 -0800

Cool that the NYT piece came out. For what it's worth, I introduced Andy to some pro-bono law help that is interested in taking his case so between that and the EFF, I think Andy will have enough legal muscle in his corner to hopefully beat this.

By: keswick

keswick — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 16:48:05 -0800

If I were Waxy, I'd settle for a lifetime supply of Jello Puddin' Pops.... mmmm, puddin'

By: mr_crash_davis

mr_crash_davis — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 16:52:40 -0800

"Tell Bill to have a Coke and a smile and shut the fuck up." --Eddie Murphy

By: dgaicun

dgaicun — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 16:55:59 -0800

Respect for Chuck Norris: *slide-whistle pull out* Respect for Bill Cosby: *slide whistle push in*

By: herc

herc — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 17:03:40 -0800

Hard to argue that the "House of Cosbys" isn't a parody. Unlike JibJab's "This Land Is Your Land" spoof, the target of the parody would appear to be Bill Cosby himself. (fingers crossed waxy is sued in New York, seems like the 2nd Circuit is pretty liberal with fair use.) But making tracks from Cosby's comedy album available for downloading would seem to be a straightforward example of copyright infringment, no?

By: my sock puppet account

my sock puppet account — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 17:16:21 -0800

willnot nailed it.

By: Hat Maui

Hat Maui — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 17:37:42 -0800

"Tell Bill to have a Coke and a smile and shut the fuck up." --Eddie Murphy crash, you left out the rather important nuance that it's eddie murphy quoting richard pryor in that bit, to whom he's gone for counsel on what to do about his "cosby problem."

By: Biblio

Biblio — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 17:43:09 -0800

How did I miss these in the first place? I love me some vintage Cos, (Buck Buck number one!) but he really is a whiny old windbag now, isn't he?

By: furtive

furtive — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 18:06:28 -0800

mmmm....calcumubations!

By: aburd

aburd — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 18:06:41 -0800

But making tracks from Cosby's comedy album available for downloading would seem to be a straightforward example of copyright infringment, no? Were these on waxy and I just missed it?

By: aladfar

aladfar — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 18:10:37 -0800

dgalcun: You've got your whistle backward. Celebrities fortunate enough to get skewered this way need to get better advice. While the beginnings of House of Cosbys is somewhat amusing (with the potty humor and all) it degenerates pretty rapidly from there. Were the Cosby people really interested in making it go away, they'd have done much better to let it fade on its own. Because of their efforts, I and many others have just downloaded and watched every episode. Curious! Explore!

By: Mijo Bijo

Mijo Bijo — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 18:10:55 -0800

According to the cease-and-desist letter, It appears there were links to Cosby's copyrighted works in the past on waxy, I can't tell if they were hosted by waxy or off-site.

By: mischief

mischief — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 18:12:03 -0800

This just in:

Nine Cosby fans killed protesting satire videos. Sole remaining fan vows fatwa.

By: graventy

graventy — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 19:21:45 -0800

He had some out-of-print cosby album (Cosby Talks to Kids about Drugs) hosted, but he took that down.

By: waxpancake

waxpancake — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 19:58:23 -0800

Hey, all. Thanks for the FPP, much appreciated. Addressing a couple comments in this thread... As I mention in the top post on my site, Cosby's lawyers asked me to remove both the out-of-print album and House of Cosbys. I immediately removed the album, as that's their business if they want to suppress an album that hasn't been commercially available since its LP release in 1971. I personally don't see the harm, but that's me. willnot: You might not think House of Cosbys is funny, but I do. So do many of my friends, online and off. Funny is very personal.

By: dgaicun

dgaicun — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 20:05:41 -0800

dgalcun: You've got your whistle backward. Woops. I totally haven't jammed on the slistle since college. Am I the only one who suspects the voice behind that King Missile-esque intro is really Stephen Colbert?

By: Optimus Chyme

Optimus Chyme — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 20:08:08 -0800

It's just too bad that House of Cosbys is not funny No, this is the first I've ever heard of it and it's great. :) Thanks, waxpancake.

By: bigbigdog

bigbigdog — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 20:18:00 -0800

I'm Curiosity Cosby, Theo!!

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 20:23:52 -0800

Good on ya, Andy.

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 20:28:02 -0800

I'm still late night posting cosby, dammit.

By: MrBadExample

MrBadExample — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 20:48:29 -0800

"As you are aware, you are not licensed or in anyway authorized to used Mr. Cosby's name, voice or zazzum-flazzum for any flazzum-blazzum skizzum. Your use of our client's flazzum flazoo in this blazzum violates our client's rights of zazzum-blop as well as other flith flarn flarn filth filth flarn flarn."

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 21:31:14 -0800

tell bill cosby to suck my dick.

By: mediareport

mediareport — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 22:29:54 -0800

Way to go, Andy. It always bugs me when folks immediately back down in cases where the legal precedent is clearly on their side. More folks in this position should politely let the assholes know that we know the law and will start thinking about a countersuit if they continue to harass folks by asserting privileges that clearly aren't theirs to assert. Fuck Bill Cosby and his lawyers if they continue this immoral garbage.

By: Doorstop

Doorstop — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 05:32:22 -0800

wait... cosby saw these cartoons and the first thing he thought of was a copyright infringement? wtf... i would have thought he would be more offended than anything. at the same time, have a self of humor, cosby.

By: Suparnova

Suparnova — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 05:38:04 -0800

Well, you see Theoooo, you got to respect the law now Theoooo

By: andrewraff

andrewraff — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 06:01:36 -0800

Note that the request to take down House of Cosbys is not based in copyright law, but in The Cos's right of publicity.

By: Smedleyman

Smedleyman — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 06:19:53 -0800

Right of publicity....sheeeeit. We’d never see another parody again. What an ass Cosby is.

By: Spatch

Spatch — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 07:36:03 -0800

I wonder if God is planning a C&D on the Cos for parodying Noah as he's done.

By: aparrish

aparrish — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 09:54:51 -0800

MrBadExample wins. That comment has been stuck in my head and making me chuckle for days.