Poor Sega gets panties in a wad over YTMND

[GeckoYamori]

Kids, there's nothing more cool than SONIC THE HEDGEHOG. But if SEEEEGAAAA tries to Cease and Desist! That's NO GOOD. It's your YTMND. No one has the right to Cease and Desist! if you don't want them to. So what do you do? First, you say LOL! Then, you get outta there!!

[David J.]

I like this SONIC YTMND the bestest:

http://sonictourettesguy.ytmnd.com/

[redrum666]

This is interesting, and I wonder what will happen next.

GLAD is going to take legal action against YTMND.com for this rap song (if you can call it a rap song)

http://ytmndsega.ytmnsfw.com/

[TheGZeus]

I find it amazing that people can misunderstand the legality of parody and what falls under protected speech.

Copyrighted/trademarked imagery/audio are fair game under parody.

So far I've seen nothing illegal there.
Just because it's not all that clever doesn't make it illegal.

Sega's behaving like Gibson guitars.
Sitting on their old franchizes, regurgitating crappy versions of them and re-issuing things, issuing cease-and-desists at the drop of a hat, and so forth,

I imagine this is what guitar players who played Gibsons in the 1960s but have brains feel.

[Rusty Venture]

GLAD is going to take legal action against YTMND.com for this rap song (if you can call it a rap song)

http://ytmndsega.ytmnsfw.com/

Well I'd somewhat agree with the song where it says "Sonic hasn't been hot since 'Mortal Kombat 1' was out" but I'd have to say that change the lyric to "Mortal Kombat 2" and it'd be spot on.

So what, in everyones opinion, was the last time Sonic was a "big time" character?

[evildragon]

sonic 3...

[Joe Redifer]

GLAD is going to take legal action against YTMND.com for this rap song (if you can call it a rap song)

http://ytmndsega.ytmnsfw.com/

GLAD? The trash bag company?

[redrum666]

GLAD? The trash bag company?

no GLAD as in the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders organization

[Joe Redifer]

What's their deal with the song? They don't have any legal ground to stand on, either.

[redrum666]

What's their deal with the song? They don't have any legal ground to stand on, either.

i was trying to make a joke but it went over your head i see

[TheGZeus]

no big task, internets and all

[Joe Redifer]

i was trying to make a joke but it went over your head i see

Indeed. Perhaps if I had paid more attention to the lyrics.

[Elusive]

It's up to the courts to decide whether this is a genuine case of copyright infringement or not. Sit down, Internet Lawyers.

YTMND is hardly being mature about this, seems any 'attack' on them ends up with a 'TALK TO THE HAND bwahahaha' response

[TheGZeus]

Well, I'm no lawyer, but one doesn't need to be to look at legal precedent.
Sega would need to have a terrible lawyer who was guaranteed his position even after he lost for this to go to court.

IT WON'T GET THERE.

it's bullshit to prevent bad publicity. You don't have a right to bad publicity from parody.
This is People VS Lary Flint fro ma different angle. One criminal, the other civil.

THey can ignore it.

[Flash1087]

Well I'd somewhat agree with the song where it says "Sonic hasn't been hot since 'Mortal Kombat 1' was out" but I'd have to say that change the lyric to "Mortal Kombat 2" and it'd be spot on.

So what, in everyones opinion, was the last time Sonic was a "big time" character?

Sonic Adventure. I don't really think Sonic started falling to the wayside until after Sega stopped manufacturing their own hardware.

And as for the legalities of YTMND using Sonic images, YTMND isn't profiting from Sonic and isn't trying to claim Sonic as their own, so I don't think Sega has a case here. If I drew a picture of Sonic with a big word bubble that says "MY NEW GAMES SUCK LOLZ" and stuck it on the internet, Sega couldn't do anything unless I was selling it or trying to tell people Sonic is my copyright. At least I don't think they can, and I've certainly been wrong before (and will be again).