{"id":3207,"date":"2002-07-25T09:06:44","date_gmt":"2002-07-25T14:06:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=3207"},"modified":"2002-07-25T09:06:44","modified_gmt":"2002-07-25T14:06:44","slug":"how_just","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/07\/25\/how_just.html","title":{"rendered":"How … just"},"content":{"rendered":"

A judge shows tremendous good judgement (not to matter a sense of humor) in dealing with a defamation suit:<\/p>\n

MCA [sued Mattel] for defamation [because a Mattel representative had, in characterizing MCA’s alleged trademark infringement, used] the words “bank robber,” “heist,” “crime” and “theft.” But all of these are variants of the invective most often hurled at accused infringers, namely “piracy.” No one hearing this accusation understands intellectual property owners to be saying that infringers are nautical cutthroats with eyepatches and peg legs who board galleons to plunder cargo. In context, all these terms are nonactionable “rhetorical hyperbole.” The parties are advised to chill.<\/p>\n

I think there are a lot of court cases (particularly law suits) that would be best summed up with just that phrase.<\/p>\n

(Via Volokh<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A judge shows tremendous good judgement (not to matter a sense of humor) in dealing with a defamation suit: MCA [sued Mattel] for defamation [because a Mattel representative had, in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":127890,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/05\/reminiscing-about-the-x-15.html","url_meta":{"origin":3207,"position":0},"title":"Reminiscing about the X-15","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 5-Sep-15 5:53am","format":false,"excerpt":"No, not that X-15. This X-15 -- a tricycle from Mattel in the early 60s (named after the famous test aircraft, https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/North_American_X-15). I actually had one of these as a kid, and it was awesome. There was a \"vroom\" sound effect when the front wheel was turned, and the joystick\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26760,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/29\/piracy-righteousness-and-realism.html","url_meta":{"origin":3207,"position":1},"title":"Piracy, Righteousness, and Realism","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 29-Feb-12 10:22am","format":false,"excerpt":"An interesting set of thoughts on whether consumers pirating (or downloading pirated) materials are being driven by an unreasonable sense of entitlement (\"I want it now, in the format I want!\") or are sending a legitimate market signal -- and, if the latter, whether it's better for the media companies\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":129180,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/18\/the-old-manufacturer-changeth-disney-princess-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":3207,"position":2},"title":"The Old Manufacturer Changeth (Disney Princess Edition)","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 18-Dec-15 6:21pm","format":false,"excerpt":"As of 1 January, all Disney Princess figures, backpacks, costumes, and other swag will be made by Hasbro, rather than Mattel. The business is estimated to be worth up to $500MM in retail sales.It's a really interesting article (written as the dad of a daughter who was never too Princess-crazy,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5599,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/02\/13\/youre_breaking.html","url_meta":{"origin":3207,"position":3},"title":"You’re breaking up, you’re breaking up …","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 13-Feb-04 7:31am","format":false,"excerpt":"I don't know if I'm more amused or disturbed by this official Mattel press release indicating that Barbie and Ken are quits. After more than 43 years together, Hollywood's quintessential...","rel":"","context":"In "Media & Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Media & Culture","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media"},"img":{"alt_text":"Love on the rocks","src":"\/blog\/images\/barbie-ken.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":160808,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2025\/09\/16\/and-you-get-a-defamation-suit-and-you-get-a-defamation-suit.html","url_meta":{"origin":3207,"position":4},"title":"And YOU get a defamation suit, and YOU get a defamation suit …","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 16-Sep-25 2:39pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Trump is, once again, out to silence critics by suing them for massive damages.","rel":"","context":"In "Censorship"","block_context":{"text":"Censorship","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/censorship"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/C1_MkcVWQAEqgLo.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":50171,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/27\/celebrating-super-hero-girls.html","url_meta":{"origin":3207,"position":5},"title":"Celebrating Super-Hero Girls","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 27-Apr-15 2:03am","format":false,"excerpt":"Though, to be honest, I'm not sure Poison Ivy or Harley Quinn are good role models. Or Katana, for that matter.Still, something that's about superheroes that is targeted for females 6-12? Awesome idea. WB and DC Entertainment in Partnership with Mattel Launch 'DC Super Hero Girls' A New Super Hero\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3207\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}