Chris Nicholson's Writing Weblog
October 26, 2005 • Wednesday
According to an article in Editor & Publisher, the White House has ordered the humor publication The Onion to stop using the presidential seal in its parodies of the Bush Administration.
For the record, the White House can't do the former, and The Onion won't do the latter. Even copyrighted and trademarked logos are legally usable in parody. It's a right of free speech. Not to mention that the seal is owned by the public anyway, and therefore should not be under copyright restrictions.
But wouldn't you just love to see the White House get into an intellectual property battle with a humor publication?
I'll be looking forward to any retaliations The Onion may forge in its future issues.
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October 03, 2005 • Monday
Playwright August Wilson, 60, died yesterday. I never saw any of Wilson's plays, but I did read Fences in college. It's excellent. It was one of my first experiences with black American literature, and it left a mark on me that I can still see almost 15 years later.
For a tribute, see the New York Times' "August Wilson's Operatic Sweep Added Nobility to Already-Noble Lives."
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