Seattle to Remain Famous for Coffee and Rain
Thanksgiving Pairing Suggestion: Dessert Isn't Just a Meal
Eight Things A Seattle Sports Fan Can Be Thankful For
Seattlest Pix 09Nov25
Can't Miss It: Thanksgiving Eve
Seattlest first commented back in December about the news of the R. Crumb lawyer suing Amazon over an alleged infringement of the "Keep on Truckin'" property, but the image in question couldn't be found online. Now that a copy has finally been secured (see above), the opinion that the case may be totally frivilous is now reinforced. To quote the December 30th post:
...The amazon character (no example could be found online) was so heavily altered that it bore little resemblance to Crumb's original source, which probably qualifies it for the strong legal precedence of protection under the Fair Use clause of the First Amendment...
Seattlest employs no legal scholars or trademark law experts on staff but its kind of hard to believe Amazon's use of this image seriously diminishes the merchandising value of Crumb's intellectual property. Since the reclusive artist lives without a computer in southern France, its doubtful he's even seen the disputed image in question.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
I love Robert Crumb but his lawyers are idiots. That could resemble a dozen dotcom stepping guy logos of the time besides it is not like they based their entire brand off it.
If he's got his lawyers working on commission, Crumb is a genius. There's little stigma attached to attacking a corporation like Amazon. Crumb gets scads of free publicity and doesn't pay a penny. If Amazon decides on a quick settlement, he gets a nice little purse. What else is the legal system for?
Read any of Crumb's comics or watch the Zwigoff documentary and you will see that Crumb hates litigation, marketing and publicity, hence the delegation of these concerns to others. Its possible he's not even aware that a lawsuit is even going on.