FC: More on Godzilla stomping Davezilla, speculation about Mozilla

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Previous Politech message:
http://www.politechbot.com/p-03881.html

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Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2002 17:45:36 -0400
From: "Paul Levy" <PLEVY () citizen org>
To: <politech () politechbot com>, <declan () well com>
Cc: <davel () davezilla com>
Subject: Re: FC: Godzilla movie owner nastygrams "Davezilla.com" humor site

This is a pretty mild letter, phrased as a "request"

I wonder if they have sent similar letters to the creators of Mozilla and 
Go!zilla

Or, the web site Budgie zilla

I might add that a quick search on the Patent and Trademark Office's 
electronic database turns up quite a number of other persons who have 
trademarks in terms ending in zilla, including bosszilla, bootzilla, 
dogzilla, webzilla, and bockzilla.  Seems like the letter maybe came from a 
sillyzilla lawyerzilla with too much time on her handszilla

Paul Alan Levy
Public Citizen Litigation Group
1600 - 20th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009
(202) 588-1000
http://www.citizen.org/litigation/litigation.html

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From: Robert Black Eagle <rbe () flash net>
Reply-To: rbe () flash net
Organization: Desert Silver
To: declan () well com
Subject: Re: FC: Godzilla movie owner nastygrams "Davezilla.com" humor site
Date: Tue, 13 Aug 2002 13:33:26 -0500

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On Monday 12 August 2002 3:58 pm, Declan McCullagh wrote:
> ---
>
> Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2002 14:05:12 -0400
> From: Dave Linabury <davel () davezilla com>
> To: <declan () well com>
>
> This is just silly Declan. I am being legally threatened over the
> name of my weblog. Davezilla.com, a parody/humor site run by me since
> 1995, is being threatened by Toho Co. Ltd., for being too similar to
> Godzilla [they own all Godzilla movies, toys, etc.].
>
> The letter I received via Fed Express from their lawyers on Saturday
> is on my site here: http://www.davezilla.com/index.php?p=1292

Having read the letter, I wonder why they have not come after Mozilla
(the Open Source portion of Netscape), Issuzilla (a software
bug-reporting system) and Prozilla (a software download program).
Could it be that they fear they may be taking on too much financial
risk taking on (1) programs supported and maintained by hundreds if not
thousands of programmer and (2) a company with big bucks?

- --
Robert Black Eagle
GnuPG for security in email
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Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2002 18:07:39 -0700 (PDT)
From: Bryan Murley <scmurleys () yahoo com>
Subject: Re: FC: Godzilla movie owner nastygrams "Davezilla.com" humor site
To: declan () well com
In-Reply-To: <5.1.1.6.0.20020812165631.01c9da48 () mail well com>

Mr. McCullagh,

Have become a big fan of Politech since subscribing a
little over a month ago. This post just illustrates
the incredible silliness that has become copyright
law. Courts have long recognized parody as a
legitimate fair use. But the future may be bleak for
guys like Davezilla. Might I suggest changing his
nom-de-plume to
Dave-No-Relation-Whatsoever-to-God-Zilla?

B Murley

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Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2002 17:43:56 -0700
Subject: Re: FC: Godzilla movie owner nastygrams "Davezilla.com" humor site
From: Alan Cabal <a.cabal () att net>
To: <declan () well com>

on 8/12/02 1:58 PM, Declan McCullagh at declan () well com wrote:

> This is just silly Declan. I am being legally threatened over the name of my
> weblog. Davezilla.com, a parody/humor site run by me since 1995, is being
> threatened by Toho Co. Ltd., for being too similar to Godzilla [they own all
> Godzilla movies, toys, etc.].

I wonder if Pynchon got one for actually USING Godzilla in VINELAND,
although he never actually named the Big Lizard.

You should send them back a letter demanding that they explain why they let
those lazy stupid Americans make that atrocious CGI movie with that
hopelessly unrealistic looking bogus Godzilla attacking NYC & laying eggs
all over MSG.

Regards,

Alan Cabal
www.nypress.com

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Subject: Badzilla
From: Gordon Runkle <gar () integrated-dynamics com>
To: declan () well com

Hi Declan,

So I guess Bugzilla and Mozilla are out as well?

And how about all those "Golfzilla", etc. shirts and hats?

Coming soon: "Lawyerzilla - The Monster That Ate the World!"

Regards,

Gordon.
--
"Far and away the best prize that life has to offer
  is the chance to work hard at work worth doing."
       -- Theodore Roosevelt

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