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Case Settled Over Barney Parody
The Texas-based company that owns Barney, that lovable purple dinosaur, agreed Tuesday to withdraw threats of legal action against a New York City musicologist who posted parodies of the children’s character on his personal website.
In agreeing to stop threatening Dr. Stuart Frankel with legal action, Lyons Partnership is settling a lawsuit filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based digital rights group, in August.
The foundation filed a lawsuit against Lyons to stop the company’s laywers from sending Frankel cease-and-desist letters claiming that he was violating copyright and trademark laws.
“We wish we hadn’t had to file a lawsuit to finally get Barney’s lawyers to stop harassing a man who was just expression an opinion about a cultural phenomenon,” said Corynne McSherry, the EEF lawyer handling the case. “Hopefully, Lyons Partnership has learned its lesson and will have more respect for fair use in the future.”
Lawyers for Lyons have not responded to a request for an interview.
The settlement is the latest development in the foundation’s effort to protect online free speech.
For more about the Barney see this Cox story.
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