Here we go again. Like small children who have just discovered the power of the tantrum, the terrible people at A Voice for Men seem to have realized that the only reliable way for them to get the attention of the world is to act like complete assholes in public. And so some fans of AVFM have decided to bring back the “Don’t Be That Girl” campaign — you know, the witless and misogynistic “parody” of the successful Canadian “Don’t Be That Guy” rape awareness campaign. Now they’re postering in Halifax.
But there’s one difference: this time they’ve put the logos of the real sponsors of the real “Don’t Be That Guy” rape awareness project on their phony posters. (You can see the whole list by downloading one of the pdfs of the real posters on this page.)
So far, two of the organizations listed on their phony posters – the Bryony House shelter for victims of domestic violence and the Halifax Police Department – have made very clear that their logos are being used without permission.
https://twitter.com/BryonyHouse/status/448148862193389568
@Allisomething Tk u for reporting. We're not a sponsor of this campaign and find it deeply troubling. We'll be looking into this further HT
— Halifax_Police (@HfxRegPolice) March 24, 2014
It’s a pretty safe bet that the other organizations whose logos were appropriated feel similarly.
I’d like to encourage anyone who can afford it to follow up on a suggestion from Cloudiah in the comments and donate to Bryony House so that some good can come out of all this.
Now, I’m no expert on Canadian law, but it seems rather unlikely to me that it’s legal to simply stick some organization’s logo on something and pretend that they have endorsed it. Especially when that organization is the police.
Apparently some MRAs disagree with me on that:
https://twitter.com/AVoiceForMen/status/448225043026149376
“Your consent is not required” seems to be the operating assumption of a lot of those drawn to the Men’s Rights movement.
In later tweets, Elam claims that using the logos is legal because of “fair use,” which is not actually a term used in Canadian law, and promises that the “[p]osters will continue, cupcake.”
I guess we will see. Here are several more photos of the posters. There’s more discussion of this in the AgainstMensRights subreddit.
Lots of real comedians around town apparently… pic.twitter.com/P92KmW3I41
— Handsome Adam Barrett (@im_adam_barrett) March 24, 2014
and one more before I vomit everywhere pic.twitter.com/jEJTXSSHXG
— Handsome Adam Barrett (@im_adam_barrett) March 24, 2014
EDITED TO ADD: Elam has now responded to the critics, and promises to bankroll any legal challenges against the posterers. It’s pretty clear that he doesn’t understand why the logos are a problem.
EDIT/CORRECTION: It’s not completely clear that this postering campaign originated with AVFM. It’s pretty clear, though, that it’s supported by AVFM, and that those involved in it are supporters of AVFM. I’ve made a few changes to the headline and first graf to reflect this.
Announcing on Twitter that “Your consent is not required” and claiming the Halifax group as a chapter of AVfM – kind of makes it hard for AVfM to distance themselves from this, now.
Am I enjoying this too much? I am, aren’t I?
Considering the AVfM/MRAs continual inability to grasp the fact that just because they “think” something it doesn’t make it a fact, I hope there are consequences for them. Law is complicated and it can only be their primitive black and white-type thinking that they believe they’re automatically off the hook because they saw the word “parody” on a page.
Oh, I hope the Halifax police and other organisations rip AVfM a new one. I would love to see their shitty little group shown up very publicly for what it is. A reminder of things like the “bash a violent bitch month” effort would demonstrate that no, this has nothing to do with parody, let alone pretending that there’s anything offensive in the Don’t Be That Guy campaign; it’s all about hating and wanting to rape and murder women.
*passes the popcorn to titianblue*
Manboobz, come for the mockery, stay for the tasty, tasty schadenfreude!
Elam bankrupted, YES PLEASE.
Naw, it’s a good time. Too bad Elam and his followers never bothered to learn that “consent” is a real thing in the world. A thing that has to be obtained before proceeding with certain actions.
@kittehserf: I doubt he will get bankrupted, but who knows? We can all dream. I know I will. *looks wistfully into the distance*
*Munches on the schadenfreude-flavoured popcorn* Thanks, Gillyrosebee.
Ahahaha, oh lord, Judgy Bitch actually tweeted the WIKIPEDIA PAGE for “Fair dealing in Canadian copyright law” at Halifax Police as a big patronising GOTCHA.
I just… the cluelessness of these people… I can’t breathe… my sides…
Some people always have to learn the hard way. Well, ok, if they insist!
@tinyorc
I love it. Parody…it means what I want…not what it means.
Did they bother reading before tweeting? The wiki article basically tells the PD what to do to nail poster-people for defamation, libel, and copyright.
“Nener-neener! We’re fair use! Here! Have this link that explains why we aren’t!”
Ah, the Wikipedia defence. Always goes down well with judges. Who needs lawyers when you can google stuff.
This is how I imagine it went down in Judgy Bitch’s head…
JB: Maybe you guys should check out a little something called… Wikipedia!
Halifax Police: Oh my GOD. Bill! Bill, get over here? Have you seen this… I just, I can’t believe it… I’d never even heard of fair dealing exemptions to copyright law, but it’s all right here on… the Internet.
JB: That’s right boys. I typed “Canadian copyright law” into Google. Then I clicked the first result. One quick skim read was all it took.
Halifax Police: This woman is a genius. There’s no way we can outsmart her. Her knowledge of Canadian copyright law is superior to anyone in Canada, hell, maybe anyone in the world…
JB: Checkmate, misandrists. Check. Mate.
They’ll have a hard time distancing themselves from the posters when the AVFM URL is printed right on them. I love it. Once again, hate overrides all other considerations. Using the police logo was just perfect.
How is the police tweet “Please report if you see these posters” crossing the line, as PE put it?
Is it even true that most child abusers are women? That’s the poster I find the most disturbing because of the image on it.
Can we have a “don’t be that MRA” poster campaign please?
Auntie Alias – the numbers with child abuse was mentioned upthread; it’s to do with who does the majority of work in raising children. (Gosh, that would be women, wouldn’t it? Not that MRAs want anything to do with children … not anything good for the child, anyway.)
Wow…are they going to harass the Halifax Police Department by tweet? I’m gonna need more than popcorn…
I wonder if they’re ultimately going to try to weasel out of it by saying that they are not responsible for the posters, they’re merely supporting the message.
JB tweeted a Wikipedia page about a law to a law enforcement body? A law enforcement body whose job it is to enforce and uphold the law?
Elam may be comfortably a couple of thousand miles away, but are any of these idiots actually based in Canada? ‘cos the police aren’t famed for their sense of humour.
When I first saw this on my feed, I thought it said “pestering campaign”.
I don’t think I was far off.
Yeah, Auntie Alias, I believe the breakdown on reported child abuse in the US is roughly 45% male, 55% female. I’m not sure which of their supplied links provides this stat, but here’s where I got that figure.
You see sparky, that’s cause she’s judgy, so she too knows about the law-y. And that’s the hard truth-y.
titianblue – well, some of them must be. I can’t see Pauly paying someone to put his stupid posters up.
Good idea! Just don’t copy/paste police department logos on it!