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.
I’m really looking forward to when they start trying to dox the police department. That’s usually the next step when they get any pushback beyond a disinterested yawn and the posting of brain bleach.
I hope this happens, because I really want to see it.
And from Claudiah’s link…apparently, they’re holding a rally in June in Detroit. You’ll meet nearly every important “leading figure”! Let’s hope it’s successful as the last one…
link’s broken, AbsintheDexterous
Yeah, the greatest, most important MRA meeting ever, in the world. For $219, you can get a ticket for a conference room at the DoubleTree in Detroit and a copy of The Myth of Male Power. Oh wait, the ticket price went up as of yesterday.
Unfortunately, Paul has no legal ability to host this conference, as he’s barred from doing business until he pays his taxes. I wonder if the government officials that are allegedly speaking know that he’s engaging in illegal business practices…
I did read a little footnote that they have to sell 130 tickets, or the conference will be cancelled, so I have no doubt that this is never going to happen.
Think Paul will call the chief “cupcake?” Somehow I don’t think so. But please, let him get frothy with someone with more power, I’d love to see it.
Hasn’t Detroit suffered enough?
Hello.
I’m going to crawl back under my blankets for another month.
I’ve been trying to think of what the LLC after AVfM should stand for.
Lying Little Cretins
Literally Laughable Clowns
Lawless Luckless Chucklefucks
Anyone else have ideas?
It’s like a perfect storm of stupidity.
Don’t be that MRA: I think I heard of these through here, and I don’t remember if someone from Manboobz made them or not. TW for rape threats, threats of violence, homophobia.
http://imgur.com/a/QkkFh
So – what government department in Texas should know about Pauly trying to host this conference? Someone needs to let them know about this …
Researching now, Kittehs…
The Secretary of State and the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, it appears. They’re the ones that revoked his business license.
I love how they seemed to think it’s a “minor” legal issue. IP rights are taken pretty damn seriously, even a confusingly similar trademark can evoke major damages. Quite frankly I don’t know what the damages would be, because they’re not making any profits per say, but I hope so lawyers go pro bono and the organizations decide to stomp on these guys in court.
I also wonder about defamation? It does make it look like these organizations are endorsing this message.
Wait, does Elam even HAVE the funds to back any legal cases? Isn’t AVFM always seeking donations?
I know the conversation has moved way on, but: abortion is legal, accessible*, and covered by Health Care in Canada, and our social safety nets aren’t under such outrageous attack (yet, although The Harper Government™ is working on it), so there aren’t as many unplanned, unwanted babies to be abandoned.
However, those horrible and wrong Pregnancy Crisis Centres are popping up and advertising more and more in Canada, and are starting to be a problem. So the incidents may go up.
*Sorry PEI, no abortion services for you.
BWAhahaha! Judgybitch used the wrong peek, which makes it extra schadenfreudelicious.
…They can’t get 25 people to show up at a rally for free and they think they’re going to pull this off?
>snurk, snicker< Yeah, try scraping together that many Cheeto-bedusted basement-dwellers. Maybe if you advertised it as a Bitcoin traders' forum…haha.
They’d definitely be too broke to show up.
The misters are wondering what the deal is with Canada. How come the Halifax PD doesn’t like having their logo used on posters they find reprehensible?
Thanks, Unimaginative. I hope The Harper GovernmentTM can be thwarted from this nefarious agenda. I am afraid I live somewhere where all hope is lost (but not too far, luckily, from someplace solidly safe).
WRT Judgybitch’s tweet, there seems to be a set of people who think that “Fair Use” is a magic word that you can invoke that automatically makes it OK to use intellectual property.
I’m thinking of all those songs posted to YouTube with the fair use rules printed in the notes.
boo…my superscript didn’t work! what’s the one that works here?
@kittehserf, Sorry, my dead brain isn’t seeing that.
@eli, Thank you. Those stats sure don’t square with the “large majority” poster claim.
Wow, they put the posters up right around the police department.
These guys aren’t exactly the sharpest bulbs in the chandelier.
All I did was leave a space between “government” and “™” and it superscripted itself. And now it just did it again. Huh.