<nettime> Y(D)?OYON digest [recktenwaldX2, MWPX2, curator, alexander, sanborn]

[nettime_industry_association_of_america <nettime@bbs.thing.net>]

     Re: <nettime> Starbucks vs. Sam Bucks - think you own your name?
Heiko Recktenwald <uzs106@ibm.rhrz.uni-bonn.de>
MWP <mpalmer@jps.net>
Heiko Recktenwald <uzs106@ibm.rhrz.uni-bonn.de>
curator <curator@conceptualart.org>
Amy Alexander <plagiari@plagiarist.org>
Keith Sanborn <mrzero@panix.com>
     hasta basta
MWP <mpalmer@jps.net>

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Date: Mon, 5 Aug 2002 12:20:14 +0200 (CEST)
From: Heiko Recktenwald <uzs106@ibm.rhrz.uni-bonn.de>
Subject: Re: <nettime> Starbucks vs. Sam Bucks - think you own your name?

> Her name is NOT Sam Bucks, but Samantha Buck. It seems to me like she most
> likely changed her name to make it sound suspiciously similar to
> Starbucks, especially when she removed the space between "m" and "B" in
> her name (see photo), and added the totally gratuitous "s" at the end.
> (Now if she had called it "Sam Buck's," with the appropriate apostrophe
> insertion, she might have a better case.) The photo in the above link
> shows just how close the match is.

Well, the s. Anyway, Sam Bucks's and Sam Bucks, which might look better,
is closer than Sam Bucks or SamBucks and Starbucks. What have amB and tarb
in common ? An a.

H.

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Date: Mon, 05 Aug 2002 08:46:27 -0700
From: MWP <mpalmer@jps.net>
Subject: Re: <nettime> Starbucks vs. Sam Bucks - think you own your name?

Oops! AND a B/b. AND a monosyllable. AND a surrounding context. etc. Point is,
it doesn't have to be identical. If I start selling cartoon mice on t-shirts
and call myself Wolt Dizmey, I think it is obvious who I am ripping off.
Capitalism and its discontents. . .

m

Heiko Recktenwald wrote:

 <...>
> Well, the s. Anyway, Sam Bucks's and Sam Bucks, which might look better,
> is closer than Sam Bucks or SamBucks and Starbucks. What have amB and tarb
> in common ? An a.
>
> H.

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Date: Mon, 5 Aug 2002 18:40:47 +0200 (CEST)
From: Heiko Recktenwald <uzs106@ibm.rhrz.uni-bonn.de>
Subject: Re: <nettime> Starbucks vs. Sam Bucks - think you own your name?

Hi,

On Mon, 5 Aug 2002, MWP wrote:

> Oops! AND a B/b. AND a monosyllable. AND a surrounding context. etc. Point is,
> it doesn't have to be identical. If I start selling cartoon mice on t-shirts
> and call myself Wolt Dizmey, I think it is obvious who I am ripping off.
> Capitalism and its discontents. . .

This is a nice case ;-)

The VG Bild here once they tried to collect money from somebody who made
funny faked Picassos etc. In the style of...

Wouldnt say that you can call this a rip off of anybody.

Havent seen the mentioned picture.

IMHO a big company, that trashes Cafehouseculture all over the globe,
must be more selfconfident with such jokes. Reminds to Essosux.com

Thought that Samatha Buck's SamBucks was first.

Best,

H.

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Date: Mon, 05 Aug 2002 12:09:43 -0700
Subject: Re: <nettime> Starbucks vs. Sam Bucks - think you own your name?
From: curator <curator@conceptualart.org>

on 08\04\02 9:22 PM, MWP at mpalmer@jps.net wrote:

> (Now if she had called it "Sam Buck's," with the appropriate apostrophe
> insertion, she might have a better case.) The photo in the above link
> shows just how close the match is.

The logo on the window does have the appropriate apostrophe in the link your
story points to.

curator, conceptualart.org

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Date: Mon, 5 Aug 2002 13:47:50 -0700 (PDT)
From: Amy Alexander <plagiari@plagiarist.org>
Subject: Re: <nettime> Starbucks vs. Sam Bucks - think you own your name?

On Sun, 4 Aug 2002, MWP wrote:

> Re. Starbucks vs. Sam Bucks
> http://portland.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=15309&group=webcast

<snip>

> 
> Her name is NOT Sam Bucks, but Samantha Buck. It seems to me like she most
> likely changed her name to make it sound suspiciously similar to
> Starbucks, especially when she removed the space between "m" and "B" in
> her name (see photo), and added the totally gratuitous "s" at the end.
> (Now if she had called it "Sam Buck's," with the appropriate apostrophe
> insertion, she might have a better case.) The photo in the above link
> shows just how close the match is.
> 

well actually, the sign on the window in that photo - which appears to be 
her actual business logo - *does* have an apostrophe in it. in the sign 
hanging at the top referring to the litigation issue, there's no 
apostrophe because she's using it as a verb: "sambucks the system." 
there's definitely no space either, but then, it's definitely an 
intentional allusion to starbucks at that point. (hard to tell about the 
space in the window logo.)

but, what might be more to the point: lets assume she's calling the store
sambucks on purpose to sound like starbucks. is she really going to
confuse people? (her store doesn't look anything like a starbucks.) or is
her store name a parody? parody is protected speech in other contexts -
what about in the naming of businesses? to me, it sounds like a form of 
expression. the name says, "there's this person named sam who's running a 
an independent/homey/etc. shop in competition with the megalithic 
starbucks."

i'm trying to find existing examples of parody business names. found a few 
in: 
http://www.funnyname.com/list011p000.html 

but the references to intellectual property scattered throughout that list
are in the form of book and movie titles, not other business names. it
seems this must have come up before - anybody know if a parody defense 
was ever used in this context?

-@

--
plagiarist.org
Recontextualizing script-kiddyism as net-art for over 1/20 of a century.

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Date: Tue, 6 Aug 2002 00:17:44 -0400 (EDT)
From: Keith Sanborn <mrzero@panix.com>
Subject: Re: <nettime> Starbucks vs. Sam Bucks - think you own your name?

I am unable to process this message as reference invoke a fatal error in
irony detection routines.

Please advise,

Keith Sanborn

On Sun, 4 Aug 2002, MWP wrote:

> Re. Starbucks vs. Sam Bucks
> http://portland.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=15309&group=webcast
>
> First of all, I have never patronized Starbucks, nor do I ever intend to.
 <...>

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Date: Mon, 05 Aug 2002 09:47:37 -0700
From: MWP <mpalmer@jps.net>
Subject: hasta basta

As much as I would like to keep the conversation going I have basically
been told to shut up by a nettime moderator. Anybody who wants to
sustain a conversation with me (or chew me out etc. - I can take it!)
email me at mpalmer@jps.net

Otherwise, goodbye lemmings!

m

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