Oh, how I loathe you...but I'll take three, please

Instead of going to Town Lake today, I've been drinking coffee and surfing the net. And when I procrastinate like this (see last post), I often come across things that will distract me for the remainder of the day, rendering obsolete any other plans that I may have had.

Sigh.

This morning, I found that I can buy messenger bags, thongs, infant sleepers, boxer short, t-shirts, mugs, STEINS?, buttons, magnets, aprons, and even wall clocks from this website:

http://www.cafepress.com/mindsite/1116998







I don't know if this site is run by the Howard Stern folks, but I think it is. I'm going to check into the legalities of them putting my grandfather's image on all this merchandise. At the very least, even if it is legal, I deserve a free wall clock and stein.

This discovery made, I had to write a letter to the Howard Stern show. I tried to keep it a little bit incendiary (but not too much), so they wouldn't throw it away without passing it along to him.

We'll see what happens.

I *have* found out that without a doubt, the Howard Stern show has infringed on Jon Gnagy's trademark rights and violated what's known as "Right to Publicity" which in many states is a sub-section of the "Right to Privacy" law. However, both california and Texas have their own official "Right to Publicity" laws.

In California, the use of any individual's name and image for commercial(or other) is prohibited with a statute for 70 years after an individual's death. [Cal Civil Code § 3344-3344.1] In Texas, it's a statute of 50 years.

The only way the show would be able to defend themselves were if they had gotten express (and written) permission for use of Jon Gnagy's image and name from the legal executors of Jon Gnagy's estate. I doubt my Aunt Polly has done so, but I'm curious to find that out.

However, even if they were sued and they lost, they would only have to:

1) Abandon selling merchandise that used his name and image, and

2) Pay $750.00 to the estate or the amount that was gained from the use of the aforementioned name and image (whichever is more).

I'm going to talk to Junie and Mishell (my two lawyer girlfriends) and see what they think.