Avatar Protest Shut Down By Viacom Copyright Claim

[Logan Westbrook]

Avatar Protest Shut Down By Viacom Copyright Claim

A website selling t-shirts protesting the casting of white actors in the Avatar: The Last Airbender movie has had to remove and/or alter many of its products after being slapped with a copyright infringement notice from Viacom.

The site, a Zazzle shop front run by a user known as 'glockgal', sold products sporting slogans such as "The Last Airbender: Putting the Cauc back in Asian" and "Aang can stay Asian and still save the world" at cost prices to protest the casting of white actors as the protagonists in the live-action version of Asian-themed Nickelodeon series Avatar: The Last Airbender and to promote the awareness site racebending.com [http://racebending.com/index.php].

Last week however, glockgal discovered that all but one of her t-shirts had been removed as it apparently violated the intellectual property rights of Viacom, Nickelodeon's parent company. After her request for an DMCA take down notice, glockgal received this e-mail from Zazzle:

"Your products were removed during a routine sweep of our site for Viacom properties...If you'd like to continue using content from Avatar: The Last Airbender, you will need to obtain permission from Viacom. If you are able to obtain permission, we'd be more than happy to produce your products for you."

While it appears the glockgal was not singled out by Viacom, it does raise the question of whether or not her designs, which used no images or words from the show itself, actually infringed on Viacom's copyright. Regardless, glockgal is resolutely soldiering on, and has redesigned many of her products to have the words 'Censored by Viacom' written across any mention of the show's title.

The original designs can be found here. [http://glockgal.livejournal.com/404245.html#cutid1]

Source: Boing Boing [http://www.boingboing.net/2009/05/03/viacom-uses-copyrigh.html]



Permalink

 

[Cousin_IT]

To market a movie to a mainstream American audience, studios take the view they have to have White American protagonists as the main actor/actress. Has been that way for a very long time.

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

It's called Artistic License.
Live with it Kids.

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

am I allowed to use the Ion Cannon on Viacom?

{Yes}/{No}

 

[Nurb]

what the hell is avatar?

 

[L.B. Jeffries]

To market a movie to a mainstream American audience, studios take the view they have to have White American protagonists as the main actor/actress. Has been that way for a very long time.

Doesn't mean they shouldn't be given s*** for it. If you're making a film that's primarily appealing to a pre-existing fan base you might as well listen when they complain about ethnic switch-ups.

 

[Abedeus]

what the hell is avatar?

It's some kind of anime. Didn't watch it, only few minutes of one episode, but didn't interest me.

 

[Avatar Roku]

what the hell is avatar?

Fake anime show on Nickelodeon. Surprisingly good, given it's target age group. It has a huge following at my high school and, unlike some other trends at my high school, it isn't terribly undeserved.

 

[Lord_Ascendant]

am I allowed to use the Ion Cannon on Viacom?

{Yes}/{No}

Firing Sequence Activated. Are you Sure about this? Firing sequence cannot be halted after initiation.

{Yes}/{No}

 

[A random person]

Yeah, they really screwed up the casting with Avatar. Seriously, a girl that white to play Katara, a member of the closest thing to black people in the show? No, just no. But regardless of the casting, it's gonna suck. Seriously, you got Shyamalan directing it? Viacom, you really screwed up this time.

 

[JRCB]

They did the same with the dragonball Z movie, didn't they?

 

[scotth266]

what the hell is avatar?

Fake anime show on Nickelodeon. Surprisingly good, given it's target age group. It has a huge following at my high school and, unlike some other trends at my high school, it isn't terribly undeserved.

Possibly because it's the first "American anime". And suprisingly, it ain't that bad. The early episodes were a bit iffy and relied on comedy a lot, but the latter ones atcually went in a more somber, growing-up direction, where the characters became strong and endured heavy losses to save all that they held dear. It's not really much of a kid's show towards the end at all really: but it's AWESOME for it.

 

[The Infamous Scamola]

Yep, Hollywood hates minorities, no big secret there.

 

[cainx10a]

It's a bit like casting a white guy to play Malcolm X, because the target audience were apparently white people.

To market a movie to a mainstream American audience, studios take the view they have to have White American protagonists as the main actor/actress. Has been that way for a very long time.

A mentality that needs to be changed; it's not like there is a shortage of asian characters to play Aang. I may have vouched for any actor, of any race to play Goku, but then again, Goku was a freaking alien from planet Vegeta: Aang background is a bit different.

 

[Disembodied_Dave]

Wait.. doesn't Aang have blue eyes and light/medium brown hair?

 

[Cousin_IT]

To market a movie to a mainstream American audience, studios take the view they have to have White American protagonists as the main actor/actress. Has been that way for a very long time.

Doesn't mean they shouldn't be given s*** for it. If you're making a film that's primarily appealing to a pre-existing fan base you might as well listen when they complain about ethnic switch-ups.

but therein lies the problem. These films arent made primarily for the pre-existing audience. Those are the people they expect to talk about & bash/praise it, but the target audience is always the ill-informed weekend filmgoer whose research into a film goes little further than seeing a poster. Hense they always rely on a face that is familiar to the broad demographic they're aiming their film for, which is why the actor is almost always going to be white.