On: Sorry, Gas Companies – Parody Isn't Infringement (Even If It Creeps You Out)

[avazhi]

Not a US lawyer but would love to hear from anybody that is: could the gas companies sue for defamation for this?

In Australia I suspect defamation or misleading and deceptive conduct under our ACL might be possible avenues for the gas companies, although under the ACL the impugned conduct must be ‘in trade or commerce’ so that could be one problem with going after an ‘activist group’.

[rmholt → avazhi]

Tried to do some online research (heh) and it would appear that satire of public figures is just straight up protected by the first amendment. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hustler_Magazine_v._Falwell

[avazhi → rmholt]

I don’t think linking directly to real companies and referring to them as partners while using their logos is all that similar to the Falwell example.

I haven’t visited the site from this story, but had they clearly marked the site as parody?