2 posts tagged “censorship”

Yeah, so if you bought one of these babies or came to acquire one through some other dark and unspeakable act (I'm looking at you, Kevin Wolf), you should know it just became a collector's item of sorts. So, you know, maybe don't wear it while beheading chickens anymore.

******
from: content_review@zazzle.com <content_review@zazzle.com>
to: Kirk Starr
date: Tue, Oct 6, 2009 at 3:11 PM
subject: Zazzle Content Review: "The R'lyeh Thing" Dark Tee

Dear KirkStarr,

Thank you for your interest in Zazzle.com, and thank you for publishing products on Zazzle. Unfortunately, it appears that your product, Cthulhu - The R'lyeh Thing, contains content that is not suitable for printing at Zazzle.com.

We will be removing this product from the Zazzle Marketplace shortly. The details of the product being removed are listed below:

• Product Title: Cthulhu - The R'lyeh Thing
• Product Type: Shirt
• Product ID: 235698612861750512
• Result: Not Approved

• Policy Violations: Design contains a trademarked image or text. If you are interested in purchasing Official Licensed Merchandise from Zazzle please visit: www.zazzle.com/brandsDesign contains an image or text that infringes on intellectual property rights. We have been contacted by the intellectual property right holder and at their request we will be removing your product from Zazzle’s Marketplace due to intellectual property claims. We apologize for the inconvenience... If you have any questions or concerns about the review of your product, please email content_review@zazzle.com

Best Regards,
Content Review
Zazzle.com, Inc.

**
from: Kirk Starr
to: "content_review@zazzle.com" <content_review@zazzle.com>
date: Tue, Oct 6, 2009 at 5:42 PM
subject: Say it with me: parody... pa-ro-dy...

To whomever gets paid to read this:

My "Cthulhu - The R'lyeh Thing" design is clearly parody and is altered significantly from the original Coke logo. I obviously don't have the powerful lawyers Coke has, so I have no realistic recourse, but I did want to let you know how disappointed I am in Zazzle for being so quick to judge against the small private artist and kowtow to the impotent threats of giant corporations.

Anyway, while you're at it, why don't you go ask Bally Midway if they have a problem with parody? You might have to delete my Bass Invader products, as well.

Oh, and give Angus Young a call. See if he gets his knickers in a wad over my AD/HD t-shirt design.

I suppose next you'll be telling me a contingent of zombies has requested I remove all art with any reference to the undead.

Pretty sad, Zazzle. Pretty sad.

Kirk Starr
Artist
Victim of Censorship

**
from: Zazzle Customer Support <supportteam@zazzle.com>
reply-to: Zazzle Customer Support <supportteam@zazzle.com>
to: Kirk Starr
date: Wed, Oct 7, 2009 at 9:38 AM
subject: ZZZ:Zazzle Content Review: "The R'lyeh Thing" Dark Tee [Incident: 091006-001441] from Zazzle Customer

If this issue is not resolved to your satisfaction, you may reopen it
within the next 0 days.

Thank you for allowing us to be of service to you.

Dear Zazzler,

Thank you for your email.

Zazzle was contacted by The Coca Cola Company, and requested the removal of products that violated their trademark, copyright, trade dress, or intellectual property rights.

A detailed description of Zazzle content policies is available at http://zazzle.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/zazzle.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=143

Zazzle galleries are public and users may contribute content freely.  Although we make every effort to ensure that the marketplace are kept free of copyrighted or otherwise inappropriate content, sometimes certain inappropriate products may become available for purchase.  We rely on the efforts of our users to bring inappropriate products to our attention by using the  violation link that is located on every product page. This will notify our Content Management Team to review any potentially infringing products.

Thanks for using Zazzle.com.

Best Regards,
Mike
Content Management Team
Zazzle.com, Inc.

Oh my, but humans are a confounding lot. We blithely justify violence in the media and in nearly the same breath cry out to censor sexuality without realizing that we have it backwards. We put potheads in prison for decades but let violent multiple offenders out of jail after less than a month allowing them another chance to kill someone. We shop at Wal*Mart because we buy into the deceitful claims of lower prices but then use the money we saved to buy a 13mpg SUV. We shout loud and hard about giving our children a well-rounded, real-world education but then, completely ignoring the real world, we fight to remove a children’s book from library shelves because it suggests that two living parents are better than an incubator, even if they both happen to be the same gender.

A new picture book published by Simon & Schuster, entitled And Tango Makes Three, is based on a true story of two male penguins in a New York zoo that adopted a fertilized penguin egg and raised the chick together as their own. If you’ve seen March of the Penguins in its entirety, then you know what that egg means to them*. And yet, there are people so worried about the prospect of their children gaining hard evidence proving the fact (that’s right, fact) same-sex coupling appears throughout nature that they are willing to sabotage their children’s education.

Complaining about the book's homosexual undertones, some parents of Shiloh Elementary School students believe the book — available to be checked out of the school's library in this 11,000-resident town 20 miles east of St. Louis — tackles topics their children aren't ready to handle.

Topics they're not ready to handle? But explaining to them why we kill one another in droves is something they’re prepared for? Hmm. Again, something seems a bit backwards to me.

And Tango Makes Three is not some clever conspiracy by a quiet but determined Gay Mafia to recruit ‘em young, though you’d think it was based on the reactions of these ignorant boobs in Shiloh. To wit:

Lilly Del Pinto thought the book looked charming when her 5-year-old daughter brought it home in September. Del Pinto said she was halfway through reading it to her daughter "when the zookeeper said the two penguins must be in love."

"That's when I ended the story," she said.

Get that? When it turned out the two were in love, it was more than Ms. Del Pinto could abide and she ended the story. The tale was going so well until love entered the picture. Because, you see, to people like Ms. Del Pinto, romantic love is only possible between a male and a female; anything else is intolerable debauchery. I’m pretty sure my friends Myke and Kevin would strongly disagree. (UPDATE: Yup, sure enough.)

I must commend Shiloh school district Superintendent Jennifer Filyaw for showing true patriotism for the Land of the Free by refusing to move the book. She felt that would constitute censorship and she was right. Standing up to a bunch of eristically religious hens in order to defend freedom makes her a hero in my book.

I’m going to buy And Tango Makes Three and proudly add it to my library. Heck, I might even volunteer some time at a daycare to read the story to impressionable tots because I can’t think of a better lesson to teach budding young minds than the importance of the inclusive nature of love.

*The scene in which the father penguin fails to get the egg off the ice in time brought me to wailing tears. I get choked up just thinking about it.