Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Christmas Grinches

From now until Christmas, I am going to write posts on how certain people try to ruin Christmas for everyone else. I am going to start it with the lawyers of Dr. Seuss Enterprises, from a story I came across here.

The gist of the story is that the city officials of Louisville, Kentucky wanted to use the characters from the beloved Dr. Seuss story "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" as part of its theme for the annual Light Up Louisville holiday celebration. However, a cease-and-desist letter from the law firm DLA Piper, which represents Dr. Seuss Enterprises, said the "Who-ville" name and image, as well as the Grinch, are copyrighted and cannot be used without permission.

The letter demanded the city and the Louisville Convention and Visitors' Bureau halt any use of the characters for the Christmas display and agree not to use the characters in the future without permission. It threatened legal action if the city and tourism bureau did not comply.

Kerri Richardson, a spokeswoman for Abramson, said the city complied with the request and renamed the display "Lou-ville."

Now, I know of some of my neighbors who use some of these same characters in their Christmas displays here in my neighborhood. I wonder how long it will be before the Who-ville lawyers show up at their doors.

I suppose the hearts of those at Dr. Seuss Enterprises are really two sizes two small after all.

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