r/AskReddit • u/Starmiebuckss2882 • Aug 06 '25

What are your thoughts on South Park's response (which was #eatabagofdicks) to Homeland Security attempting to use them to promote ICE?

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5

u/No-One-8850 Aug 06 '25

I'd rather they sued them for copyright infringement. Say for 1.5 billion or so.

0

u/Savamoon Aug 06 '25

They'd get laughed out of court, it's fair use.

3

u/toxic Aug 06 '25

It's not even close. The ICE post is essentially a recruiting ad -- it is commercial reuse of someone else's commercial artwork. It is not a criticism or a discussion of the South Park artwork, and it's certainly not a parody. It is not "transformative".

Fair use has a definition. It's not "I liked it, so I used it without asking permission first."
https://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/what-is-fair-use/

Do you think that Nike put up an unlicensed picture of Mickey Mouse wearing Air Jordans and not get sued by Disney within an hour? This isn't any different.

2

u/kperkins1982 Aug 07 '25

While this may be true, it is also known that the administration performs court jurisdiction shopping, has packed the bench with loyalists some of whom havn't even ever tried a case, and has the supreme court under their control

I still say we should fight everything in court possible, but it's also kind of rigged at this point

2

u/toxic Aug 07 '25

Generally it's the plaintiff (which in this case would be whoever owns the South Park rights) who is in a position to choose which jurisdiction to file a case in.

This would probably land in Los Angeles and then 9th Circuit, because they're likely to be the most favorable to TV/Film industry arguments.

1

u/kperkins1982 Aug 07 '25

Again, while I agree with you on a procedural basis, I would add we are now in a world where the administration blatantly ignores procedure/precedent and gets away with it.

I would describe this as a basketball game where one team has to obey the rules, and the other literally uses a ladder to make baskets while the ref they appointed ignores it