5 ms·
I wonder if this would fall under protections for satire.
by tshannon 8y ago
I wonder if this would fall under protections for satire.
- pvorb 8y agoI bet VW won't sue anyone about this soon to not have new negative publicity. And I agree, this is clearly satire.
- pvorb 8y agoSatirical software would be a cool new trend in Open Source. I think about things like a library for leader election, where there is a "Russian hacker" service that manipulates the election result or maybe a logging framework that accumulates logs and occassionally emails them to journalists.
- pvorb 8y agohttps://www.jollycode.org/ https://www.jollycode.org/, mentioned in another comment, is exactly what I was looking for.
- pc86 8y agoI bet nobody from VW is going to know this exists for a year or more, if ever. How many VW corporate employees do you think browse HN?
- InternetOfStuff 8y ago> How many VW corporate employees do you think browse HN? Out of more than 600'000? A bunch, I bet. (Yes, I was shocked at the number too)
- mhh__ 8y agoVW, presumably, has armies of software engineers/other technical people (That you might find on HN, etc) so I don't think it's unreasonable to assume someone will stumble across it. It's also worth saying that even if they don't have a automated system to look for x-infringement, they have many employees who when bored could end up searching for (say) Volkswagen on github. Whether they care or not is another matter...
- monksy 8y agoIt's a pretty blatant use of their trademark. (It outright uses their name) I have my doubts.
- hangonhn 8y agoTrademarks are only protected in the US if there is risk of consumer confusion during commerce: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark_infringement#Factors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark_infringement#Factors
- trhway 8y agoThere is definitely a credible risk of consumer confusion here - when a consumer faces a need to cheat a test it is unclear which Volkswagen the consumer would have to use. I think the original auto Volkswagen has a strong case here (note - IANAL, just another confused consumer).
- taf2 8y agoWe should file a suite against Volkswagen just to test - I’m sure it’ll pass
- taf2 8y agoQuick fork that shit
- roywiggins 8y agoFair use actually makes a distinction between satire and parody: satire isn't protected. https://apps.americanbar.org/litigation/committees/intellectual/roundtables/0506_outline.pdf https://apps.americanbar.org/litigation/committees/intellect... Technically, parody is using X's IP to comment on X; satire is using X's IP to comment on something else. So if this is parody, it would plausibly fall under America's fair use test.
- derekbreden 8y agoDidn't volkswagen "fix" some emission tests in this manner?
- mabbo 8y agoYeah they were fined like $15B and had people arrested and criminally charged in multiple countries. They had 'defeat devices' that detected test environments and changed how the car ran so that it would pass emissions testing.
- tempestn 8y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xECUrlnXCqk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xECUrlnXCqk
- labster 8y agoIt falls under the protection of the Streisand effect.