Freedom of Speech verses Marathon Petroleum
A few weeks back, I wrote a satire/parody article entitled Oil Company Creates Car That Gets One Mile-Per-Gallon. The article claims that Marathon Oil Company is working on creating a car that gets one-mile-per-gallon in order to bring in even more profits from gasoline sales. It also includes a couple faux quotes from Marathon CEO Clarence Cazalot, Jr.
Somehow, out of the 800 people that viewed the page, it reached someone at Marathon. And shortly after, I received the following cease and desist letter from their crack legal team (not to be confused with their legal team on crack):
This isn't the first such letter I've received and I suspect it won't be the last. That's what happens when you write satire, it inevitably pisses off someone that you're mocking and they send you a threatening letter (and possibly egg your house). I'm not a legal expert, but I do know that satire is generally protected from such legal action under the First Amendment. The website firstamendmentcenter.org cites a number of such cases where good triumphed over evil.
The basis of determining if a material falls under this First Amendment protection is by a fair-use analysis. According to the U.S. Supreme Court, as stated in Campbell (better known as 2 Live Crew) v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., fair use involves considering each of the following four factors:
1) purpose and character of the use, including whether the use is commercially motivated or instead is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2) nature of the copyrighted work;
3) amount and substantiality of the portion used in the newly created work in relation to the copyrighted work; and
4) effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.”
Addressing these issues, I feel good about my odds here. I might make a few dollars off of ads ran on this story, but hardly anything worthwhile. Anyone reading the article should be able to tell very quickly that it is in fact a satire and not legitimate news (assuming they hadn't already determined this from other stories on the website like Man Buying Star Promises Untold Reign of Terror over Galaxy and Death Star sightings dot the Midwest). Someone would have to be really dumb to think this was a true piece of reporting. Aside from using the name of the company and its CEO, the entire article is a work of fiction, playing off of the perceived greed of the oil industry as a whole (not just Marathon). I can't be harming Marathon because that perception is already out there in full force thanks to this past year's massive gasoline price hikes.
I'm now sitting in the position as to what I should do and have but a mere three days to make a decision. I'll be speaking with some other satire writers over the next few days and hearing their thoughts and continue to research satire laws. If you are a lawyer and happen to be reading this, I'd love to hear your thoughts too, or if you're anyone who has dealt with a similar situation. So far the law appears to be on my side for this one, but I do not have the deep pockets of the oil industry nor the time to waste pursuing such a case if it comes to it. I suspect that they are more bark than they are bite, but even in winning a case, the legal system comes at a steep cost.
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