Disney is none too fond of an Australian commercial for Jamieson's Raspberry Ale which features a character named Ho White in bed with with her dwarfen compatriots. Three of the dwarfs have been redubbed Filthy, Smarmy, and Randy. The ad for the campaign was originally featured on anythingbutsweet.com, which is now inaccessible. The images had been removed, but I managed to grab this one, which was attributed to adelaidenow.com.au. Obviously, reporters have posited that the ads have been removed due to issues Disney raised about copyright infringement.Technically speaking, this is one of those gray areas. I don't know anything about Australian law, but according to US Fair Use, this sort of thing would have been fine as satire; since it is actually being used to sell something, it qualifies as an infringement, regardless of the fact that the character is not Snow White. The featured character is specifically tied to the copyrighted property and is being used to sell a product; were this to simply exist as a parody, not an ad, Disney would have no suit.
I can show it because it is newsworthy, and thus exempt from copyright law; this is an exercise of Fair Use.
© C Harris Lynn, 2009
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