I’m so glad we settled our little tiff with the New York Times, because this link just came to my attention by way of Boing Boing...

Battle of ‘Stupid White Men’ Books

Next week, a tiny Brooklyn-based publisher will bring out “How to Get Stupid White Men Out of Office.” The book, a low-budget paperback written by a group of political activists, is not to be confused with “Stupid White Men,” a HarperCollins best seller by the filmmaker and author Michael Moore, which remains in hardcover.

But HarperCollins has been concerned about just that sort of confusion. In November, HarperCollins wrote to the Brooklyn publisher, Soft Skull Press, demanding that the title be changed and stating that the similarities would cause “irreparable damage” to Mr. Moore and his book.

The ironies compound rather quickly at this point, even ignoring that a company built on free and unfettered expression appears to be, by implication, objecting when someone else engages in that.

Yeah. And the irony that the New York Times, which has been at the forefront of several landmark free expression cases, and which just recently threatened to shut down The National Debate for publishing a parody Corrections page, published this article on the same day they withdrew their complaint against said page’s author.

You know, I see stuff like this and I think maybe there’s something to the arguments that people like Lawrence Lessig, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and others are making. Perhaps patent and copyright laws are too heavily weighted in favor of big corporations. It certainly seems that the Times and HarperCollins feel free to throw their weight around, which bespeaks a mindset of mark protectionism run amok.

Listen to the reasoning given by HarperCollins.

“We were concerned that there would be confusion, and we brought that to the attention of the publisher and that was the end of it,” the spokeswoman, Lisa Herling, said.

In the HarperCollins’ letter to Soft Skull Press, the publisher said, “Michael Moore has become closely identified with the phrase ‘Stupid White Men’ in the minds of the general public.”

“Accordingly, we demand that you eliminate the phrase ‘Stupid White Men’ from the title of Mr. Wimsatt’s book prior to its publication,” said the letter, from Beth Neelman Silfin, vice president and associate general counsel of HarperCollins. “Please confirm to me, in writing that you will take this important and necessary step to avoid confusion between the two books.”

“Michael Moore has become closely identified with the phrase ‘Stupid White Men’ in the minds of the general public.” What!? I can’t figure out who they’re insulting more – Michael Moore or the general public.

Look, we’re at a real tension point in this country. At a time when we have unprecedented access to information, we also face the biggest threat to the free flow of that information. If big companies can simply buy up all ideas, phrases, and methods, if they are allowed to claim dominion over the intellectual capital of the country, then those of us at the bottom of the food chain will be entirely dependent on those big companies for access, and the Internet Revolution will have been for naught.

Like the argument applied to Open Source software, information should be free as in freedom. We are better and stronger as a nation when our access to venues of communication are kept clear of intimidation and threats. Free expression is not served by the recent actions of HarperCollins and the New York Times.

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Tuesday, March 16th, 2004 @ 12:20 pm Free Expression Matters
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