I Know, Right?
Thanks, XKCD, for making my point better than I ever could.
Parking
Grr. I really wanna do a post on parking, but you have to hand them your ticket when you exit the lot (complete with ridiculous ticketwrap), and they won’t give it back. 
Anybody have any good parking ticket (and I mean a time-stamped ticket of entry, not a notice of parking violation) with nasty ticketwrap on the back? I guess maybe I could take the time to write down what it says . . .
Of Trees and Abridging Rights
While this isn’t strictly “Ticketwrap” (I know, it’s only day 2 and I’m already straying), the sharp Ms. Xue pointed this article from the NYT out to me. (Free registration required.) For those of you too lazy to click, the story from 1990 is in regards to the famous “Lone Cypress” tree along 17-mile-drive just south of Monterey, CA and the Pebble Beach Company.
A drawing of the tree was registered as the company’s trademark in 1919. Kerry C. Smith, a San Francisco lawyer who represents the company, said the trademark protected not only the logo but also the tree itself.
Riiight. Let’s review. Pandas = not intellectual property. Now, class, what do we think? Are trees intellectual property? A trademark is a “a distinctive design, picture, emblem, logo or wording (or combination) affixed to goods for sale to identify the manufacturer as the source of the product” (cite). Is “tree” listed there? No. Is a picture of a tree, even this tree, likely to cause confusion to consumers? Very unlikely. Prudential doesn’t get to say “I copyrighted a picture of a rock. Nobody gets to take pictures of rocks anymore.” Nor does it stop people selling pictures of the Rock of Gibraltar. Because that would be stupid.
Trademarking something doesn’t give you all rights to do whatever you feel like to all similar images. It protects you if somebody uses too similar an image in a way that might confuse consumers. I’m including this here at Ticketwrap (see how I’m bringing it all back around?) because both things are symptomatic of the same problem: certain entities manufacturing rights for themselves out of whole cloth, and, in the enforcing of those rights, attempting to abridge the rights of others through threats and bullyism.
I understand that the Pebble Beach Company may just be attempting to protect its trademark from becoming genericized, but that doesn’t mean they get to bully people into not using legally obtained pictures for whatever purposes they want. (What’s more, I think genericization is stupid, and merely encourages trademark holders to be bullies, and should be legislated into obscurity, but that’s a different rant for a different day.)
To whit: here, on this website which is a commercial enterprise for me, is a picture of the Lone Cypress, graciously placed under a Creative Commons License by Wilson Alfonso. Hopefully, people will see this beautiful picture, and decide to hire me to do some lawyerin’ for them.
So, bring it, Pebble Beach Company. What what? There’s no magic in that wand you’re waiving around, and you know it. And just to make you mad: golf is stupid.
Paraphernalia
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