Simon to sue over SuBo sales
by Sue Bailey
The Daily Record reports that Simon Cowell has threatened to sue eBay sellers for using Susan Boyle’s image on unauthorised merchandise for sale on the site. Speaking for Cowell, PR guru Max Clifford called the eBay sales “despicable profiteering making unscrupulous people millions of pounds”. He went on: “It’s a sad fact of life that there are always people who don’t care how low they sink to profit from others, and some of this is really cheap and nasty.”
A browse of eBay UK today found just over 1,400 items related to the singer for sale, so I suspect the clean-up may already have begun. The vast majority of listings are for Ms Boyle’s CD “I Dreamed A Dream”, though there were a number of other items which didn’t have the look of official merchandise, including cake toppers, various t-shirts and boxer shorts bearing the legend “I Sha**ed Susan Boyle” (yes, the asterisks are there on the actual item).
Vanessa Canzini for eBay is quoted as saying “there are always a very small minority [of eBay sellers] whose behaviour can be bordering on moronic.”
28 Responses on "Simon to sue over SuBo sales"
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Most of the other items are from one seller as well…. Ouch!
Much as I can’t stand all the junk he pumps out, Simon Cowell isn’t someone I’d wish to fight in court.
I think that “Max” should listen to his own advice…
…there are always people who don’t care how low they sink to profit from others…
…Is that right Max, anyone in mind
?
Not being “official merchandise” and infinging on copyright are not quite the same thing. Fortunately with vero there is a way to avoid due process
Don’t think anyone’s mentioned copyright?
So on what grounds would Mr Cowell be threatening to sue?
Misuse of trademark, presumably.
I wouldn’t imagine that there are any trademarks associated with Susan Boyle yet but who knows?
Her name.
Her image.
Also right of publicity:
(from Café Press’s T&Cs, and they should know)
The “right of publicity” makes it unlawful to use another’s identity for commercial advantage without permission. A person’s “identity” includes, for example, his look, voice, name, nickname, professional name, and other distinctive characteristics. For example, the Right of Publicity prohibits you using the picture of a celebrity without authorization on your merchandise.
That’s US law.
If you’re going to have merchandise that says “I Sha**ed Susan Boyle”, I would not be in the slightest bit surprised if that fell foul of UK defamation laws.
What I do know is that Simon Cowell has expensive lawyers. Do you think he’d threaten to sue if he had no grounds?
I’ll add a personal note here – I had my name and a bastardised version of my lifestory used by a “get rich quick on eBay” writer, without my permission. I cannot tell you how utterly sick and filthy it made me feel to be used in that way (but Mountie and a few others round here will confirm it had a pretty nasty affect on my mental health for a while). So Susan Boyle has, FWIW, my total support on this. And anyone trying to claim “oh it’s just a joke” should have it happen to them and find out how it feels.
“What I do know is that Simon Cowell has expensive lawyers. Do you think he’d threaten to sue if he had no grounds?”
I don’t know but I would imagine that Simon’s best case would be for infringing on copyright where pictures for which Mr Cowell controls the copyright, are being used. And that is why I originally mentioned copyright
Except that you implied that copyright law *wasn’t* any use in this case and VeRO should be used to get around that.
It’s most probebly much easier and cheaper to use vero.
I’m not sure If Mr Cowell would have a case against a text based t-shirt saying “Susan Boyle pride of Scotland” I’m imagine you could get it removed with vero.
Facebook lists 171 people with the name Susan Boyle. If one of them issues merchandise with their name on it what could Simon do?
The same as Mike Rowe vs Microsoft?
Of course a “different” Susan Boyle probably wouldn’t look anything like “The” Susan Boyle so how they managed to muddle up their pictures would be hard to explain!
But what about the case where someone looks like Susan Boyle and then has their name legally changed to take advantage of her name?
There are precedence’s in the UK courts were people have tried and not managed to stop the sale of “unofficail” items.
This article may be of some interest: http://tiny.cc/oGilb
In the UK we don’t have image rights as such as far as I know (could get in trouble for infringing on the copyright of an image though). Although some bands artists do trademark there names I don’t think it is really standard practice (could be wrong though).
The seller with most of these SB listings, over 1,000, is a ‘private’ seller whose listings are all 99p, 1 day auctions, always newly listed, always time ending soonest.
The seller currently has over 11,000 listings in all categories, again all 99p, 1 day auctions.
Epitomises a number of things that eBay needs to get a grip on.
eBay only need introduce a 1p listing fee and this abuse, because abuse is what it is, will disappear overnight.
Common eBay you know it makes sense.
This is another example of ebay failing to maintain standards on the platform.
Simon’s just mad cause he ain’t gettin anything. The amount those ebayers are getting doesn’t comes close to what he’s getting off her CD. Someone should sell t-shirts on ebay that say Simons ego is bigger than his little d**k.
“despicable profiteering making unscrupulous people millions of pounds”
According to Terapeak, sales of Susan Boyle items (not counting CDs) on the UK site reached the heady amount of just over £6000 from the last 90 days
My point is just that when eBay get their act in gear …
11,000 listings does not equate to a private seller
free 1 day revolving listings do not help sellers with saleable stuff. I am now even more sure that eBay do not have a good model of listing numbers v listing/fv fees
responsible sellers do not sell this carp
simples
PS @7 I am quite sure that Simon is getting plenty, I have no knowledge of the size of his ego (Lisa do you have information?)
Although Simon Cowell may have the charm, charisma and personality of a brick, there’s no denying the man is a very astute businessman, that’s something you can’t take away from him and something he has every right to protect as any of us would in the same situation.
too right
seems Cowell is open season
just because of his success,
good luck to him. subo is his product
They’re making this sound like a new problem. Ebay is stuffed to the rafters with illegal product of this kind. Just about every popular celebrity is being ripped off by unscrupulous sellers. From the hundreds of thousands of 99p home-printed photos that are clogging up ‘Best-Match’ to the mugs, tee shirts and just about anything else that a celebrity’s image can be printed on.
eBay is currently a bootleggers paradise.
Was it not the case that thehutoutlet, one of the outlet sellers (note – not top seller) had Jedward t shirts on deal of the day back in November, if you don’t believe, check the link…
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270482009838
Item # 270482009838
This would prove clear proof of ebays deal of the day team allowing such loose use of trademarks…
I’m not an expert on the legality of this, but I’m guessing that by printing Jedward tee shirts one would be just about within the law. Jedward was a nickname for the act that was picked up by the media. because they weren’t sold as John and Edward (the actual name of the act) teeshirts and had no clear image of the act(just blurred out faces and haircuts)on the tee shirts, they were probably safe. By not even printing the nickname Jedward on the tee shirts (which they didn’t), then I assume that even Cowell would have had difficulty bringing any charges against them.
To be honest, I see this as nothing more than clever marketing. They were able to cash in on a five minute fad without infringing any copyright laws.
Quite clever really.
was the jedwood teeshirt not a dotd about a month ago ??