Copyright Law
Mayor Claims Lawyers are Grinches for Letter Targeting Seuss Display
Posted Nov 26, 2008, 08:41 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
The city of Louisville is changing its plans for a holiday celebration featuring characters from How the Grinch Stole Christmas after receiving a cease-and-desist letter from a DLA Piper lawyer representing Dr. Seuss Enterprises.
The city’s Light Up Louisville celebration will still kick off on Friday, but the name of one of the displays will be changed from “LouWhoVille” to “Lou-ville,” report the Associated Press and Louisville Courier-Journal.
The city acted after receiving a letter that says the “Who-ville” name and Grinch characters are copyrighted and cannot be used without permission.
Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson sees a link between fiction and reality. “It appears these lawyers’ hearts are two sizes too small,” he said in a press release. “But we won’t allow these Grinches to keep the holiday spirit from coming to Louisville.”
Comments not appearing after a few seconds? Try emptying your cache ("Temporary Internet files"), making sure Javascript is activated, and refresh this page.