"Dear Mr. Knievel, My research staff had assured me you were no longer alive...

Dear Mr. Knievel, My research staff had assured me you were no longer alive, and that if you were, you would have approved of my homage to you.

One of my assistants told me that you weren't even a real person, but he had you confused with Superdave Osborne.

Apparently, you are a real person, and you are not dead.

We spent hundreds of man-hours scouring the internet looking for references to you in recent media, and came up completely empty. Frankly, we really thought you were dead.

And now that you have sued me, a great many people are also now aware that you are still alive and litigious. Mission Accomplished. You've gotten another fifteen minutes of fame.

Please accept my apologies for the misunderstanding, and drop your lawsuit.

Sincerely,

Kanye West.


No, that's not REALLY what he wrote.

That is what I would have sent to Mr. Evel Knievel, if I were Kanye West.

But perhaps I would have opened with, "Dear Mr. Knievel, Go kfuck your kself."


See:

Evel Knievel Sues Kanye West
Daredevil claims rapper copied him in "Touch The Sky" music video


DECEMBER 12--Retired daredevil Evel Knievel is suing Kanye West, claiming the rapper ripped off his trademarked look in a recent music video in which the performer, using the handle "Evel Kanyevel," wears a red, white, and blue jumpsuit during a failed rocket ride over a gorge. Knievel, 68, charges that West copied his look down to a distinctive "EK" belt buckle in the video for "Touch The Sky," a single off his hit album "Late Registration." An excerpt from Knievel's trademark infringement lawsuit, which was filed last Friday in U.S. District Court in Tampa, Florida, can be found below. Included as an exhibit to the complaint is a copy of a September 1974 Sports Illustrated cover showing Knievel--who was then preparing to jump Idaho's Snake River Canyon on a rocket-powered contraption--in his trademark jumpsuit. As seen in the video still at right, the 29-year-old West's outfit appears to be modeled on the Knievel threads. The lawsuit, which does not specify monetary damages, also names as defendants West's record label and Chris Milk, director of the video, which debuted on MTV in February. (9 pages)

More:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/1212061evel1.html?link=rssfeed

In fairness, I suspect this has more to do with lawyers taking advantage of Kneivel, then Kneivel himself.

Like when Rosa Parks sued Outkast.

but beware copyright laws.

lampooned his costume,then co-opted his name which I assume to be trademarked and finishes with Knievel's most famous stunt...all that West appearently missed was the "Please Sue Me" banner tied to the back of his jump vehicle....

And I'm also pretty sure that Kanye West isn't really going on the road as a stunt man under the name "Evel Kanyevel."

I'm just not sure,having not seen the video.Also I'm not that sure about free speech vs. commercial free speech-neither how much of pop culture the target must represent...etc,etc,etc...to lampoon a Paris Hilton all you need is a cute slutty blond bimbo and a mercedes...in this case what he used to locate his target was much more complex...

It's basically the Icarus story, somebody literally trying to "touch the sky" and falling back to earth with catastrophic consequences. Kneivel strike me as a perfect modern example of an Icarus-esque character.

In order for Kneivel to have a case, Kanye would have to be making money off of Kneivel's image. Like I said, I'm pretty sure nobody's buying tickets to go see Kanye West jump the grand canyon on his motor cycle, thinking that it's really Evel Kneivel.

about this in an interview years ago, and said that he had to get permission of the original songwriters in order for him to record parody versions of those songs, and he mentioned a few cases where the original artists refused to give him those rights.

Since he's actually using their music, and that's what people are buying.

or correct any wrong information they collect.

Which is perfectly legal. You can't lampoon somebody if you have to get their 'copyright' permission first.

He created the character of Evil's cousin "Weeble" Knievel--he had no arms or legs. Weeble struggles to follow in his cousin's, er, footsteps (or should I tire tracks?) with predictably tragicomic results. I'm sure that Knievel didn't sue Foxworthy, if only because he had too many limbs to be confused with Weeble. Why, that makes as much sense as someone confusing him with a black guy in Knievel costume!

:headbang:
rocknation

Knievel: "Where's Junior?"
Mrs. Knievel: "In the hospital. He tried to jump the couch on his tricycle and missed."
Knievel: "He MISSED? When I was his age, I could jump a couch, an armchair, AND a coffee table!"
Mrs. Knievel: "You were NOT his age--you were nearly four!"

:headbang:
rocknation

I guess Ovid's going to have to sue him for plagiarism too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAt4Qs0U2Uc

Note the comments.

There are reactions that don't involve giggling. I guess I didn't anticipate the racist reactions.

They've been coming out of the wood work for the last month or so.

The "alert" button is your friend, as is the "ignore" feature.

edited to add:

La la la la... can't hear you la la la la la

ROFLMAO

since Knievels schtick is rip-off of Elvis Presley (although I think he refers to it as a "tribute"). :eyes:

I wonder if the Presley estate could sue him?

It's his right to protect his name and likeness.

It has the lawsuit information there.

I don't know how anybody, including his own lawyer, thinks Kneivel has a case.

No different than The Beatles, Elvis' estate and any other people in the limelight that should protect themselves.

Yet I don't see how that trademark was violated when Kanye West dressed up like Kneivel in his wholly original retelling of the Icarus story.

I myself dressed up as Boris Karloff's Frankenstein for last October's Halloween party. Do you suppose either Karloff or Shelley have a case against me?

A video is used to sell cd's (by theory), so it is used like an ad to market something. If Knievel thinks his image was used in something he didn't like, he has every right to do something about it. It happens all the time.

Did Kanye West make money because people thought they were buying Evel Knievel's latest rap cd? No.

"If Knievel thinks his image was used in something he didn't like, he has every right to do something about it."

Not liking it is irrelevant. Jerry Falwell can't take Larry Flynt's money, just because he didn't like Flynt's portryal of him having sex with his mother in an outhouse.

There's no use in going on.

:eyes:

:eyes:

I think this is a frivolous lawsuit.

But once again, I don't think you understand trademarks.

And I don't think you understand trademarks. And it's your right not to.

:evilgrin:
rocknation

nt

Oh yeah, wrong colors.

successfully?

I said that Knievel has every right to protect his name and image.

nt.

Evel Knievel has a registered trademark of his name and likeness. Just like any other company, he has the right to protect them. It's like when Coke sued The Kinks for using "Coke a cola" in Lola, they sued and The Kinks had to change it.

You have to look at this as Knievel being a business and not just the whacked out dude that jumped motorcycles. Weird Al has to get permission from all of the satire he does. That isn't because he is trying to be a nice guy, it is business.

This is from Elvis.com

Our primary objective is to preserve the name, likeness and image of Elvis Presley. The name and signature are trademarks owned and protected by the Estate of Elvis Presley. Other protected properties of the Estate include the image and voice of Elvis, song titles such as Blue Suede Shoes, Jailhouse Rock, Hound Dog, and Teddy Bear and words and phrases closely associated with Elvis, such as Graceland, TCB and King of Rock and Roll.


That means that all that is protected by federal trademarks and if people use them without permission, they can be prosecuted. You may not like the business laws, but they are there and Knievel has every right to protect himself.

Satire is protected speech, even when the object of the satire doesn't get it.

but i'll bet you anything that evel does not prevail.

kanye, like any other american, has every legal right to do satire on pretty much any subject he wishes.

But the fact of the matter is, West used something he should have gotten permission to use in his video. That's all I am saying. I know it is almost blasphemous to say anything about Kanye West at DU, but I am stating reality. Copyrights, trademarks and other forms of protection are there for a reason.

i couldn't name or recognize a single bit of his music, and i don't care what anybody says about him...i'm more a fan of free speech and satire.

i think evel just wanted to give reporters a reason to knock on his door again.

He is in pretty bad shape. He has pulmonary fibrosis and probably won't be around long. Maybe he wants a little limelight, but the truth of the matter is, if he feels that West used his image and whatever in a way he doesn't like, he has every right to sue. That's all I was saying.

And where did you get that impression?

Believe me when I say I'm surprised he is still alive. That dude was in pain and he looked it.

Flew right in through the window, too.

One day in August 1974, Charles Lindbergh died. Captain Lindberg became an American hero in 1927 by flying alone across the Atlantic Ocean in a light airplane.

About two weeks after Lindbergh's passing, on the day he was buried, stuntman, self-promotion genius and professional celebrity Evel Knievel became an American hero by attempting and failing to fly over the Snake River Canyon in Idaho in a vehicle that was part motorcycle and part rocket ship.