The South Butt and the DomainGang
The South Butt has received a lot of publicity lately since The North Face filed a case against them for trademark infringement. The South Butt company was formed in 2007 by a high school student named James Winkelmann. The reason Winkelmann actually started the company was to help pay his way through college.
DomainGang.com is probably the funniest domaining blog I’ve ever read. They publish domain-related parody content meant for entertainment. Unfortunately, one of the biggest issues about delivering parody news is companies who are the center of a joke often take offense. This is similar to what happened in the South Butt versus North Face case.
The whole idea behind South Butt is to make fun of North Face. They even have a disclaimer on the homepage stating, “We are not in any fashion related to nor do we want to be confused with The North Face Apparel Corp. or its products sold under “The North Face” brand. If you are unable to discern the difference between a face and a butt, we encourage you to buy North Face products.”
According to an article published on Reuters, when North Face filed this case, they called Winklemann and South Butt “opportunists seeking to pirate its famous trademarks for their inferior knockoffs.”
While I’m not going to go into my feelings about this North Face/South Butt case, I just happened to find this whole situation amusing. I’m sure that both the South Butt and the DomainGang can tell you this, some people just don’t know how to take a joke.
Hey Sam, thanks for the plug.
There’s a difference between parody and libel; obviously in the case of South Butt there were other things at stake. One needs to draw a fine line.
It’s true that some corporations don’t possess an understanding of what constitutes freedom of speech – a protected element of which is parody. For example, GoDaddy was quick to approve of our parody site, GoMilfy.com.
Another good case of parody content is the Onion.com which delivers “spoof” news about politics, lifestyle, local and world events. We strive to do the same in the niche market of domaining & technology.
At DomainGang.com, while we often deliver “real” or “mainstream” content, when we do so we give it a humorous angle; there is too much regurgitated news in the market.
See you in TRAFFIC Las Vegas!
Acro, I appreciate your response. Clearly there are some differences. The DomainGang isn’t coming close to infringing on somebody’s trademark like South Butt has done, but I was just bringing up the part about people not understanding and taking offense to the parody. Keep up the great blogging
P.S. I won’t be attending TRAFFIC Las Vegas, hopefully I’ll be able to make it to the next domaining event.
South Butt was funny and Acro you can be at times , but that’s the beauty of comedy. Some times you hit it and other times you get sued.
@Shane – You couldn’t have said it any better. It sucks, but that’s business. I just think that sometimes, people need to loosen up and not take everything so seriously. That’s one of the reasons I love DomainGang.