Zealot Is At It Again: Satan Returns [SOMETHING ENDS, SOMETHING BEGINS]

[Aide33]

dis some good stuff

keep us updated this is amazing, also can i have a link to the website?

[Ad Bot]

[Red Spy]

“Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.” -Thomas Jefferson
“The Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.” -John Adams

They say this while founding the country of Judaeo-Christian values

[Trymos]

so why are you getting sued over a logo that appears to be public domain???

i see hundreds of thousands of other people freely using it, including other companies.
it wont hold up in court lmao for that reason alone, you dont even need to bring up fair use or anything else.

[Nonnel]

wait, a town of 50,000 people is "fairly rural?"

[RedGajin]

imagine explaining to your friends that your kids getting sued for worshiping satan lol

[Ipquarx]

imagine explaining to your friends that your kids getting sued for worshiping satan lol

He's got cease and desists issued by his principle for "defaming" something that the principle doesn't own and for infringing on a copyright to a logo that the principle probably doesn't own, and wasn't used in an infringing manner in the first place. It literally just makes no sense

[McZealot]

wait, a town of 50,000 people is "fairly rural?"

Yea? All the buildings are broken up by long fields and the town is spread over a very large area. When I think of 'Urban' I think of places like downtown OKC or New York where you could look in any direction and see buildings about as far as you can look. Not sure if you know exactly how spread out towns in the Midwest are, but even cities at one-hundred thousand can feel rural when every building is separated by a field.

He's got cease and desists issued by his principle for "defaming" something that the principle doesn't own and for infringing on a copyright to a logo that the principle probably doesn't own, and wasn't used in an infringing manner in the first place. It literally just makes no sense

Yea... and since my parents are like, attorneys, I don't think they'd actually file suit. I'm guessing any lawyer they went to would advise them against it. I think right now the tactic is just to scare me with fake legal threats.

[Foxscotch]

wait, a town of 50,000 people is "fairly rural?"

whether or not something is rural isn't determined by population. more like population density

[patton360]

as weird as this sounds, great thing to put on a college app/write a admissions essay on if you're zealot

[Nonnel]

oop i didn't think of how spread out some towns are
but that's cheating anyway

[McZealot]

So uh, I probably shouldn't be too specific, but we had a lawyer get in touch with the school. They apologized to me today and said that they regretted using the term 'Cease and Desist' in asking us to remove said content. I was told by the Principal (who I had never met before this) that they handled the situation poorly and I wouldn't be bothered about it again.

Hey, that ended anti-climactically. Anyway, that's my Satan Diary for the year.

As some of you may recall from a year ago, a friend and I organized a 'Students For Satan' group at my school. The whole thing was a satirical first-amendment exercise--if they have so many Christian organizations, I wonder how they will react to a Satanic one. We're atheists. I hadn't really been up to any new hijinks (except for one instance where we 'summoned a demon' with a Ouija board) and I thought it all seemed like a funny memory.

Until three weeks ago.

I was called into the Vice-Principals office. I may come off as a bit of an SJW online because I'm very liberally-minded, but I'm a slightly offensive person. My sense of humor is dark and I tend to make a lot of jokes at the expense of terrible situations--often upsetting teachers or staff members. So I was wracking my brain, trying to imagine what I could possibly have said this time. Anyway, she informed me that parents were very upset about our old Students For Satan website and asked me to take it down. I believe the phrasing she used was 'twenty parent phone calls a day'. I told her I'd look into it--since I was a bit sympathetic. I took down a few of the more touchy posts and thought it was a nice compromise.



Anyway, a few days later I was called in with her and the Athletics Director. I was given a legal Cease & Desist Order and threatened with lawsuit if I did not immediately cease affiliating with the school. They claimed I had violated their copyright and trademark status, and also committed defamation against the school. See--the Students for Satan logo is a play on the school mascot. I won't really get into it here, but it's a hilarious 'Satanic' version of the school mascot. This made us look official--violating the trademark they had on their mascot and also defaming the school by associating them with Satanism and hurting their professionalism and credibility in the eyes of parents. I informed them that our logo was protected under fair-use and that I would not be taking it down. I laughed at their claim of defamation. I was also pretty nervous--I just didn't want to show it. I made eye contact the whole time.

Remember: It's a scare tactic. If you let them intimidate you, they've won.



Well, I am extremely fortunate that both of my parents are attorneys. I spoke to them about it and even contacted a private copyright attorney to discuss their claim. I was informed by all three parties that I was COMPLETELY within my rights. The mascot we use is protected under satire rights--and it is also a completely original illustration. So I immediately set to work making some of the best work our club has ever created. Beautiful illustrations absolutely *trashing* the school and calling them out on their legal violations. Each one prominently featured our mascot. I was engineering posts just to piss them off.

Anyway, I was called in for a third time. This time I was with both Vice Principals and the Athletics Director. They told me more of the same--I could and would be sued if I did not Cease & Desist. I told them that they'd have to talk to my lawyer about this and that I was completely within my rights. Today I was called in again, but I secretly filmed the conversation. This is within my rights as an Oklahoman--as long as one party is aware that the conversation is being wiretapped, it's legal. Today I met with the principal, both vice principals, and the athletics director. Surely next time they'll bring out the damn president or something. They told me in no unclear terms--satire and fair-use were NOT excemptions to copyright law, and that if I did not IMMEDIATELY remove said logos they would be escalating to lawsuit via their attorneys. I told them I wouldn't be taking it down--and challenged them to file suit.

Anyway, pissing off fascistic authority is a bit of a hobby of mine. You guys seemed to like the old topic and people still ask me for updates, so I went ahead and posted the events of the last 3 weeks here.

[e-maxx]

score one for satan

[lordician]

What a strange story.
Good that you have some knowledge about the law though and you are not easy to scare.

[Nonnel]

god LOSES and satan WINS