At several anti-war protests this year, much ire was vented toward Fox News (aka the media wing of the Republican Party), spawning the "Faux News" T-shirts (see photo) that popped up, first here in Austin and then around the nation. The T-shirts parody both Fox News' logo and its laughable "We Report, You Decide" motto as "We Distort, You Comply." A companion T-shirt featured an Aryan boy wearing a Nazi Brown Shirt uniform with the motto "O'Reilly Youth," referring to Fox commentator Bill O'Reilly.

Fox found this none too funny, and last month sent a cease-and-desist order to the T-shirt's Austin creators, Richard Luckett, Brad First, and Rick Elms (doing business as Agitproperties). Fox's cease-and-desist letter not only accuses Agitproperties of copyright infringement, but also declares that the O'Reilly youth T "shows incredibly poor taste on your part, [and] is highly offensive."

"Fuck these guys -- I'm offensive?" said Luckett, a former merchandising manager for South by Southwest, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Duran Duran, and others. "This is the network responsible for reality shows like Temptation Island and Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire."

Predictably, sales have boomed. "Sales had been depressed lately, and then Fox sent the cease-and-desist letter." That led to press coverage, first by the British Register newspaper. "We went from 300 hits a day on our Web site [www.agitproperties.com] to 41,000 a day," Luckett says. "My Internet service provider shut me down [for using too much bandwidth], but we got our own server."

That was followed by more media coverage from Salon.com, Fox competitor MSNBC, and numerous other sources. "We're getting support from all over the world," says Luckett. "And orders ... I can't tell you how many we've sold, but it's been phenomenal. I go to the post office twice a day with huge shipments. The post office hates me."

But the American Civil Liberties Union doesn't -- the New York chapter of the ACLU is taking Agitproperties' case, no doubt armed with the extensive case law that protects parody. "We're going all the fucking way with this," Luckett says.

No free speech for you!

Fox News personalities, is ex-Green Beret Major Robert (Bob) Bevelaqua. That guy is not afraid to tell you what he thinks and just let 'er rip. FNC other military war correspondants pretty much suck, except Oli North of course, who is one of America's greatest patriots.

Speaking of patriots, did anyone watch the commissioning ceremony of the USS Ronald Reagan, the worlds most powerful warship, today? What a wonderful day in American history!

Aren't my diversionary tactics clever?

you mean, christening.

Would you kindly change my diaper, my little boot-licking friend?

My mistake.

"My mistake."

Aaaaaaahhhh yes, Eric, much like your BIRTH.

Especially you faker. You are just so damn boring.

ah, this reminds me of when savage mikey tried to sue a couple of web sites for enfringment. i think savage mike and the company he works for tried a $500K suit to shut these guys down, but the tactic didn't work except at making the "hurt" party look the fool. he-he Mikey no mo' tv.
so sad these turning events for little mike.

but, faux news will never get such a lucky turn of events no matter how coincidentally the turn. they will have to settle with simply being allowed the rights of parody. oh, and a tidy little profit.

not too bad.

I wonder what fox gets from this exercise?

"Eric"

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correct-o-matic: infringement