<http://walmart-foundation.org/>
Wal-Mart attempts to censor parody website
For several days in April, this address, www.walmart-foundation.org, hosted a parody of the Wal-Mart Foundation's website. I created a derivative work by changing all of the text and several of the images from the original site. The goal was to make the site look like it could be a real site from a company like Wal-Mart, but have text that was so ridiculous that anyone who read it would realize that it was absurd. If anyone believed it to be a real Wal-Mart site, that is only a testament to the degree of absurdity that exists within corporate America today.
I believe that this site constituted fair use of the copyrighted material from the original website; it was only a couple of graphics, and it was done for the purpose of parody. The text on the site was all designed to highlight problems with the growing influence of large multinational corporations such as Wal-Mart. It contained many facts that were damning of Wal-Mart's labor, trade, and environmental impact. I engaged in a form of "identity correction." The Wal-Mart Foundation's main purpose is to generate positive public relations for the Wal-Mart brand name and logo; it does so by donating small amounts here and there in an attempt to behave like a philanthropy.
As the Wal-Mart Foundation would never tell you that their goal was to help improve the brand name image of the stores, I figured I would "correct" this through parody. The site uncompromisingly promoted Wal-Mart, missing no opportunity to pretend that the sum total of Wal-Mart's impact on the communities they operate in is positive, and reminding consumers on nearly every page about Wal-Mart's low prices.
The act of parody was no doubt political; it was not the use of copyrighted materials that threatened Wal-Mart, but rather the more radical implications that challenged the position of Wal-Mart within our society. The parody site caused people to question the power of Wal-Mart, global trade, and global capital in general.
Because the United States still recognizes the right of people to free speech - it hasn't been struck down (yet) as anticompetitive by the WTO - Wal-Mart knew they couldn't go after me for my criticism. So Wal-Mart's high-powered attorneys went after me for copyright violation, threatening the people who were hosting my site with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
I present to you all here a copy of the cease and desist that was sent to the collective hosting my content, their ISP, and their upstream provider. It was sent by an authorized agent of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
An interesting aspect of the cease and desist is that it was signed by a lawyer who wrote that she was acting on behalf of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. This statement unintentionally emphasizes one of the main points that my parody was trying to prove all along: The Wal-Mart "Foundation" is nothing more than a front group for Wal-Mart Stores Incorporated, and should not be confused for a real charitable non-profit.
In response to the cease and desist, we've remade some of the graphics, and ones that were simply more than text-based graphics we created images as stand-ins that had a big "censored" stamp on them. Remaking the graphics has, in my view, made the parody even more politically on point and stronger. The use of the graphics before was still covered by fair use, in my opinion, but we don't want to let them get the site offline over such an easily worked around pretense.
I encourage everyone to find the truth about Wal-Mart. Read as many sites as you can about it. Ask people their opinions. Get the issue back onto the agenda of politics. Read sites like Wal-Mart Watch and Wake Up Wal-Mart that try hard to counteract the millions of dollars that Wal-Mart spends in public relations and advertising. If you can help it, don't shop at Wal-Mart. Wake Up Wal-Mart is doing a huge mother's day campaign that I personally am signing on to. Do what you can to help make the world a better place. Organize.
Daniel Papasian info at walmart-foundation.org