[h3]Toronto Transit Commission censors humorous subway map remix [/h3][img]http://craphound.com/images/anagramttcmap.jpg" align="left" height="271" width="330"]Cory sez:
The Toronto Transit Commission has followed the stupidity of [a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2006/02/22/transport_for_london.html"]Transport for London[/a] by sending a spurious trademark threat to a blogger who made an hilarious [a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2006/02/23/anagram_map_of_toron.html"]anagram remix[/a] of the stations on its classic map.I grew up riding the TTC, and the map is burned into my subconscious. It's part of every Torontonian's experience of the city, a part of the cultural fabric. Culture gets remixed -- that's what happens with it. Trademark is supposed to protect rights holders from competitors who use their marks to confuse the public in the course of commerce. No one who saw Robot Johnny's genius map would have confused it for a second with a real TTC map and sent him a subway token. The TTC's legal bullying here is completely needless -- they face no risk and no loss from letting their riders turn the map into their own personal remix.[/p]Torontonians go to bat for the TTC all the time, shouting at the province and the feds to beef up funding. We've put up with the disruption of the Sheppard Subway, we've lived through the years when they couldn't even get the platform clocks to work. Where the hell do they get off wasting legal fees threatening bloggers for producing noncommercial humourous, harmless remixes? [a href="http://www.robotjohnny.com/2006/02/25/the-bitter-way/"]Linky[/a]
