This Week in WTF, February 13, 2015

I have gotten very far behind on this particular blog series, so here is a quick roundup of what I meant to post over the past few months (part 3 of 3).

– Austerity goes too far: I know kids’ birthday parties can be hella expensive, and it’s awfully rude to say your kid will be there and then just not show up. That said, I’m pretty sure it still violates some clause of the social contract to invoice the kid for the cost of his share of the party. Seriously, they didn’t send a bill to the parents—they gave it directly to a five-year-old.

– Suck it, Goonies: I once found a pipe that was part of an old gas line buried in my backyard. I never found buried pirate treasure or anything. These kids in California found a buried Ferrari.

© Michael Haering, via Sliptalk / Jalopnik

© Michael Haering, via Sliptalk / Jalopnik

This happened in 1978, but it’s still both newsworthy and WTF today. Continue reading

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Ferrari v. Deadmau5, the Nyan Cat Debacle

Deadmau5, the DJ with the quirky sense of spelling, bought a Ferrari 458 Italia and tricked it out with a Nyan Cat wrap. He called it the Purrari. I say “called” because he removed the wrap after receiving a cease and desist letter from Ferrari. Someone asked me about the legal issues, I guess because I still play a lawyer on Facebook, so I looked into it.

It sounds like the issue is with his modification of the Ferrari emblem. Deadmau5 hasn’t released the actual C&D letter, but he has apparently said that it mostly involved the modified logo on the car and the floormats.

As a general rule, I think that (a) a person can do whatever they want with property they purchase, but (b) the seller might continue to own intellectual property rights associated with that product. I bought the Macbook on which I am typing this, and I am free to slap bumper stickers on it or use a marker to make the Apple logo look like a butt. I do not have any rights to use the Apple logo elsewhere, though. That doesn’t describe Deadmau5’s situation for several reasons. Continue reading

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