amalthya: (Default)
[personal profile] amalthya
This seems like an utter farce. Too bad the bus driver didn't sue her for not going to the back of the bus. He could have gotten pain and suffering.


WASHINGTON (AP) --The Supreme Court refused Monday to intervene in a lawsuit over the hit song "Rosa Parks" by the Grammy-winning musical group OutKast.

The action, taken without comment from the justices, means the 90-year-old civil rights figure can go ahead with her lawsuit against the band.

The 1998 song is about the entertainment industry and its lyrics do not refer to Parks by name. The chorus of the song goes, "Ah-ha, hush that fuss. Everybody move to the back of the bus."

Parks claimed that OutKast violated her publicity and trademark rights and defamed her. She lost her first round in federal court, but a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio, reinstated part of the lawsuit earlier this year.

The case will now return to a lower federal court judge.

Parks wants all references to her removed from future versions of the record.

OutKast has argued that the song is neither false advertising nor a violation of Parks' publicity rights and is protected by the First Amendment.

Parks made history in December 1955 when she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus. Her arrest triggered a 381-day boycott of the bus system by blacks and led to court rulings desegregating public transportation nationwide.

The case is LaFace Records v. Parks, 03-504.

Date: 2003-12-09 01:57 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] puckylunk.livejournal.com
I've got a lot of admiration for Rosa Parks, but damn. Find something better to do with your time.

Date: 2003-12-09 02:23 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] amalthya.livejournal.com
My godmother Susan was actually a big organizer of the march on washington among other things and told me that Rosa Parks wasn't just some happenstance activist figurehead --

that it was all planned and that she, as an instrument of the organization, was instructed to refuse her seat should she be asked to get up. The way the history books write it, it just happened!!

But yes, I guess I too have respect for her, but sheesh... the song doesn't even "defame" her. Or even refer to her by name, other than the title. Call it instead "Litigious Self-Righteous Beatch"

Date: 2003-12-09 03:16 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] puckylunk.livejournal.com
Then she's just file a Slander case. :) Or would that be Libel? I'm either not listening to enough NPR, or I'm listening to too much. People get in a position of relative status or renown and think they have some special rights. Fie.

I'm going to try to find a job now. Bye.

Date: 2003-12-10 11:17 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] amalthya.livejournal.com
I think slander is SPEAKING naughty things, and libel is WRITING them. Or perhaps I am reversing the vicey versa.


I'm going to write a song about you. Just try and sue me, muthafucka! hehehehe

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