Many of you are surely familiar with Frei.Wild and have formed your own opinions about them.
The band from South Tyrol is now attacking a Berlin band to silence them and their opinions!
It goes without saying that ramtatta.de FREI SCHNAUZE! from Berlin supports this, and so we are publishing an article on the topic.
On July 6, 2011, we received a letter from Frei.Wild GbR – specifically, a cease-and-desist letter regarding one of our T-shirt designs (see above). In particular, we are accused of "unauthorized use of trademark rights" and are informed of "comprehensive cease-and-desist, disclosure, and damage claims." In plain language, this means "the submission of a legally binding cease-and-desist and obligation declaration." To make it even simpler: Pay up, or else! With "a dispute value of €75,000," a deadline (under threat of legal action) of a mere 2(!) days, and a payment request "by Friday, July 15, 2011" (which is 9 days), it seems they are just getting warmed up. The erotic act follows only now: Strip naked! In addition to the already mentioned items, Frei.Wild GbR demands that we disclose all individuals and institutions involved in the sale of the shirt: "In particular, clients, buyers, advertising partners, and other multipliers." And because the devil always shits on the biggest pile, it is advisable at this point to also proudly wave the attorney fees of around €1,500 as a crown atop that pile. We will spare you the remaining 5 pages of legal correspondence!
But why all this fuss, you may ask. And rightly so! With the design in question, we are no longer in the realm of trademark law, but in our interpretation, we are in the domain of freedom of expression. The latter is known to take precedence over trademark law in our society!
Trademark law assumes that there could be a risk of confusion between the original and its depiction in cases of trademark infringement. Now, we are not too familiar with the typical audience of Frei.Wild, but we believe that even without great peasant cunning, there can be no risk of confusion between the original and our variation. The "Schnauze!" combined with the subtitle "Politcore instead of Commercial Rock" should be more than clear! One could also say: Colorful instead of Brown!
We ourselves consider the aforementioned shirt design as our very personal statement on the gray zone discussion and on dubious bands that like to wallow in the mud of the supposedly unpolitical. If you take a closer look at this phenomenon of right-wing openness, there is a very simple reason for it: It is lucrative! Those who quietly seize the patriotically staged music market, add a bit of pop culture, and construct a collective feeling in the sense of a völkisch-national worldview end up on the World Cup fan mile, pouring their insidious worldview into the minds of thousands of visitors. Former propaganda ministers would surely be proud of this! However, this thought makes us feel sick!
In any case, we will not throw money into the maw of the patriotic German rock milieu! Unlike other bands, we at Frei Schnauze! do not explicitly view the tolerance of Nazis at our own concerts as unpolitical, but rather as a conscious commitment to the right-wing rock scene!
As a result, we can and will not(!) accept the demanded cease-and-desist, but will insist on our right to freedom of expression! At this point, a big, big thank you to everyone who stands by us. Special mention goes to "Endstation Rechts" and "Storch Heinar."
We will spare you the complete topic of right-wing openness surrounding Frei.Wild once again in detail, as it would exceed the scope of this press release - however, we are always ready for direct discussion!
We believe that not only we see a danger in the commercially motivated opening to the right. Therefore, we urge you: Speak up! Protest against any form of right-wing ideology! Every creative solidarity action strengthens our stance! Every "like" under our blog post communicates a public protest! Many tweets chirp louder than any Frei.Wild anthem! Every report, every publication, every dissemination gives us room for discussion! Let’s let the world know what we think of such machinations!
Our response to right-wing openness in all its facets: Schnauze!!!
Good Night White Pride!!!
FREI SCHNAUZE! / July 2011
Website/Blog: http://www.frei-schnauze-band.de
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/freischnauzeband
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/freischnauzeband
Twitter: http://twitter.com/freischnauze030"
If you like, you are more than welcome to integrate this link here – it documents the issues surrounding Frei.Wild quite thoroughly, even though it is just an excerpt: http://aida-archiv.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2141%3Ain-den-fussstapfen-der-qboehsen-onkelzq&catid=193%3Arechtemusik&Itemid=1&showall=1
Thank you very much for your support and warm regards from Berlin!
