7 points

Would that not be trademark infringement, if anything?

permalink
report
reply
48 points

Something as short as “Skywalker” can’t be copyrighted. You don’t need permission to use a trademark as long as you don’t harm the brand or confuse the customer. Since trademarks are often family names, there are a number of unrelated companies that operate under the same name but in a different business.

permalink
report
reply
32 points

Sure, but, also, that it’s an existing brand is simply irrelevant to a personal name. You don’t need to establish that it doesn’t damage the brand, it can even directly damage the brand in fact, it still doesn’t matter because people aren’t products.

permalink
report
parent
reply
61 points

Loki Skywalker. Jesus, these parents need a smack

permalink
report
reply
1 point

How many people in the world named Jesus or Mohammad?

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

I’m an atheist and even I know that’s a weird comparison. You can’t copyright the name Jesus. Or Loki even cause they’re deities. But Skywalker as a name is for sure made up by Lucas. Maybe in 500 years when star wars is a recognized religion, but the star wars people need to do some conquering and crimes against humanity to qualify for that

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

My comment is not about them using copyrighted names. It’s about how silly people are who name children over fictional characters.

permalink
report
parent
reply
19 points

Naming children after the mythical figures of a culture is perfectly acceptable.

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

And Jedi is actually recognised as an official religion in the US. And there’s plenty of people who identify as Jedi in the UK as well. So one could certainly argue that it’s violating someone’s religious beliefs by not allowing that name. At least Luke Skywalker has some evidence of existing…

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

At least Luke Skywalker has some evidence of existing…

Both are book fairy tales that had movie adaptations. They are more similar.

permalink
report
parent
reply
12 points

True and fair, but what do you think when you hear that someone’s name is Loki (who isn’t from a Scandinavian country)?

permalink
report
parent
reply
11 points

“At least they know Thor was, deliberately, a dick”

permalink
report
parent
reply
33 points

It is incredibly stupid that the Passport office thinks that this is a copyright issue, but the parents logic is also baffling…

“We understand that Loki’s middle name is copyrighted, but we have no intention of using it for personal gain."

So you gave a child a name that they themselves won’t be able to use for “personal gain” when they grow up? Acknowledging the inherent limitations of a name like this just sounds like you willfully set your kid up for failure.

Sounds to me like a case of parents treating their child like an accessory. You’re not raising a child, you’re raising a future adult. Maybe don’t give them a legal name that is also a corporate brand name?

permalink
report
reply
2 points

I have a somewhat unusual name, that could me male or female. I really didn’t like it growing up. Now i don’t care anymore, moat people call me a wrong name anyway that sounds similar. But damn, growing up i just wanted a normal ass name.

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

growing up i just wanted a normal ass name.

Now, as an adult, you can name your ass whatever you want!

permalink
report
parent
reply
5 points

My son happens to have the name of one of my favorite comic book characters. However, it’s only one of his names, and also it’s a name that’s real and normal so nobody would think twice about it. I wouldn’t name him such an obvious name that is only tired to the one character

permalink
report
parent
reply
64 points

Private corporations tying the hands of governments with copyright BS? If I want to name my daughter Khaleesi Skywalker Gandalf Bethooven SpaceJam that’s none of the governments nor some random corporations business. You can’t trademark a fucking name, wtf is this bullshit? You don’t get to decide what my name is, and you definitely don’t get to hamstring official government agencies in their duties because you’re butthurt about my sharing a name with your fictional character. Go fuck yourselves, disney. You slimy litigious fucks, this is why your brand is sinking.

permalink
report
reply
4 points

There are rules around names for children with food reason, if you name your child Hitler and Unwanted you can expect government intervention because it can be perceived as child abuse by putting undue stress and difficulty on the child.

Which I believe is fair

This name doesnt quite hit that mark but I would defend government intervention when naming children for outlier cases.

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

All fair and good, but that kid has been named without government interference, so the name is legally given. So they shouldn’t be able to then deny an identification document later.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Agreed

permalink
report
parent
reply
20 points

Yeah, Disney is slimy, but for once this isn’t their doing. Some paper pusher overstepped their boundaries, that’s not on Disney.

permalink
report
parent
reply
32 points

This isn’t a rule. Some bureaucrat was mistaken.

The same thing happened to another girl a couple weeks ago.

permalink
report
parent
reply
10 points

But it is indicitive of the Anglo-Saxon propensity for bootlicking. /Celtposting

permalink
report
parent
reply
12 points

The French do their arguably dumber “you can’t call that thing you made what I call it even though it’s the same recipe, because it wasn’t grown where my ancient relatives made it,” though. Also France’s general xenophobia and owning a bona fide colony way later than the Anglos lol

permalink
report
parent
reply

World News

!world@lemmy.world

Create post

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

  • Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:

    • Post news articles only
    • Video links are NOT articles and will be removed.
    • Title must match the article headline
    • Not United States Internal News
    • Recent (Past 30 Days)
    • Screenshots/links to other social media sites (Twitter/X/Facebook/Youtube/reddit, etc.) are explicitly forbidden, as are link shorteners.
  • Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think “Is this fair use?”, it probably isn’t. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.

  • Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed. Sources that have a Low or Very Low factual reporting rating or MBFC Credibility Rating may be removed.

  • Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.

  • Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF 10/19

  • Rule 5: Keep it civil. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.

  • Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.

  • Rule 7: We didn’t USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you’re posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

Community stats

  • 12K

    Monthly active users

  • 6.2K

    Posts

  • 66K

    Comments