Speech worth fighting for?

It’s hard to imagine that Smyrna resident Charles Smith thought he could print up a bunch of T-shirts likening Wal-Mart executives to Nazis and not get some static.

??
But he probably didn’t envision that his T-shirts would cause this much of a fuss. Certainly, he couldn’t have imagined them making national news.

??
After all, Smith’s shirts weren’t very popular. He had sold only one of them for a measly $5.10 when Wal-Mart slapped him with a lawsuit alleging copyright infringement.

??
Smith decided to take a stand. He got the backing of Public Citizen, the consumer advocacy foundation started by former presidential candidate Ralph Nader, and the Georgia chapter of the ACLU, and sued Wal-Mart, alleging that the mega-retailer was trampling his free speech.

??
Paul Levy, a spokesman for Public Citizen, says it’s essential that people be allowed to parody trademarked slogans and images.

??
“Trademarks play such an important role in our culture that you can easily communicate a concept,” Levy says. “Nobody is going to look at this and be confused that Wal-Mart is endorsing either Charles Smith’s criticisms of Wal-Mart or his association of the Holocaust with Wal-Mart’s name.”

??
Levy points out that there are plenty of T-shirts on sale online that play off of Wal-Mart’s logo. He thinks that the retail giant is picking on Smith because it doesn’t like his message.

??
Indeed, on Cafepress.com there is a page dedicated to right-wing tees. One of the shirts is emblazoned with the message, “Lib-Mart: Always High Taxes,” a clear parody of the Wal-Mart slogan. So far, the retailer has yet to sue the designer of that T-shirt.

??
Despite Smith’s position on the left side of this First Amendment fight, not all liberals are lining up to back his cause. Some are questioning whether the message on Smith’s shirts is worth fighting for.

??
One of the T-shirts Smith designed carried the slogan, “I (heart) Wal-ocaust: they have family values and their alcohol, tobacco and firearms are 20% off.” Another said, “Wal-ocaust: come for the low prices, stay for the knife fights.”

??
The Anti-Defamation League thinks Smith should quit printing his shirts, not because of Wal-Mart’s suit, but because the group thinks they are in poor taste.

??
Deborah Lauter, Southeast director of the Anti-Defamation League, says that comparing Wal-Mart to the Holocaust cheapens the tragedy experienced by the Jews during World War II. She says she sent a letter to Smith asking him to reconsider the message on the shirts.

??
“I expressed our dismay that he had used Holocaust imagery to lampoon or satirize Wal-Mart,” Lauter says. “I told him we’re taking no position regarding the trademark issues or legal issues. We just want to make a larger point that what may or may not be legal may not necessarily be right. To compare Wal-Mart’s business practices to the acts of the Nazis debased the suffering of the Holocaust victims.”

??
Debbie Seagraves, executive director for the Georgia ACLU, says it’s not about whether the ACLU agrees or disagrees with Smith’s message. It’s about whether he has the right to be offensive.

??
Sarah Clark, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart, says Smith is trying to twist a trademark into tasteless and offensive material.

??
“He should be ashamed of himself for profiting from one of the worst tragedies,” Clark says. “We’re disappointed in the ACLU, that they would support someone trying to profit from a horrible tragedy.”

??
Of course, Wal-Mart isn’t wholly innocent. The company has come under fire for its treatment of workers and its social policies. And then there’s the case of the lawyer representing Wal-Mart in the trademark case.

??
Robert Raskopf, an attorney with the national firm Quinn Emanuel who was named in the International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers — International Trademark Lawyers 2006, has argued both sides of trademark law. In 2003, he helped the Washington Redskins protect its trademark, arguing that the football team’s name was not, as several Native-American activists insisted, offensive to Native Americans.