Wait, the LAPD is a government entity. They are funded with public taxpayer money.
They cannot own a copyright or a trademark. It belongs to the public.
EDIT: this is also why you can use NASA footage and audio recordings royalty free in your own works. Because you already paid for them.
You can use any US Military footage from dvidshub.net as well.
This is easy to get around, often the copyright will just be held by a contractor.
Unlike works of the U.S. government, works produced by contractors under government contracts are protected under U.S. copyright law . The holdership of the copyright depends on the terms of the contract and the type of work undertaken.
I don't think that's right, not least of all because they actually do have LAPD as a registered trademark.
The threat was sent by IMG Worldwide, a giant entertainment and sports agency, on behalf of the Los Angeles Police Foundation, which is the name of a private foundation that the Los Angeles Times calls “the LAPD’s secretive, multimillion-dollar private funding arm.” The LAPF has purchased surveillance tech, robots, drones, and Palantir licenses for the LAPD.
Yeah. They can gtfo with that shit.
It's unbelievably dangerous to allow the people tasked with enforcing the state's monopoly on violence to access secretive private funding.
At least the republicans destroying US institutions are mostly working on behalf of other states. Allowing your police to be beholden to private money is such an own goal.
LAPD: We've been pilloried for decades with our abusive practices. How can we fix this image?
Also LAPD:
Making threats. Like All Police Do.
That would be a trademark matter, not copyright. It look like they do actually have LAPD as a registered trademark, but I doubt this would be considered trademark infringement, given the very low odd of "likelihood of confusion".
The Lakers might have a valid claim, though.
I don't think The Lakers would have a valid claim either, since this is clearly parody and parody is fair use.
Did they actually say they own the acronym for LAPD? Because... It's not an acronym. Unless this whole time we've been meant to say LAP'D like the racing term.. Or perhaps lahpud? Laypeedee? Hmmm the last one sounds a little too French adjacent perhaps.
arguing acronym vs initialism is not going to win you cool points with anybody
False. It won cool points with me. English language pedants are my people.
Law is 100% semantics. I don't need cool points. I'll be the squarest person in the room if it means police don't get their way.
This argument is going to crush in court!
Welcome to the News community!
Rules:
1. Be civil
Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. 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. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.
2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.
Obvious biased sources will be removed at the mods’ discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted separately but not to the post body. Sources may be checked for reliability using Wikipedia, MBFC, AdFontes, GroundNews, etc.
3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.
Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.
4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source. Clickbait titles may be removed.
Posts which titles don’t match the source may be removed. If the site changed their headline, we may ask you to update the post title. Clickbait titles use hyperbolic language and do not accurately describe the article content. When necessary, post titles may be edited, clearly marked with [brackets], but may never be used to editorialize or comment on the content.
5. Only recent news is allowed.
Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.
6. All posts must be news articles.
No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials, videos, press releases, or celebrity gossip will be allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis. Mods may use discretion to pre-approve videos or press releases from highly credible sources that provide unique, newsworthy content not available or possible in another format.
7. No duplicate posts.
If an article has already been posted, it will be removed. Different articles reporting on the same subject are permitted. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.
8. Misinformation is prohibited.
Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.
9. No link shorteners or news aggregators.
All posts must link to original article sources. You may include archival links in the post description. News aggregators such as Yahoo, Google, Hacker News, etc. should be avoided in favor of the original source link. Newswire services such as AP, Reuters, or AFP, are frequently republished and may be shared from other credible sources.
10. Don't copy entire article in your post body
For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.