Asshole Archie: December 2008

Recently, a video ("the death of Archie") was removed from Youtube by request of Archie Comics. This is wrong, because a parody, as it was, is supposedly considered fair use by the American law (the author made a video protesting for this).

Here are other cases of bullying from Archie Comics (taken from Wikipedia):

The February 1962 issue of Harvey Kurtzman's Help! magazine featured a parody of the Archie characters in its Goodman Beaver story, Goodman Goes Playboy, written by Kurtzman and illustrated by frequent collaborator, Will Elder (the magazine itself hit newsstands on December 1960). Attorneys for Archie Comics filed suit shortly thereafter, for copyright infringement. An agreement was reached in March 1964, with $1000 in damages paid, and an apology was issued. Later attempts to reprint the Goodman Beaver story, with names and artwork altered by Kurtzman and Elder to minimize similarities to Archie characters and trademarks, were again met with threatened legal action by Archie Comics. [...]

Archie Comics sued music duo The Veronicas for trademark infringement in 2005 over the band's name, which was taken from the comic book character. Archie Comics and Sire Records (The Veronicas' record company) finally resolved their problems through a co-promotion deal. ^[4]

Fanfiction.Net received a cease and desist order from Archie Comics to remove any Archie comic based fan fiction from its site, as they are derived from their copyrighted and trademarked properties and were stated to damage Archie's public image. It included public statements by Archie Comics, who have stated that they do not allow (even family-oriented) fan fiction based on Archie comics works.^{[citation needed]} (It should be noted, however, that story contests are frequently run through the official Archie website, allowing fans to create their own stories in accordance with site's rules).

On April 4, 2003, Dad's Garage Theatre Company in Atlanta was scheduled to debut a new play, Archie's Weird Fantasy, which depicted Riverdale's most famous resident coming out of the closet and moving to New York. The day before the play was scheduled to open, Archie Comics issued a cease and desist order, threatening litigation if the play proceeded as written. Dad's Garage artistic director Sean Daniels said, "The play was to depict Archie and his pals from Riverdale growing up, coming out and facing censorship. Archie Comics thought if Archie was portrayed as being gay, that would dilute and tarnish his image." ^[5]