The Bigsibling Blog

Daniel Frazier is a despicable man. He gleefully uses the names of dead soldiers for commercial gain. Not much, according to him, but commercial gain nonetheless. For those who aren’t familiar, this is the guy who prints the names of United States servicemen and women on t-shirts along with the words “Bush Lied – They Died” and sells them.

Some states have passed laws that prohibit this. U.S. District Judge Neil Wake in Phoenix issued an injunction prohibiting the state of Arizona from shutting down Frazier’s operation. And rightfully so. Just because Frazier’s speech is in the form of a t-shirt, and just because I happen to disagree with his message, and just because the families of the fallen heroes disagree with the message and the use of their loved ones’ names, does not mean that Frazier loses his right to deliver his message.

I’ve said before that this really isn’t and shouldn’t be a first amendment issue. It isn’t a speech issue at all. What this is, and I think the families would get farther faster going this route, is a civil issue. The issue at hand is unauthorized use of the name and/or likeness of the individual in question. The families should sue Frazier for copyright and/or trademark infringement. The families should have any and all rights to the names and likenesses of their deceased loved ones, and should be able to control how those names and/or likenesses are used.

And in a civil trial, in front of a jury, I believe the families would come out winners because it would be a jury of citizens who decide the case, and it would have nothing to do with Constitutional rights, and everything to do with licensing. There is plenty of precedent for this as well. I’m am fairly certain if I made a t-shirt with the likeness of John Wayne with the words “Bush Lied-They Died” that the folks who control the licensing to John Wayne’s name and likeness would be all over me like grease on bacon.

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Technorati Tags: Daniel Frazier, Iraq War, T-Shirts, Bush Lied They Died

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