The Vandals Vs. The (Daily) Variety and Why the Vandals Must Win

In June of 2004, the Vandals released the album Hollywood Potato Chip. The cover depicted a Hollywood-esque sign that read "Hollywood Potato Chip" with "The Vandals" written in a green font above the sign. The font used was one that closely resembled that of the self-proclaimed bible of the entertainment industry, The Daily Variety.

When the Daily Variety picked up on the Vandal's "use" of their logo, they quickly called on their lawyers to issue a cease-and-desist order, arguing that (apparently) the Vandals used their logo as a selling point for their album. The Vandals, the band that created the art for the cover, argued that they didn't use the Variety-esque logo to sell more albums, but rather to point out the absurdity that is the Hollywood lifestyle/system (A Hollywood potato chip is what's left on a casting couch after a "call back.")

Rather than costing themselves years of litigation and tons of money, the Vandals agreed to pull the original cover art and replace it with something less Variety and more white and curly. Further, the Vandals agreed that if the offending image appeared anywhere else, they had an agreed upon amount of time in which the Vandals had to remove the images. The Vandals removed all of the images they could control (as per the agreement) and moved on, somewhat poorer because of all the albums they had to replace.

The Vandals figured that they could finally move on from that mess, and for the last 6 years, they have.

That is, until the lawyers of the Daily Variety notified Joe Escalante (Bassist of the Vandals, and practicing lawyer) that they had seen the offending images on a website and demanded money for damages. When Escalante investigated the webpage where the images were "found," nothing was there. Escalante informed the Variety's lawyers that the images weren't there. The Variety's lawyers quickly fired back, "Yeah, but they were!" It was at this point that Escalante reminded them of their agreement: The Vandals had a set amount of time in which they could remove the images.

The Variety's lawyers said that no agreement was in place, and that the Vandals owed them damages.

Since then, it has been a back and forth battle. The Vandals keep coming back to the original agreement that the Variety's lawyer's originally signed, and the Variety's lawyers keep coming back with no information or (seemingly) falsified information.

The Vandals need to win this lawsuit for this reason: if the Daily Variety wins, that means that anyone who creates a parody of something is a target for who they were parodying. Under the United States law, parody is a form of free speech. In feudal times, court jesters parodied the king, pointing out faults in their rule. If we allow the Variety to win, we put ourselves in a situation that endangers our free speech.

The Variety's circulation numbers are falling, and they are eyeing up the Vandals with the intent of prolonging their death. All they see is money. The Vandals see a frivolous lawsuit, and the clubbing of free speech.