Actually, Mike’s asshole-dar does go off constantly. It doesn’t register *him* for the same reason as the radar in an airplane doesn’t constantly report that the plane is about to collide with itself – its purpose is to detect *others*, not *self*.
But the thing is, when one can detect any asshole within a mile radius, about the only places you can go where it’s not going to be pinging constantly are Antarctica, and off-planet. Note that the off-planet option will only work if you either are going on a solo mission or you’re very careful and/or lucky with your crewmate selection.
(That having been said, I do think that tim gueguen is correct that Mike’s asshole-dar works on a different frequency than his being an asshole is. I suspect he can recognize people like himself pretty quickly, mind you, just that he has a more direct and honest approach than the ones he seeks out to destroy.)
Felian
i like the plane-analogy. currently imagining a self-aware plane – still on beta testing – having a freak out about crashing into this other plane it detects EXACTLY in its own location even while it keeps trying to alter its course to avoid the collision…. i feel for you, plane.
Also, i think that the asshole-dar Mike uses is finetuned in reference to Mike’s level of assholiness, and probably won’t detect assholes who run on a much smaller amplitude than Mike himself. Detecting two assholes with a much higher assplitude is bound to alert mike from a mile away!
He just need to push them to make a commotion, and have the campus security called on them ?
… tho Amber already left the party, it’s pretty possible Amazigirl will take action
The guy who claims to have invented Inktober, the art challenge/meme/thing got it trademarked to stop big companies from using it (as well as for the purposes of him writing a book and making merchandise for it) and now he’s getting pissy his lawyer is sending cease and desists to individual artists. Which is how trademarks work. You defend them or lose them. He doesn’t seem to get that and is getting increasingly pissy.
In his defense, that was kind of a dick move on his lawyer’s behalf.
You know that rule about clips shorter than 10 seconds being fair use? That isn’t actually part of any law. It’s an unspoken agreement that just because something is your intellectual property doesn’t mean you have to be a dick about it.
BBCC
It’s not optional for trademarks. You need to defend it against any instance you’re aware of or you can lose it unless it falls under fair use – which for trademarks mostly has to do with using a trademarked name like ‘apple’ in its plain meaning. The more distinct the trademark (in this case an invented term Inktober) the less likely it is to fit. This isn’t the lawyer choosing to be a dick, this is the lawyer doing what trademark law demands.
Needfuldoer
This is why you hear stories about media companies litigating against day care centers that paint their characters on the windows. Trademarks have to be actively protected, copyrights expire unless renewed.
Just look at Apple Corp. (The Beatles’ record label) vs Apple Inc. (the computer manufacfurer). Back in the 80s, Corp. sued Inc. over use of the name, but they came to an agreement as long as the computers couldn’t record music. Then the Apple IIgs with its nice synthesizer chip came out, then Macs with audio input, and then QuickTime, then iTunes… Corp. sued over each of those IIRC. (That’s also why it took years for The Beatles to show up on iTunes, even when they were the most heavily pirated albums.)
BBCC
Hell, even there the trademark is for Apple as a company name. They can’t actually trademark ‘apple’ because it’s too commonly used as a word and has a common alternative meaning.
Inktober, being an invented term, is less likely to have that problem.
This hasn’t been true in the United States since the 70s, nor in any country that adheres to the Berne Convention, both of which give a fixed term after publication for work for hire or anonymous works, and a fixed period after the author’s death for creator-owned works. So they no longer have to be renewed, and they no longer can be renewed. (Occasional upping of that fixed term does happen, however.)
3oranges
Huh. So is there a way to make something available to small creators but not big companies?
BBCC
Not with a trademark no, unless you’re going to sit down and write each individual formal written permission (the kind most courts will accept) and that would quickly become difficult for an event the size of Inktober. The closest thing to my knowledge would be a creative commons license, but those generally don’t allow for commercial use so small creators couldn’t proceed to sell their stuff.
Andrew_C
You can, as I noted below the Linux Foundation holds the relevant trademarks internationally for Linux and grants permission for reasonable use. And the Linux trademarks have been tested in court several times successfully for them.
BBCC
The key phrase there being ‘grants permission for reasonable use’. Which, again, would become fairly cumbersome for an event the size of Inktober even if you just copy paste it.
Wizard
IANAL, but I’m pretty sure a trademark holder can give permission for others to use the trademark. There shouldn’t be any reason he couldn’t give permission to individual artists but not to corporations or whatever. This would require artists to request and receive permission before using the trademark, though.
BBCC
Yeah, the biggest issue there would be the size of Inktober. It would still be doable but there’s only so much written permission he can give out before the event rolls around every year.
nooB
Just tell the lawyer to post a copy-pasted permission slip instead of a cease-and-desist
Regalli
Lawyers don’t send those things out for free, though. Considering the scale, it’d be WAY too much to be cost-effective.
Andrew_C
In the case of Linux you only need to request permission or sublicence if you intend to make monyey of it
BBCC
Well, yeah, but we’re only referring to artists using this for commercial use.
Needfuldoer
I wonder if they could grant blanket permission to entities that generate less than a given amount of revenue per year?
UncolaMan
I’ve read that Sting (the musician) has to pay Sting (the wrestler) a dollar every time he holds a concert because of who owns the name. In this case, the owner was pretty chill about it, but rules are still rules.
Felian
Isn’t that what a non-commercial Creative commons license is for?
BBCC
It is, but there were a lot of people using their Inktober art for commercial purposes – hence the problem.
Andrew_C
Not necessarily. The Linux Foundation holds the Linux trademark internationally similar reasons, ie to stop Microsoft, Google or IBM trademarking the term and also so they have legal grounds to sue companies who use it in their products without making any of their changes available.
Anyway they don’t sue every Joe who releases a distro or prints a T-Shirt with Tux on it, but their trademarks remain viable and have been tested in court several times in several countries in genuine cases.
BBCC
If they aren’t suing everyone it’s probably a matter of awareness. Defending your trademark is legally obligated. It’s a must enforce situation, at least in the states and Canada.
Some Ed
They don’t have a legal obligation to sue people who respect their trademark in the way they’ve stated they want it respected. The Linux Foundation has provided pretty specific but also easy to comply with terms for how they want their trademark to be used. They are, in fact, sufficiently easy enough to comply with that people can comply with them without actually going to their site to look up the full rules – copy the trademark usage and linkage from whatever site the code was originally downloaded, seek explicit permission from the Linux Foundation before using their marks in any promotions, don’t claim they certified it, don’t claim ownership of their marks, don’t claim stuff that’s not true. This is all pretty basic stuff. That said, I’d certainly recommend reading their rules before using their trademarks, because your ideas of what my statements mean may differ from mine.
Note that I’m not a lawyer, I don’t represent the Linux Foundation in any capacity, I’m not affiliated with them in any way. I have, however, read their rules, and they seems like a really wordy way of saying, “Don’t be a dick with how you use our trademarks. Thanks.”
BBCC
The key phrase there, again, is explicit permission before using their marks.
BBCC
And for the record, Linux does not allow commercial use of their trademarks. They cannot allow commercial use of their trademarks. That’s where the issue comes in.
BBCC
Also, Tux isn’t trademarked by The Linux Foundation because they do not own Tux.
Some Ed
All the Inktober person needs to do is codify a reasonable policy regarding open use of the mark that allows those they want to be able to use the mark to do so. This should be done with the lawyer, because there are some requirements that *must* be followed (for example, a trademark reasonable use policy must require that the trademark be acknowledged as a trademark, and that acknowledgement must indicate who owns the trademark at the time of printing.)
If I’m not mistaken, the requirements for that policy must include restrictions on the use of the trademarks in commercial contexts without explicit permission, but it’s possible to have a pretty lean process to provide that explicit permission.
I’m not a lawyer. This does not constitute legal advice, merely advice on what to talk about with your IP lawyer if this sort of thing is of interest.
BBCC
The problem here is he doesn’t want to restrict commercial use for independent artists and explicit permission, even one that’s easy to work with and basically a copy paste, is going to get cumbersome for an event as big as Inktober VERY quickly.
DudeMyDadOwnsaDealership
Blaine and Ross are involved….Trying to work as a team….Built around Blaine’s lies about his intentions and overestimating how well he could control Ross….Now Mike has spotted them after overhearing an example of their teamwork, and he knows Blaine pretty well …..What do you think?
DudeMyDadOwnsaDealership
His ‘getting pissy’ could be a way to preserve his image/self-image without either coming off as a “sell-out,” or making himself a target for potential ‘arteeests’ who just want a petty form of power over anyone more successful than they, perhaps?
BBCC
Unlikely. He filed for the trademark back in 2017 and nobody gave a shit until it turned out he was an idiot who didn’t understand he couldn’t pick and choose who he enforced it on and him throwing his lawyer under the bus only makes him look either incompetent or like a liar.
If he had just trademarked his logo and not the word itself, shit wouldn’t be hitting the fan the way it has been for him.
BBCC
Yeah, this. If it was the logo it wouldn’t be very noteworthy, but trademarking the name does in fact preclude using it in the title or anything else because at that point they are using the trademarked thing. You have to defend those, like it or not.
BBCC
Yeah, like I said, fundamental misunderstanding of how trademarks work.
Agreed. Hell, if it leads to explicit clearing up that he was lying to Blaine and legitimately didn’t realize he was setting Amber up to be abused all day on the field trip, I’ll have forgiven him almost everything.
(The thing with the football student’s still skeevy. Like, even if the kid was 100% on board with getting the teacher fired at any cost, ‘hey, would you do this by seducing the teacher online’ is not okay, Mike. You are kids. Don’t ask other people to let themselves be sexually abused for your profit.)
Huh… My interpretation was that he just used the kid’s account to lead the teacher into making overtures in writing, and then turned her in before anything actually happened.
Blaine wasn’t even smart enough to hide receipts that were evidence of his fooling around.
vitalProximity
I would argue that was partially because there was no one around who was shrewd or cynical enough to put the pieces together, and he felt cocky. He may have changed his strategy after a seventh grader called him out and blackmailed him.
J
Mike has now been given two more years to increase his brains and hone his cynicism. Blaine has been honing the same bag of tricks. Advantage: the freshman with the nickels in his pocket.
Jade
I just got the most satisfying image of Mike swinging two socks full of nickels and just beating the shit out of them both 😀
243 thoughts on “Hnnngh”
Ana Chronistic
Some people have gaydar
Mike has asshole-dar
Kravis
For more than one reason.
vitalProximity
EYYYYY I just got this. ?
A nickel for you, sir/madam. *doffs hat*
motorfirebox
I mean, wouldn’t it constantly be going off?
tim gueguen
Nah, Mike operates on a different asshole frequency that his asshole detector operates at.
vitalProximity
I’ll take that for my headcanon, thank you.
showler
Like Phineas adjusting his “cute-ometer” to account for Isabella’s cuteness.
Some Ed
Actually, Mike’s asshole-dar does go off constantly. It doesn’t register *him* for the same reason as the radar in an airplane doesn’t constantly report that the plane is about to collide with itself – its purpose is to detect *others*, not *self*.
But the thing is, when one can detect any asshole within a mile radius, about the only places you can go where it’s not going to be pinging constantly are Antarctica, and off-planet. Note that the off-planet option will only work if you either are going on a solo mission or you’re very careful and/or lucky with your crewmate selection.
(That having been said, I do think that tim gueguen is correct that Mike’s asshole-dar works on a different frequency than his being an asshole is. I suspect he can recognize people like himself pretty quickly, mind you, just that he has a more direct and honest approach than the ones he seeks out to destroy.)
Felian
i like the plane-analogy. currently imagining a self-aware plane – still on beta testing – having a freak out about crashing into this other plane it detects EXACTLY in its own location even while it keeps trying to alter its course to avoid the collision…. i feel for you, plane.
Also, i think that the asshole-dar Mike uses is finetuned in reference to Mike’s level of assholiness, and probably won’t detect assholes who run on a much smaller amplitude than Mike himself. Detecting two assholes with a much higher assplitude is bound to alert mike from a mile away!
auroki
Why can’t he have both? All the nickels he doesn’t spend banging moms he uses to buy upgrades for himself
Lily
Oh shit
Shanunu
Maybe this will work out well?
ANeM
Or this is the last time we see Mike for some time / ever.
DarkoNeko
He just need to push them to make a commotion, and have the campus security called on them ?
… tho Amber already left the party, it’s pretty possible Amazigirl will take action
BarerMender
They’re off campus.
shadowcell
blowjob cat isn’t surprised, it just looks that way
Robbie
I’ve never been so relieved to see Mike
fire_daws
Appropriate Gravatar is appropriate.
BBCC
Seriously, Mike, I’ll forgive ALL your less awful bullshit if you fuck these two up anywhere near as bad as Inktober guy did with his trademark.
not someone else
…Storytime?
BBCC
The guy who claims to have invented Inktober, the art challenge/meme/thing got it trademarked to stop big companies from using it (as well as for the purposes of him writing a book and making merchandise for it) and now he’s getting pissy his lawyer is sending cease and desists to individual artists. Which is how trademarks work. You defend them or lose them. He doesn’t seem to get that and is getting increasingly pissy.
BrokenEye, the True False Prophet
In his defense, that was kind of a dick move on his lawyer’s behalf.
You know that rule about clips shorter than 10 seconds being fair use? That isn’t actually part of any law. It’s an unspoken agreement that just because something is your intellectual property doesn’t mean you have to be a dick about it.
BBCC
It’s not optional for trademarks. You need to defend it against any instance you’re aware of or you can lose it unless it falls under fair use – which for trademarks mostly has to do with using a trademarked name like ‘apple’ in its plain meaning. The more distinct the trademark (in this case an invented term Inktober) the less likely it is to fit. This isn’t the lawyer choosing to be a dick, this is the lawyer doing what trademark law demands.
Needfuldoer
This is why you hear stories about media companies litigating against day care centers that paint their characters on the windows. Trademarks have to be actively protected, copyrights expire unless renewed.
Just look at Apple Corp. (The Beatles’ record label) vs Apple Inc. (the computer manufacfurer). Back in the 80s, Corp. sued Inc. over use of the name, but they came to an agreement as long as the computers couldn’t record music. Then the Apple IIgs with its nice synthesizer chip came out, then Macs with audio input, and then QuickTime, then iTunes… Corp. sued over each of those IIRC. (That’s also why it took years for The Beatles to show up on iTunes, even when they were the most heavily pirated albums.)
BBCC
Hell, even there the trademark is for Apple as a company name. They can’t actually trademark ‘apple’ because it’s too commonly used as a word and has a common alternative meaning.
Inktober, being an invented term, is less likely to have that problem.
BrokenEye, the True False Prophet
Also because Apple Records will try to sue them again.
Kamino Neko
This hasn’t been true in the United States since the 70s, nor in any country that adheres to the Berne Convention, both of which give a fixed term after publication for work for hire or anonymous works, and a fixed period after the author’s death for creator-owned works. So they no longer have to be renewed, and they no longer can be renewed. (Occasional upping of that fixed term does happen, however.)
3oranges
Huh. So is there a way to make something available to small creators but not big companies?
BBCC
Not with a trademark no, unless you’re going to sit down and write each individual formal written permission (the kind most courts will accept) and that would quickly become difficult for an event the size of Inktober. The closest thing to my knowledge would be a creative commons license, but those generally don’t allow for commercial use so small creators couldn’t proceed to sell their stuff.
Andrew_C
You can, as I noted below the Linux Foundation holds the relevant trademarks internationally for Linux and grants permission for reasonable use. And the Linux trademarks have been tested in court several times successfully for them.
BBCC
The key phrase there being ‘grants permission for reasonable use’. Which, again, would become fairly cumbersome for an event the size of Inktober even if you just copy paste it.
Wizard
IANAL, but I’m pretty sure a trademark holder can give permission for others to use the trademark. There shouldn’t be any reason he couldn’t give permission to individual artists but not to corporations or whatever. This would require artists to request and receive permission before using the trademark, though.
BBCC
Yeah, the biggest issue there would be the size of Inktober. It would still be doable but there’s only so much written permission he can give out before the event rolls around every year.
nooB
Just tell the lawyer to post a copy-pasted permission slip instead of a cease-and-desist
Regalli
Lawyers don’t send those things out for free, though. Considering the scale, it’d be WAY too much to be cost-effective.
Andrew_C
In the case of Linux you only need to request permission or sublicence if you intend to make monyey of it
BBCC
Well, yeah, but we’re only referring to artists using this for commercial use.
Needfuldoer
I wonder if they could grant blanket permission to entities that generate less than a given amount of revenue per year?
UncolaMan
I’ve read that Sting (the musician) has to pay Sting (the wrestler) a dollar every time he holds a concert because of who owns the name. In this case, the owner was pretty chill about it, but rules are still rules.
Felian
Isn’t that what a non-commercial Creative commons license is for?
BBCC
It is, but there were a lot of people using their Inktober art for commercial purposes – hence the problem.
Andrew_C
Not necessarily. The Linux Foundation holds the Linux trademark internationally similar reasons, ie to stop Microsoft, Google or IBM trademarking the term and also so they have legal grounds to sue companies who use it in their products without making any of their changes available.
Anyway they don’t sue every Joe who releases a distro or prints a T-Shirt with Tux on it, but their trademarks remain viable and have been tested in court several times in several countries in genuine cases.
BBCC
If they aren’t suing everyone it’s probably a matter of awareness. Defending your trademark is legally obligated. It’s a must enforce situation, at least in the states and Canada.
Some Ed
They don’t have a legal obligation to sue people who respect their trademark in the way they’ve stated they want it respected. The Linux Foundation has provided pretty specific but also easy to comply with terms for how they want their trademark to be used. They are, in fact, sufficiently easy enough to comply with that people can comply with them without actually going to their site to look up the full rules – copy the trademark usage and linkage from whatever site the code was originally downloaded, seek explicit permission from the Linux Foundation before using their marks in any promotions, don’t claim they certified it, don’t claim ownership of their marks, don’t claim stuff that’s not true. This is all pretty basic stuff. That said, I’d certainly recommend reading their rules before using their trademarks, because your ideas of what my statements mean may differ from mine.
Note that I’m not a lawyer, I don’t represent the Linux Foundation in any capacity, I’m not affiliated with them in any way. I have, however, read their rules, and they seems like a really wordy way of saying, “Don’t be a dick with how you use our trademarks. Thanks.”
BBCC
The key phrase there, again, is explicit permission before using their marks.
BBCC
And for the record, Linux does not allow commercial use of their trademarks. They cannot allow commercial use of their trademarks. That’s where the issue comes in.
BBCC
Also, Tux isn’t trademarked by The Linux Foundation because they do not own Tux.
Some Ed
All the Inktober person needs to do is codify a reasonable policy regarding open use of the mark that allows those they want to be able to use the mark to do so. This should be done with the lawyer, because there are some requirements that *must* be followed (for example, a trademark reasonable use policy must require that the trademark be acknowledged as a trademark, and that acknowledgement must indicate who owns the trademark at the time of printing.)
If I’m not mistaken, the requirements for that policy must include restrictions on the use of the trademarks in commercial contexts without explicit permission, but it’s possible to have a pretty lean process to provide that explicit permission.
I’m not a lawyer. This does not constitute legal advice, merely advice on what to talk about with your IP lawyer if this sort of thing is of interest.
BBCC
The problem here is he doesn’t want to restrict commercial use for independent artists and explicit permission, even one that’s easy to work with and basically a copy paste, is going to get cumbersome for an event as big as Inktober VERY quickly.
DudeMyDadOwnsaDealership
Blaine and Ross are involved….Trying to work as a team….Built around Blaine’s lies about his intentions and overestimating how well he could control Ross….Now Mike has spotted them after overhearing an example of their teamwork, and he knows Blaine pretty well …..What do you think?
DudeMyDadOwnsaDealership
His ‘getting pissy’ could be a way to preserve his image/self-image without either coming off as a “sell-out,” or making himself a target for potential ‘arteeests’ who just want a petty form of power over anyone more successful than they, perhaps?
BBCC
Unlikely. He filed for the trademark back in 2017 and nobody gave a shit until it turned out he was an idiot who didn’t understand he couldn’t pick and choose who he enforced it on and him throwing his lawyer under the bus only makes him look either incompetent or like a liar.
sdrainbow
https://www.mrjakeparker.com/blog/2019/12/20/inktober is the official statement by the guy himself. Read into it what you will.
AutobotDen
If he had just trademarked his logo and not the word itself, shit wouldn’t be hitting the fan the way it has been for him.
BBCC
Yeah, this. If it was the logo it wouldn’t be very noteworthy, but trademarking the name does in fact preclude using it in the title or anything else because at that point they are using the trademarked thing. You have to defend those, like it or not.
BBCC
Yeah, like I said, fundamental misunderstanding of how trademarks work.
SmartAlec105
Mike has always been a Chaotic Good asshole. His assholery puts people into uncomfortable positions that they were avoiding but they needed that push.
Regalli
Elaborately spoofed websites to record Walky crying.
Seriously. What purpose does that serve except being an absolute dickhead?
Khyrin
One could argue that Walky needs to face adversity to force him to develop coping skills, and Mike recording his sobs was simply a fringe benefit.
They’d have to be an asshole though.
Regalli
Agreed. Hell, if it leads to explicit clearing up that he was lying to Blaine and legitimately didn’t realize he was setting Amber up to be abused all day on the field trip, I’ll have forgiven him almost everything.
(The thing with the football student’s still skeevy. Like, even if the kid was 100% on board with getting the teacher fired at any cost, ‘hey, would you do this by seducing the teacher online’ is not okay, Mike. You are kids. Don’t ask other people to let themselves be sexually abused for your profit.)
vitalProximity
Huh… My interpretation was that he just used the kid’s account to lead the teacher into making overtures in writing, and then turned her in before anything actually happened.
Kyrik Michalowski
Mike if ever there was a time for caution, now is it. You might be an unrelenting asshole but don’t do anything that will make the situation worse.
nooB
Guess we’re about to find out if Dumbyverse Mike has superpowers too
Miri
Apparently he has droolworthy abs?
Stephen Bierce
*watches Carrie Fisher blow up the doorway of that Chicago apartment building with her four-shot bazooka*
fire_daws
So if Robin is the only adult in the apartment does that mean Carrie’s married to her?
BarerMender
Robin sincerely wishes.
Ghastly
Careful, Mike, you’re outnumbered. Though, from the looks of things, you’re not outsmarted.
tim gueguen
Indeed. Toedad has demonstrated animal cunning, but little intelligence. So it’s really Blaine versus Mike in the brains competition.
Nono
Blaine wasn’t even smart enough to hide receipts that were evidence of his fooling around.
vitalProximity
I would argue that was partially because there was no one around who was shrewd or cynical enough to put the pieces together, and he felt cocky. He may have changed his strategy after a seventh grader called him out and blackmailed him.
J
Mike has now been given two more years to increase his brains and hone his cynicism. Blaine has been honing the same bag of tricks. Advantage: the freshman with the nickels in his pocket.
Jade
I just got the most satisfying image of Mike swinging two socks full of nickels and just beating the shit out of them both 😀