Censorship of the WWF logo on WWE.com

[Turnz05]

Hi

I only normally read these forums casually to keep up to date with what fans feel about the current WWE product. Anyway, I though it was interesting earlier when I was watching WWE.com there is a feature on Lesnar in his build up to his match with Triple H at Summerslam...

One of the video clips has him in a match against Jeff Hardy from Backlash 2002. The WWE have forgot to censor the WWF logo's in the clip on WWE.com. I found it interesting. So I thought I'd share with you guys...

http://www.wwe.com/videos/playlists/brock-lesnar-world-of-hurt

Chris,

 

[Vincent Michaels]

Apparently there's some sort of agreement now where the logo doesn't have to be censored in flashback videos packages/photos sets. However, I believe they still can't use it for full match or DVD release, which I believe they're trying to get rid of(finally) before The Network launches.

 

[Max Headroom]

Apparently there's some sort of agreement now where the logo doesn't have to be censored in flashback videos packages/photos sets. However, I believe they still can't use it for full match or DVD release, which I believe they're trying to get rid of(finally) before The Network launches.

This is what I've heard, also. It's pretty bad they're forced to always blur it anyways, it's not like people don't know what it says on the logo. But it's good they are finally taking steps into not having to, whether that be the part of WWE working harder, or WWF not being so ********* about it anymore, we're not quite sure. But I will say that, if WWE does go through with making their network, they will want to have the blur fully gotten rid of, not just for flashbacks.

Nobody wants to spend money to look at constant blurs of nothing offensive in which 90% of people buying the network will already know what's there. Very few will see the logo & think "isn't that the World Wildlife Fund"?

 

[cmm8749]

Hi All,

You may or may not remember some years ago, the World Wildlife Fund filed a lawsuit with the World Wrestling Federation over the use of the initials WWF. The World Wildlife Fund won and because of that, World Wrestling Federation had to drop the F and change their name to World Wrestling Entertainment.

In addition there was an agreement made that WWE could no longer use the WWF attitude era logo which is why you see it censored on everything now. But WWE can still use the 80's era logo (the days that HH walked as champion) which is why you saw it for some time on John Cena's ring gear.

I think this was a horrible thing that WWE had to go though because before the change, their main focus was on wrestling and we got great wrestling matches because of it. But now that they are "entertainment" it seems like WWE could care less about the wrestling and the wrestling community wants hard hitting wrestling back.

 

[brandogg]

That's not true, John's Cena's gear just had the WW like they used on the more recent episodes of Saturday Night's Main Event. They had to blur the old logo as well.

 

[Rayne]

I think this was a horrible thing that WWE had to go though because before the change, their main focus was on wrestling and we got great wrestling matches because of it. But now that they are "entertainment" it seems like WWE could care less about the wrestling and the wrestling community wants hard hitting wrestling back.

This is a case of the egg hatching the chicken, not the chicken hatching the egg.

Firstly, the WWE got what they had coming from the World Wildlife Fund. The WWF had been around as a copyrighted entity for far, far longer than the World Wrestling Federation. The Federation had signed a consent decree with the Fund, allowing them to use the initials "WWF", so long as they didn't use those initials in the primary promotion of their product. The best example of this would be a commercial saying "Come see the World Wrestling Federation LIVE!", instead of "Come see the WWF LIVE!" Just because you're more popular doesn't mean you can ignore someone else's copyright, and that's exactly what the Federation started doing. The Fund said "enough of this bullshit", and now we have the WWE.

As far as shifting to a more entertainment-geared focus, this is a change that has been coming since the 1980's. The cat's out of the bag about professional wrestling not being an athletic competition. (At least for most people, the attitudes of some people on this board make me wonder.) If you can't sell professional wrestling as a sport, you admit to yourself what it is- entertainment- and sell that.

There are still a significant amount of people who will yell, "It's real to me!", and by all means, keep sending in your money and viewing advertisements. Without you, this whole con game falls apart. If you want "hard-hitting wrestling", the UFC is taking the majority of those dollars these days, because you can see people actually get hit without having to say "oh, there's no WAY that was faked!!!" If you want to see stiff, strong style wrestling, that's still alive and well in ROH and Japan.

Companies always chase the money. The UFC has taken the 'reality' veneer off of professional wrestling, leaving the soap opera business to professional wrestling.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

The suit was pretty baseless and I am still amazed the Wildlife fund won as their argument was that it would cause "confusion". People know the difference between wrestling and an animal charity. To this day I refuse to donate because of it.

 

[Rayne]

The suit was pretty baseless and I am still amazed the Wildlife fund won as their argument was that it would cause "confusion". People know the difference between wrestling and an animal charity. To this day I refuse to donate because of it.

Baseless?!?!?! I do not think you know what that word means.

The World Wildlife Fund was using the trademark "WWF" from long before the World Wrestling Federation. The Federation signed a consent decree with the Fund, saying "we won't promote ourselves as the WWF, if you'll let us use the letters for casual abbreviation." This isn't a case of two people having legitimate arguments which have to be debated; this is a case of a company making an agreement with another company, then violating that agreement. The Fund wanted people- as was originally the case- to associate "WWF" with their organization. It was pretty clear that throughout the 1980's and 90's, when people heard "WWF", they thought of the professional wrestling company.

Legally, it's about as cut and dry as you can get. The World Wildlife Fund never abandoned their trademark, which was the Federation's argument. The consent decree that the Federation had signed shot a big fat hole in that argument, as it is legal proof that the Federation had recognized the Fund's copyright of "WWF".

Professional wrestling fans might not like it, but it's light years away from being "baseless". It's a textbook case of trademark violation.

 

[Ace630]

I thought the agreement was terminated because wwe floated shares on the stock market and that violated one of the terms of the agreement.

Getting back to the point though I'm glad they have finally found ways to get rid of the blurs and hopefully they can get rid of it for good. It might not mean much to some but when i watch an old match i find the blurs really distracting

 

[whoopin' ass]

it was another case of Vince trying to work things his way. World Wildlife Fund had the rights to wwf but they allowed Vince to use the initials within North America i believe since that was where most of his wrestling took place - it was only a small portion of the world what would so they were nice about it. but Vince started to go global and instead of trying to make a new deal or something, he just used the initials thinking nothing would happen. they fought back and Vince lost.

the deal with the initials is a little weird. i know they have rights to the old initials (80's era) but the attitude era is not allowed. I figure it was a personal punishment - really, there is no reason why they should ban a certain version of the initials and not a different versions. it should be either all or nothing. but the attitude era logo was so associated with the initials wwf that i think banning that one was a way to force wwe to comply with the ruling and a reminder that you can't screw around like Vince tried to do. i mean, even when they show something with the old logo, they still can't say "wwf" on the air so it seems a little unusual that they would allow the old logo and not the attitude era one.

 

[WWEIsLife2]

This is a case of the egg hatching the chicken, not the chicken hatching the egg.

Firstly, the WWE got what they had coming from the World Wildlife Fund. The WWF had been around as a copyrighted entity for far, far longer than the World Wrestling Federation. The Federation had signed a consent decree with the Fund, allowing them to use the initials "WWF", so long as they didn't use those initials in the primary promotion of their product. The best example of this would be a commercial saying "Come see the World Wrestling Federation LIVE!", instead of "Come see the WWF LIVE!" Just because you're more popular doesn't mean you can ignore someone else's copyright, and that's exactly what the Federation started doing. The Fund said "enough of this bullshit", and now we have the WWE.

As far as shifting to a more entertainment-geared focus, this is a change that has been coming since the 1980's. The cat's out of the bag about professional wrestling not being an athletic competition. (At least for most people, the attitudes of some people on this board make me wonder.) If you can't sell professional wrestling as a sport, you admit to yourself what it is- entertainment- and sell that.

There are still a significant amount of people who will yell, "It's real to me!", and by all means, keep sending in your money and viewing advertisements. Without you, this whole con game falls apart. If you want "hard-hitting wrestling", the UFC is taking the majority of those dollars these days, because you can see people actually get hit without having to say "oh, there's no WAY that was faked!!!" If you want to see stiff, strong style wrestling, that's still alive and well in ROH and Japan.

Companies always chase the money. The UFC has taken the 'reality' veneer off of professional wrestling, leaving the soap opera business to professional wrestling.

So basically what your saying is WWE shouldn't be allowed to use what's part of their History? Im sorry your an idiot and I fail to see that logic.

The Fund should have been the one to change their name if they were so butthurt by the fact Vince wanted to promote it as WWF/World Wrestling Federation. Hmm lets see World Wrestling Federation or World Wildlife Fund,which one means Wrestling? If you can't tell the difference your a moron.

By the way the UFC is the most overrated thing I have ever seen and it does nothing for me. All it really is is a glorified bar fight and most boring thing ever,

 

[Rayne]

So basically what your saying is WWE shouldn't be allowed to use what's part of their History? Im sorry your an idiot and I fail to see that logic.

The Fund should have been the one to change their name if they were so butthurt by the fact Vince wanted to promote it as WWF/World Wrestling Federation. Hmm lets see World Wrestling Federation or World Wildlife Fund,which one means Wrestling? If you can't tell the difference your a moron.

By the way the UFC is the most overrated thing I have ever seen and it does nothing for me. All it really is is a glorified bar fight and most boring thing ever,

Apparently you're saying that the World Wildlife Fund shouldn't be allowed to use a part of their history, which is longer than the World Wrestling Federation's history (as the WWF). It's not about "which one means wrestling". It's about how people identify the initials "WWF", and who held the legal rights to the initials, "WWF". I didn't expect the majority of people on this board to agree with this.

And if you don't understand UFC, well, there are a lot of people in the world who talk about combat sports without having participated in any of them. To each their own.

 

[Turnz05]

Well, it seems that this is being relaxed as I just watched three more clips on WWE.com that didn't censor the WWF logos. Even one clip had Shane McMahon mentioning the initials WWF (from the WWF vs Alliance storyline in 2001) I guess with the network coming it is important that this is happening. As others have said, it's about time!