Turtles Outrun Tata
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| image from here |
The Delhi High Court has denied to restrain Greenpeace from hosting the Turtle v. Tata game on their website. Though the final outcome is still pending, Tata’s plea for injunction against the game was vehemently denied by the Delhi High Court. We had discussed the factual matrix of the case in our earlier post.
As per the Greenpeace website (visited on Jan 31, 2011)it is interesting to note that the Delhi High court has denied injunction on the basis of “Right to Free Speech”. If this fundamental right plays an important role in the final shaping of the judgment then we may soon witness a multitude of instances where famous marks will be used in similar innovative ways under the shield of Right to Free Speech. The High Court is expected to hear the matter later in February regarding the damages of Rs. 10 Crores demanded by Tata.
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Such type of decision of the Court may lead to people misusing names of public figures, popular brands, names of Gods (Hindu Gods & Saints particularly – the most abused these days) for their own personal gains and thereby causing damage to image of the other personality or brand.
Right to Free Speech should not mean that people be allowed to speak or propagate anything. This should be measured in terms of ethic, culture, and harm it would cause to the aggrieved party.
Though I support most of the initiatives of Green Peace in interest of environmental conservation but the putting of a game maligning the image of the Tata is not in good taste.
Green Peace should immediately stop such type of game on its website.