Ralph Lauren sues bloggers over skinny model

Ralph Lauren is suing the blog "Boing Boing" for reproducing one of its adverts without permission.

Boing Boing printed the photo with the critique, "dude, her head is bigger than her pelvis" to point out the fact that RL staff appeared to have almost photoshopped the model out of existence.

After being sued, Boing Boing claims the photo is reprinted for classic fair use - eg, criticism and comment. I happen to agree with the blog - since when did companies get to control and censor what gets uploaded to the internet? Isn't free speech and commentary half the point of internet these days?!

Boing Boing and Ralph Lauren Clash Over Image of Emaciated Model

The Criticism That Ralph Lauren Doesn't Want You to See

Agreed. From what I understand, the blog is in the right.  It is perfectly legal to reprint or use an image in order to review or critique it.  Just because the critique happens to be negative does not mean that you can sue. 

Also, the blog is also correct.  It doesn't even look like they tried to make the girl look even slightly proportional. 

That photo doesn't even look natural to begin with. Ha Ha. It just looks....weird and out of place.

Is it a reflection in a funhouse mirror??

whoa that picture is bizarre!! they make her look like an alien!

lol, did Ralph want the photoshopping job to look like they put an adult's head on a 10 year old's body?

weird...

Good for them for keeping it up in the face of legal threats!

You can't claim copyright infringement just because people are pointing out flaws in what you did.  I find it a bit amusing that Ralph Lauren chose to go that route rather than saying "oops, yeah, sorry, our bad" and letting it blow over.  Doing it this way is giving it much more publicity than it ever would have garnered otherwise.  I, for example, never saw this picture till there was a stink being made about the legal issue.

Original Post by lilsammi23:

Good for them for keeping it up in the face of legal threats!

You can't claim copyright infringement just because people are pointing out flaws in what you did.  I find it a bit amusing that Ralph Lauren chose to go that route rather than saying "oops, yeah, sorry, our bad" and letting it blow over.  Doing it this way is giving it much more publicity than it ever would have garnered otherwise.  I, for example, never saw this picture till there was a stink being made about the legal issue.

I agree, Sammi!  The reason Ralph Lauren is suing is that corporations think they can intimidate individuals into acquiescing to their bulls**t.  I am SO glad boingboing is not going to be intimidated, on two different levels: 1) I'm glad because it takes RL down a peg and reminds the company that it must abide by rules just like everyone else, and 2) I'm glad because it brings attention to the lengths fashion industry members will go to just to promote these bizarre ideas about how clothes/makeup/surgery ought to make a person look. 

That's a weird looking woman all right.  The comments about the photo were fun reading too:

"I had no idea Pez had a "Fashion Week" dispenser line."

heh heh

Is Ralph Lauren upset because their Ad has been altered?  Because I can't believe they would have run that ad like that.  Is there any other sources on this?

There was another source, unfortunately, their ISP removed the posts after Ralph Lauren threatened legal involvement.

Note, as I understand it, Ralph Lauren isn't suing for defamation.  They're claiming copyright infringement.  They aren't saying that the image has been altered, they're saying that it is being used without their permission.

I love how the site is not bowing down to legal threats, but specifically their response that they "will offer nourishing soup and sandwiches to [their] models."

HA!  

They gave that woman the proportions of a Bratz doll. Good for Boing Boing calling it out and sticking to their guns.

Original Post by coffincritter:

They gave that woman the proportions of a Bratz doll.

Was going to post this exact thing.

Original Post by trhawley:

Is Ralph Lauren upset because their Ad has been altered?  Because I can't believe they would have run that ad like that.  Is there any other sources on this?

 there is a link in that article to another that says they basically finally admitted to being the source of this photo.

Photoshop Disasters had it up for a bit before being threatened into taking it down.

Yahoo has a good article on this as well: http://shine.yahoo.com/event/fallbeauty/image -of-ultra-thin-ralph-lauren-model-sparks-outr age-521480/