December 25, 2024

Skylight Webzine

Online since 2000

Judas Priest Is Now Considering Legal Action Against The Gap…


Tellingly, we couldn’t find the offending t-shirt on the Gap website, for good reason.  And after weeks of comparison and debate, Judas Priest is edging closer to taking legal action against the retailer.  The allegation?  The Gap ripped off the cover artwork from Priest’s well-known album, Screaming for Vengeance.

We’ve seen this sort of scenario before, but suing a massive corporation on grounds of design infringement sounds like a questionable use of resources.  Especially since the corporation is likely to yank the product to avoid bad publicity.  That may have already happened with the Gap, and it’s what Disney did after ‘borrowing’ a Joy Division album cover that was actually a scientific drawing in the public domain.  

So is the Gap guilty of infringement in this case?  Here, you decide.  This is the Gap t…

Exhibit A.

And this is the artwork for Screaming for Vengeance…

Exhibit B.

“Well, it’s very naughty of them. They shouldn’t have done that and we’re investigating that right now because that’s intellectual property rights – we were never asked, neither was our label.”

– Judas Priest’s Rob Halford, in comments to The Quietus.

Source: Hyperbot