Press release - 4 February, 2004
Greenpeace hailed a Paris judge's ruling in favour of Greenpeace using a parody of the Esso logo on its StopE$$o website as a victory for freedom of expression on the internet, as well as for the climate.
This afternoon, the court ruled that the internet site, which
features a
parody logo with a double dollar sign ($$) in place of the
double 'S' in
the oil giant's logo, was within acceptable limits of freedom
of
expression. Esso France began legal action against Greenpeace in
France
in July 2002. It claimed that the parody logo linked the company
to the
infamous Nazi 'SS' and damaged Esso's reputation.
Greenpeace has been campaigning against the oil giant since 2001
when
Bush pulled the US out of the international negotiations to
tackle climate change.
"Esso has spent millions in its fight to stop the world's
government's
tackling climate change, and was behind Bush pulling out of the
Kyoto
Protocol. Esso obviously thought this case would be an easy win
but it
was wrong. Today's ruling is a victory in the fight to protect
the
climate against a company that will go to any means to silence
its
critics," said Greenpeace campaigner, Anita Goldsmith.
Notes: StopEsso http://www.stopesso.org, a global coalition of groupsincluding Greenpeace, is campaigning around the world to stop Essofrom sabotaging international action to address climate change and hasused the logo around the world since the campaign was launched in May2001.Esso is the trademark under which Exxon/Mobil does business in manyparts of the world outside of North America.