Customs Folds Following CBLDF Challenge

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has secured an important victory against U.S. Customs concerning the seizure of parody comics in South Carolina.

Last November, the CBLDF filed a request for court action with U.S. Customs in Charleston concerning the seizure of issues of Stripburger that included the parody comics "Richie Bush" by Peter Kuper, and "Moj Stub" by Bojan Redžić. Customs seized the books, which were en route to Top Shelf Productions, claiming they were "piratical" infringements on existing copyrights. The Fund disagreed, finding the work to be protected speech, and retained Charleston Attorney Gregg Meyers to bring the request for court action.

This week Customs released the books and will be refunding the $250 filing fee that Top Shelf placed to challenge the seizure.

"This is great news," said CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein. "It's exactly the kind of victory we want, where reason prevails and no one has to go to court. It's always better to prevent a trial than defend a trial, and I'm pleased that the government felt the same way in this case and returned the materials that were wrongfully seized."

Meyers concurs, stating, "I'd say that reaching a resolution with only a single shot fired reflects the realization by the government that the seizure shouldn't have happened. We appreciate that they changed their course."

Top Shelf publisher and CBLDF President Chris Staros added, "Despite the low dollar value of the books seized, the principal of this issue -- that of Customs overreaching its authority to judge what is parody and what is not -- was definitely worth fighting for. Hopefully, the victory in this case will help prevent future incidents of this nature, where a publisher would have much more to lose if, for example, an entire print run was seized."