Monday, January 29, 2007

Jewish Porn Isn't Kosher

Israeli pornographer Oren Cohen put a well-recognized symbol meaning "kosher" on his film "Assraelis" to help increase sales. But the symbol is trademakred by the food company Kof-K, which sent a ceast-and-desist letter to Cohen. From the New York Times article:


“As a leading company in the area of kosher food certification, companies are only contractually authorized to utilize the Kof-K trademark to promote and/or market their food products,” the letter said.

Mr. Cohen, the son of a Moroccan Israeli and the third generation of his family involved in the pornography industry, was a bit perplexed.

“I thought, what — they own a letter?” Mr. Cohen said in an interview.

They do. And they have for more than 30 years, said Rabbi Yehuda Rosenbaum, the administrative director of the company.


On the contray, says an anonymous Boing Boing reader:

"Kof-K" isn't *the* kosher symbol, it's *one company's* kosher symbol. It's not "a letter," as the porn producer indicates; it's a great big Hebrew letter with a tiny little English letter inside it, something that doesn't appear anywhere in any language. While the bounds if intellectual property laws have often been stretched to the breaking point, this one seems pretty cut-and-dry. It's their brand, and they don't approve of it's use. I'm sure Good Housekeeping would feel the same way if their symbol was used to promote Mop Porn.


See Boing Boing for the offending image.

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