Okay, so if you didn’t hear sometime in the past few days, Nike ripped a Minor Threat cover for some sorta extreme-y sporting event. I’m not going to foam about it, because frankly, it doesn’t seem necessary to be like the millionth person to say “hell yes, that’s really messed up.”

Under current IP/copyright protection laws, Nike would have to prove that their use of what is basically iconic cover art (as iconic as Golden Arches or Mickey Mouse) is a parody, which seems impossible, unless… well, no, that’s too heartbreaking. Anyway, those tireless Dischord folks don’t seem all too financially poised to sustain a court battle with one of the biggest corporations in the world, so I wouldn’t bet on any Incredible Legal Heroism here.

Interestingly, as Kevin Driscoll points out here, punk has long made use of corporate logos as parody/fodder for art, dating back to those those cuddly clowns of the dada movement, who basically invented collage to try to empty out and subvert the meaning of commercial imagery via grassroots art and DIY-technique. Food for thought.

I Love Music’s thread has actually spawned its own little response, which is, typically, both extremely nerdy and extremely hilarious.