Sharron Angle Gets Cease And Desist Letter From Hasbro Over 'Harry Reid's Amnesty Game'

WASHINGTON -- Toymaker Hasbro has sent Sharron Angle's Senate campaign a cease and desist letter, saying the Nevada Republican never received permission to use the rights to Monopoly for its "Harry Reid Amnesty Game" website.

"The MONOPOLY image that you are referring to was used without permission -- and our legal department sent a cease and desist letter via fax to Ms. Angle's offices on Friday," said Hasbro spokesman Pat Riso in a statement to The Huffington Post on Monday.

As of the publishing of this piece, however, the site remained up, and Riso said that they have not yet heard anything from the Angle campaign. An Angle spokesman did not respond to a request for comment from The Huffington Post.

The Angle campaign launched its website last week as an attack on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) positions on immigration, touting the game as "fun for the whole illegal family." "Harry Reid thinks illegal immigration is a game but Nevada citizens know that it's all too real," reads the front page of the site.

The letter from Hasbro's counsel points out the similarities between Monopoly and the amnesty game, such as the property squares, "Go" corner, similar font styles, the Chance and Community chest cards, the title deeds and the fact that Reid is "made out to look like the MR. MONOPOLY® character."

"Hasbro has consistently sought to prevent the use of its popular family-oriented products in political campaigns," reads the cease and desist letter. "Aside from the strictly legal aspects of the matter, we hope that you would respect Hasbro's desire to avoid associations of its toys and games with partisan politics and that you would understand the damage that can be done to the image of the company and its products from such an association, regardless of person, party, or issue for which they are used."

The Angle campaign also ran into intellectual property trouble in September, when it was sued for reprinting two Las Vegas Review-Journal on its website without receiving permission.

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Comments

[hackerblaster]

01:31 PM on 11/02/2010

So, they finally took it down. I wonder why so long. Anything to get elected.

[DavidDahlbacka]

12:50 PM on 11/02/2010

Some things about this. (1) Accusing your adversary of doing what you're doing is the oldest trick in the book. People use it in family quarrels, too. I last fell for it before I could shave. (2) Hasbro is probably not one of Angle's big contributors. (3) Her handlers probably made the pragmatic decision to go with it and fight the lawsuit afterward. "Lawyers clean up all details...."

[HoweverFrankly]

12:38 PM on 11/02/2010

This year, an annual survey by Education Week magazine ranked Nevada 50th in the nation for the quality of its public K-12 education. Nevada currently ranks 48th in the nation in education spending, and this ranking currently includes Federal assistance.

Angle wants to eliminate all federal funding for public schools and have the budget run exclusively on the state level, even with Nevada's own horrible track record for underfunding their own schools and treating them as an afterthought.

I'm not going to throw out any snide comments about one side or the other...but I'm an independent who just wants to understand the logic behind voting for this women? I just don't see it...

[Jim281]

12:52 PM on 11/02/2010

You are very kind and tempered in your comments:

"I'm an independent who just wants to understand the logic behind voting for this women?"

As for me personally having kindness in my comments, well, NOT SO MUCH:

Shangle needs to be SHREADED, along with all the other SCRAP PAPER.

If Sharon Angle is a product of Nevada's education system, Its a miracle (to me) that they aren't rated #69 out of 50! With those stats, how much federal spending could possibly be SPENT on Nevada? something like $0.03 per student?

As for "...don't see the logic...." Well, that's because there IS NONE! Think about it!! This 'woman' makes incendiary remarks in public ("...2nd ammendment solutions...." and THEN decised she WILL NOT TALK TO THE PRESS (or thefore the general public) until she's elected? How can a candidate express publicly, just WHY people should elect them, if they WON'T TALK TO THE PRESS until AFTER they are elected? WHAT LOGIC??!!

And her first EXCUSE for not gining interviews is that "..the media likes Harry better..." But that was SO LAST WEEK! This week's excuse for not talking to reportes, and this IS captured on tape at the airport, is - get ready for this one----AIRPORT SECURITY!!!!

A vote for the likes of Sharon Angle is not only TOTALLY DEVOID of logic; it is downright DERANGED!

[Jim281]

01:24 PM on 11/02/2010

BTW, Angle's approach to the Depatment of Educations efforts to ENLIGHTEN students with FACTS, is the same as her accomplices' (a.k.a. The GOP)

When it comes to KNOWLEDGE and FACTS, they STRICTLY subscribe to one (failed) appraoch:

ABSTINENCE

[nfatt1]

12:02 PM on 11/02/2010

DIdn't see this one coming !

[ebanks84]

11:55 AM on 11/02/2010

These people are so desperate, there is nothing off limits to their madness. They just don't care what they do and how they do it, as long as they get the results they're looking for. This woman is a total disgrace and how she is even leading in the polls is beyond all comprehension. It's like people are drawn to her like she's a magnet and they can't help themselves. I'm totally amazed at the reasoning behind anyone who could vote for this woman in the first place. There's not that much being a republican in the world to allow such an id!iot to be in our government.

It makes me sad as he// to see how ignorant and lost our citizens really are in this country and how they allow themselves to be completely bamboozled and hoodwinked into thinking the republicans are going to do better than they dad eight years ago is just plain unbelievable.

Am I by myself here or what? Are people that ignorant and blind or what? Is it just me?

[DT10]

11:52 AM on 11/02/2010

haha. this is the only time the liberals here are happy with a corporation.

hilarious.

[Jim281]

01:10 PM on 11/02/2010

Can't speak for anyone but myself. But I am STILL delighted with corporations like Nike, Apple, and Pacifc Gas & Electric for storming out of, and dropping membership in another NATIONAL DISGRACE, "The Chamber Of Commerce".

Why would such respected, successful, progressively run corprations do such a thing? In protest! Protest that the CoC actually decided to adapt (as PG&E put it) AN EXTREME POSTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE, in 2009.

(A clue as the what the chamber of Commerce's EXTREME POSTITION , adapted in 2009, might be? Any educated person would reasonably describe the Coc's position as "DENIAL THAT SUCH AN ISSUE EXISTS")

There are MANY great corporations out there. It's just that they are the ones who HAVEN'T PURCHASE THE U.S. LAWMAKERS, like the Corp's we love to H8, to push down PROGRESS, and PUSH AHEAD their OWN AGENDA'S

And that process, my friend, runs accross ALL sides of the aisle. If they had an award for MOST BLATANT COMPICITY FOR LEGISLATION THAT DOES EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE OF ITS INTENTIONS, well this year, HANDS DOWN, that would go to K.L.G.

Yes, folks: John Kerry, Joe Lieberman, and Lindsey Graham, for their 'bipartisan environment/energy' bill that DISARTOUSLY COULD HAVE PASSED! (Thank gawd it fell apart!)
They should have called that bill "U.S. Govenment AND future World Climate for SALE."

Obama campaigned on three major priorities:

Environment / Energy (FUTURE focussed)

Health Care Reform

CHANGE HOW WASHINGTON WORKS

He should have done the third one FIRST. Its only WORSE!

[Jim281]

01:15 PM on 11/02/2010

Can't speak for anyone but myself. But I am STILL delighted with corporations like Nike, Apple, and Pacifc Gas & Electric for storming out of, and dropping membership in another NATIONAL DISGRACE, "The Chamber Of Commerce".

Why would such respected, successful, progressively run corporations do such a thing? In protest! Protest that the CoC actually decided to adapt (as PG&E put it) AN EXTREME POSTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE, in 2009.

(A clue as the what the Chamber of Commerce's EXTREME POSTITION , adapted in 2009, might be? Any educated person would reasonably describe the CoC's position as "DENIAL THAT SUCH AN ISSUE EXISTS")

There are MANY great corporations out there. It's just that they are the ones who HAVEN'T PURCHASE THE U.S. LAWMAKERS, like the Corp's we love to H8, to push down PROGRESS, and PUSH AHEAD their OWN AGENDA'S

And that process, my friend, runs accross ALL sides of the aisle. If they had an award for MOST BLA'TANT COMP'LICITY FOR LEGISLATION THAT DOES EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE OF ITS INTENTIONS, well this year, HANDS DOWN, that would go to K.L.G.

Yes, folks: John Kerry, Joe Lieberman, and Lindsey Graham, for their 'bipartisan environment/energy' bill that DISASTEROUSLY COULD HAVE PASSED! (Thank gawd it fell apart!)
They should have called that bill "U.S. Govenment AND future World Climate for SALE."

Obama campaigned on three major priorities:

Environment / Energy (FUTURE focussed)

Health Care Reform

CHANGE HOW WASHINGTON WORKS

He should have done the third one FIRST. Its only WORSE!

[WhimsicalLib]

11:41 AM on 11/02/2010

Hello My name is Sharron angle and I am running for Senate in Nevada ..

Sarah Palin endorses me
I am for NO abortions EVER
I am for eliminating the social safety net
ALL must be home schooled by religious right wing extreme zealots
if you are not white ...leave
Harry Reid bad
Obama ist ist ist ist ist ist

WHat do you mean what I said ?

----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­----------­---> RUN

[Sparks Magoo]

11:23 AM on 11/02/2010

Where are all you who on here bash her for breaking the law when it happens on the left?

Hypocrites!

[wdw505]

11:31 AM on 11/02/2010

i will wait until the civil action is over

[BadgersBite]

11:33 AM on 11/02/2010

Nice sentence structure nitwit...

[Debora Allan-Bailey]

11:23 AM on 11/02/2010

If she cannot tell the difference between Hispanics and Asians, why would anyone think she knows anything at all about copyright infringement ?

[Lucy1886]

11:10 AM on 11/02/2010

Conservatives believe in private property rights for THEMSELVES but they also believe in "share-the-wealth-socialism" when it comes to taking property away from others.

Then again, Democrats aren't that different..............

[provgrays1]

10:38 AM on 11/02/2010

In Monopoly, Angle is the thimble, as in thimble brained.

[soupson52]

12:28 PM on 11/02/2010

Small and rigid?

[provgrays1]

12:55 PM on 11/02/2010

soup,

Yes and with very little capacity.

[Samuel Nnadi]

10:28 AM on 11/02/2010

Nevadans knows fully well that Sharron Angle is a crook. The only way to stop this undemocratic movement is to vote her down today. Nevadans deserve an honest and credible Senator. Grand Old part and Tea Party want to smuggle Sharron Angle to the Senate by all means. Nevadans must turn out in mass to stop Sharron Angle and Tea Party operatives.

[Val49]

10:52 AM on 11/02/2010

Samuel Nnadi, I believe thats the type of people the Republican Party cater to, CROOKS, its being done here in Atlanta with the Governor's race.

[aqueryan]

10:26 AM on 11/02/2010

Perhaps no race better illustrates the old adage of cutting off one's nose to spite one's face. Because if Angle (shudder to think) somehow does manage to squeak out a win this race, it will not have been without the assistance of a number of presumably otherwise sane individuals who either cast their vote for Angle naively believing the "anything is better than Harry Reid" rhetoric... or simply decided to refrain from voting at all.

I'm a New Jersey native having to deal with Chris Christie as governor for similar reasons. And the people here have already been hit with a rather severe case of "buyer's remorse".

Hold your nose in the booth if necessary, but vote... against insanity.

As Bill Maher humorously put it:

"...when it comes to voting - when we only have two choices - you gotta grow up and realize there's a big difference between a disappointing friend and a deadly enemy. Of course the Democrats are disappointing - thats what makes them Democrats. But in this country they are all that stands between you and darkest night.

You know why their symbol is the letter 'D'? Because its a grade that means 'good enough... but just barely'.

You know why the Republican symbol is 'R'? Because it's a noise a pirate makes when he robs you and throws you to a shark."

*

Don't regret your vote for the next 4 years, Nevadans. Vote for Reid.

[lbarnett]

11:34 AM on 11/02/2010

Senators se!!rve 6 years

[soupson52]

12:39 PM on 11/02/2010

F&F'd for logic! (And, yes, Ib, it is six years. Thanks for the reminder!)

[knot2]

10:25 AM on 11/02/2010

She is not smart enough to know that you cannot just use copyrighted material anytime you like…and by this time any staffer smart enough to let her know about infringement issues has already been “let go” she has no one to tell her of the problem. But do not worry, she have plenty of time to make it up to them after the election.

[wdw505]

11:03 AM on 11/02/2010

agreed if she loses she will fade away and take the site down.....if she win she will take the site down. she will ultimately have very little risk on this

[SallieParker]

11:31 AM on 11/07/2010

The copyright expired a long time ago, there is only the questionable claim of a trademark. Angle should have challenged the plaintiff and made it prove title.

[QuantProgrammer]

10:20 AM on 11/02/2010

Haha! This is great publicity for the site.