Artists continue to drop out of official showcases, while protesters have called for a ceasefire in Gaza while disrupting several official events. Now,, the organization generating this protest momentum, is entangled in a copyright dispute with SXSW that could result in legal action.
APC’s lawyer, Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Cara L. Gagliano, responded to SXSW, Thursday, March 7, saying that the trademark claim fails because the graphics are political parody, which is a First Amendment right. “No reasonable consumer would interpret Austin for Palestine’s renditions of the arrow logo – which add fighter jets and details evoking blood splatter – as indicating that SXSW produced, sponsored, or endorsed graphics criticizing its own business practices.
As of press time, about 60 acts had pulled out of official SXSW showcases in protest of the festival’s military ties, as APC continues to hold. “Citizens have sent more than 600 emails to them trying to get them to drop ,” says Haider. “It’s clear that they're choosing to put profit over people despite the damage to their reputation. … They're just hoping they can skate by and it'll all blow over, but it’s definitely not gonna blow over.