About Parody...

Or, Why Berke Breathed Shouldn't Sue Us!

GloomCounty.com is meant to be fun.

The Concept is simple: What would happen if the residents of Berkely Breathed's Bloom County were all Goths and Punks and so on?

We want to remain true to the spirit and sensibilities of Berke Breathed's original creation, within the confines of the GloomCounty Concept.

This site will never exceed more than a PG-13 rating. To put it into simpler terms, there will never be anything on these pages which would mortify me should it be seen by my 10 year old niece.

Parody -
A literary or artistic work that imitates the characteristic style of an author or a work for comic effect.

Here's the legal stuff:

Bloom County was originally syndicated by the Washington Post Writer's Group, and is the creation of Berke Breathed.

Pursuant to the Copyright Act of 1976, Parody is protected as
"Fair Use."

There are four criteria which designate "Fair Use:"

The purpose and character of the use, including whether use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes.
The nature of the copyrighted work.
The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole.
The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

Let's look at these items, one at a time.

1. - The Purpose and Character Of The Use, including whether use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes.

This site is completely nonprofit. Although I wouldn't mind contributions toward the cost of web-hosting, I will never earn a profit from this site. It's meant in fun. The purpose and character are fluff, silliness, mental-floss even.

2. - The nature of the copyrighted work.

Bloom County is an international Comic success which ran for more than seven years, not counting 'Outland,' it's successor. It was syndicated in newspapers across the nation, and spawned books, t-shirts, stuffed animals, and even a christmas television special, "A Wish For Wings That Work."

What's more, Bloom County has become a rather large chunk of our shared history, a facet of pop culture.

3. - The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole.

OK, OK, so the characters are obviously modeled after 'Bloom County.' But we *did* stop to reimagine them as Goths and Punks and Rivetheads... and other than the basic settings, that's where the similarities end, really.

4. - The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

To be honest, I could do these strips once a week for the rest of my life and never come close to matching the whole of Bloom County. I will never match it in scope.

This is a site which caters to the Goth/Industrial scene. Even if it were being put onto the web-market in anything other than a free form, it's not the sort of thing which will ever become popular with the masses, because the jokes are too specific.

As a result, GloomCounty.com stands absolutely no chance of ever damaging the potential market and value of Bloom County.

This is a fan site, pure and simple.

If at least one person looks at this site and has the sudden urge to go back and re-read the original Bloom County comics.... so much the better!

-Steven