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May 21, 2008
Wednesday
 
 
I wish I could think of a way to relate this to hippos
Michael Jennings (London)  Latin American affairs

Last week, as I was wandering around a slightly shabby (but brightly coloured) neighbourhood of Santiago, I encountered the following restaurant, which was sadly closed at the time of day I visited.

It is likely that if a restaurant put up such a sign in Britain or America, it would soon receive a cease and desist letter from DC Comics or some other branch of Time Warner. However, despite the fact that the Chileans were undoubtedly required to enact some ghastly DMCA-like concoction as a consequence of the negotiations that led to the United States / Chile Free Trade Agreement, enforcement is somewhat laxer than it would be in Europe or North America.

This is, in my opinion, a good thing. If such a sign were taken down, there would be no consideration of the most important question related to it, which is What in the name of Apocatequil were these people smoking?

Comments

Funny!
In Spanish, a bat (flying animal) is 'un murcielago' but this wouldn't sound cool when applied to Batman (doer of good deeds) as a literal translation would be 'Hombre Murcielago'.

Hence, 'Batman' is usually known by his English name in Spanish-speaking countries and the prefix 'Bati-' is applied to anything where 'Bat-' would be used in English. For example, the 60's TV show would close with an invitation to tune in for the next episode, "Mismo bati-hora, mismo bati-canal" ("Same bat-time, same bat-channel").


Posted by Eddie Willers at May 22, 2008 04:31 AM

Heh. I guess they were smoking peyote. If that's what you do. Never having taken any illicit drugs, except the occasional poppyseed muffin, I won't know...


Posted by Gregory at May 22, 2008 06:37 AM

Maybe he's using hypponosis to trick you into buying from him?


Posted by nick g. at May 23, 2008 02:26 AM

Enforcement is indeed much more lax in spanish-speaking american countries. I was amused to see buses in Cabo San Lucas painted with murals of famous classic rock album covers, such as nirvana or Yes.

I suspect the people have more immediate things to worry about than protecting copyrighted works of wealthy american interests.


Posted by Darryl at May 25, 2008 05:14 AM

Batman seems to be a pretty popular trademark to borrow in South America. I just came back from Peru, and it seems like half of the motorcycle-taxis and some of the combis were branded with the Batman logo.


Posted by Anon at May 26, 2008 06:39 AM
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