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This post is rated G

The New York Times reports that the Motion Picture Association of America is sending cease-and-desist notices to fan fiction writers for merely rating their stories according to the MPAA's G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17 code:

"We have a right to go after people who use our trademarks without permission, big or small, whenever we find out about them," said John Feehery, executive vice president for the association. "Our ratings are not supposed to be ripped off."

Oh, yeah? Good luck defending that in court, friend. Of course, chances are the MPAA won't have to. Fan fiction sites are switching to different ratings systems, even though MPAA's claim arguably has little basis in the law.

Wendy Seltzer, a lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, argues that the association would have a point only if the fiction sites had claimed that association reviewers had rated the works. Using the ratings as a rough comparison is not a trademark infringement, she said: "It's like saying a beverage tastes like Coke."

Heidi Tandy, a lawyer who is also president of fictionalley.org, an archive of Harry Potter fiction, added that ratings such as PG and R are not exclusive to the association, since they are used by some foreign film boards.