The Vandals Secure Legal Victory Over Artwork Dispute

Punk band the Vandals have apparently secured a preliminary victory against Variety Magazine as part of a long-running dispute.

The row centres over their cover from the 2004 album 'Hollywood Potato Chip,' on which the typography parodied the Variety logo, resulting in a cease and desist order from the magazine, reports the LA Times.

The dispute was originally settled when the band re-designed the lettering on the cover. But in April 2010, Variety sued the band again when they found the original cover resurface on the internet.

Fortunately, Vandals bassist Joe Escalante also doubles as a qualified lawyer, and he won't go down without a fight. The band have just won the first round of legal proceedings by getting the case transferred from Delaware to the supposedly "more convenient" jurisdiction of Los Angeles, where the band have a better chance of recovering their legal fees for an abridgement of free speech.

Escalante has been blogging about the lawsuit on their website, where they've bravely put a parody of the Variety editor talking his lawyer over their failure in Delaware -- to hilarious effect.

Summarising the court order, Escalante said, "[The plaintiffs] wasted the court's time and their client's money by trying to burden the punk band with huge legal fees to extort money out of them. And remember, the Vandals are representing themselves, without counsel, in Federal Court!"

Through all this, the band still don't see an issue with the original artwork, according to their blog.

"It is a clear parody of the the magazine that calls itself 'The Bible Of The Entertainment Industry.' They parody the Bible, we parody them, people parody us. What's the problem?"

Watch the Vandals Covering Queen's 'Don't Stop Me Now'