Earlier this month, TheDirty.com posted nude pictures of San Antonio Spurs Point Guard George Hill.  The photos show Hill in a Spurs cap (and little else).  Hill had apparently texted the pictures along with some revealing text messages to his jump off (he apologized to his girlfriend in an open letter to his fans) about a year ago.

In one text Hill confesses, “Im a fast c—.”  Click here to fill in the blank and view Hill in all his glory.  Well, almost–LARGE hearts and bubbles cover the money shots.

Thanks to Hill’s nifty product placement, the Spurs were soon drawn into the drama, instructing their lawyer to fire off a missive to TheDirty.  Read the full letter via HuffPo:

This letter is formal notice of the Spurs’ objection to the display of photographs of Spurs’ player George Hill on thedirty.com’s website.  More specifically, thedirety.com has caused or permitted photographs of Mr. Hill in an unclothed state to be posed on its website.  Moreover, the website expressly references Mr. Hill’s status as a BA player for San Antonio and contains a hyperlink to a photograph of Mr. Hill in a Spurs’ uniform.  The website also links to phtographs of Mr. Hill in various states of undress and phtographs that contain messages meant for a particular private recipient.

The content of this site is clearly aimed at prurient and sexually explicit interest that should not be associated with the Spurs…

That was all fine and good until TheDirty’s lawyer penned what amounts to a written bitch slap.  It begins thusly:

TRADEMARK LAW DOES NOT APPLY TO CRITICISM OF CELEBRITIES MAKING FOOLS OF THEMSELVES

Then continues:

…you contend that trademark law and related torts prevent the publication of Mr. Hill’s name and/or image simply because www.TheDirty.com is a hudgely successful commercial site…

Since you have not cited any authority for this premise, I assume you could not find any.  That’s not surprising since as Paris Hilton, Tiger Woods, or Britney Spears could explain to you, this argument is totally without merit.  Strangely, many people seem to share this mistaken belief that the Lanham Act prevents all uses of a trademark without the holder’s permission.  Thankfully for The Dirty, TMZ, etc., this is not the law; it is an urban myth:

Finally, there is this:

I realize that NBA fans in the San Antonio are may not be so sophisticated, particular if any of them have opted to support Mr. Hill and the Spurs rather than the undeniably superior Dallas Mavericks (excluding Shawn Marion who hasn’t been the same since he left Phoenix).

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