Defending the rights of The Village People, the legendary Web Sheriff threatened The Pirate Bay's operators with legal action in an attempt to get compensation for the losses the six had suffered. The threats didn't lead to much unfortunately, so The Village People and the infamous Sheriff are now pointing the gun at Jamie Oliver instead.

Early 2008, the Web Sheriff, aka John Giacobbi, launched an assault on the operators of The Pirate Bay. The Sheriff threatened legal action in both Sweden and the US, but despite all the bluster, that’s the last we heard of it. Now, nearly two years later, Giacobbi moves away from the Swedish torrent chefs, instead pointing the finger at the British cook Jamie Oliver.

Unlike the Pirate Bay operators, Oliver didn’t host any torrents on his website. No, he committed the crime of dressing in clothing similar to that worn by The Village People thirty years ago, but without their permission.

In a promo trailer for the show, Jamie’s American Road Trip, the British cook dressed up as the 70’s style icons. The clip ran on TV, accompanied with a poster campaign in the London Underground, all featuring Jamie dressed up as each of the six members of the hit disco band.

According to the Web Sheriff, Jamie Oliver’s actions are blatant trademark infringement, seriously hurting the revenues of the Indian chief, cowboy and the four other members of the band. “The Village People are still a huge, multimillion-dollar global business,” the Sheriff commented.

Much like the Pirate Bay, Channel 4, the broadcaster of Jamie’s show, is not impressed by the Sheriffs threats. “We are confident that the promotional campaign for Jamie’s American Road Trip does not infringe any copyright/trademark rights which the Village People may have. No parties have received a formal legal claim from the Village People and, if one is received, it will be vigorously defended,” a Channel 4 spokesperson said.

If the case does indeed come to court, it could be risky for the Web Sheriff to dress up in his usual outfit, as that is more than likely trademarked by a third party who might also wish to issue similar frivolous legal threats.