'Dumb Starbucks' coffee shop opens in Los Feliz

Who else hates the ignorance inherent in phrases like "the fair use law." They got it right in the very next sentence of their FAQ ("doctrine of fair use"). And then they made the same mistake again later with "the parody law" instead of "the concept of parody" or something similar.

If you're going to attempt to make an argument about the law, you'd best at least try not to sound like an idiot. It's like the people in software who confuse copyright, trademark, and patent: Your business is IP, have at least the most cursory understanding of the concepts damn it!

...so, Starbucks paid some guerrilla marketing company millions of dollars to stage an absurd publicity stunt.

Supporting Facts:

  1. All publicity is good publicity.
  2. All branding is identical, verbatim, (e.g. no 
     use of small, medium, large; instead branded sizing 
     parlance is used) forcing the customer to closely 
     inspect the imitation for flaws. This forces a level of 
     psychological engagement in the customer that would not 
     occur in regular, legitimate establishments.
  3. Starbucks, for all it's popularity, rarely experiences
     negative press. Thus, their brand can easily tolerate 
     examples of light trolling.
  4. Dubious "news" coverage offers vectors for market 
     penetration into sectors that represent the Lowest
     Common Denominator, without cheapening Starbucks' 
     brand. In other words, they can speak to an audience
     that they'd rather not be associated with, without 
     having to directly engage them. They can inject their 
     brand's presence into the daily lives of people who 
     would not ordinarily pay attention to their usual modes 
     of advertising.
  5. Without an entity to claim credit for this activity, 
     this parody only serves to provide increased exposure 
     to Starbucks. A well executed parody without an author
     will provide no alternate context to the premise of the
     joke. If there is any meaning or theme to the parody, 
     the audience can barely guess at what it should be, if
     the intent of the performer cannot be discerned.

  6. Hypothesis: The "Dumb" shop will only stay open for as 
     long as the minor local news publicity lasts. It's 
     there only to make people use the word "Starbucks" as 
     frequently as possible, in as many sound bites as       
     possible, trigger some water cooler conversation for 
     about a week (word of mouth buzz), and then die.

Given the location of this particular business, in the middle a neighborhood densely populated by hip and wealthy show-business professionals, it's quite possible that the whoever is running it knows exactly what they're doing legally.

Odds are quite heavy it's some sort of art project / prank.