Spoofing diamond company De Beers is nothing new. There are sexual innuendo spoofs, physical brutality spoofs, and the social consciousness spoofs, all executed reasonably well and without the cost of an advertising agency's copywriter coming up with cutesy ways to say "spend two month's salary on this blood rock."

Then there's the De Beers spoof that appeared in that awesome, and well received, New York Times spoof from The Yes Men, which enlisted the help of others to come up with a mock daily announcing all the types of change we can believe in. The Times brushed off the attention with nary a response (though they did cover it with admiration).

But De Beers? Well with billions of dollars hinged on a brand concept that's terribly transparent — essentially, "a shiny stone that catches the light just so is worth going in to debt for" — they haven't taken it so well. And they're demanding a retraction.

A retraction, we might add, from a fake newspaper.

Okay, not a retraction, but a removal from Switzerland-based Joker.com, which is hosting the faux newspaper at www.nytimes-se.com.

What are they so upset with? Well, this, from the spoof ad: "Your purchase of a diamond will enable us to donate a prosthetic for an African whose hand was lost in diamond conflicts." This is funny because, as MediaPost notes, "a revolutionary group in Sierra Leone, known for carrying out civilian amputations, funded itself by selling diamonds."

On the face of it, it appears De Beers has no case. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is coming to the rescue, firing off an equally assertive letter to the diamond company that reads, "First and foremost, there is no trademark infringement here. The spoof advertisement to which De Beers objects is just that–a clearly parodic ad on a clearly parodic website."

Alas, diamonds, and not comedy, are a girl's best friend.