Barney the purple dinosaur may sing about how much he loves you, but his corporate masters don’t care much for Stuart Frankel.

Lyons Partnership sent four threatening letters to a New York musicologist and computer repair technician who created a parody website that suggests Barney’s affable public persona masks a secret double life. An image on the site depicts what the cute and cuddly Barney might look like offstage — with horns, sharp teeth, a pentagram and the devilish number 666 emblazoned on his chest.

Lyons last week dropped its claims against Frankel after he fought back with the help of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The technology advocacy group assisted Frankel in filing a lawsuit accusing Barney’s creators of using its copyrights and trademarks to curb free speech.

“It’s not much, but it’s mine. They’re acting like bullies. They’re doing this to other people, I’m sure,” Frankel said. “I just wanted to call them on it.”

Legal experts say the case is an example of a growing assault on fair use rights. Fair use is the legal doctrine that allows copyrighted work to be used as part of a parody — so long as it’s used for noncommercial purposes, its use is limited to conjuring up the subject of the satire and it doesn’t replace the market for the original.

An out-of-court settlement was reached Nov. 21. Under the terms of the agreement, Lyons agreed to pay Frankel $5,000 and promised not to sue or make threats against Frankel or his Internet service provider.

I think we all realize the importance and priority of “big” issues now that there is an opportunity to fight for positive change in the new Congress, next year. And, yes, we all realize the crowd in DC is still overwhelmingly professional politicians — with every negative that implies.

Still — the whole range of issues shoved aside by Washington’s corporate culture in recent years can be returned to the table. The time is at hand to escalate the fight to return Fair Use to the American public.