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Followthereaper90
WP REAPER
Joined: Apr 30, 2008
Age: 19
Posts: 1678
Location: finland
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 Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 2:24 pm Post subject: |
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 i wonder why they claim to defent autism if they dont want that kind notices they should stop offering curing 
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followthereaper until its time to make a turn,
followthereaper until point of no return-children of bodom-follow the reaper |
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0_equals_true
Genuine Charlatan
Joined: Apr 06, 2007
Age: 27
Posts: 6992
Location: London
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| Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 2:35 pm Post subject: |
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Ok good work. I think that zazzle is trying to are trying to avoid a lawsuit as suspected. However they can remove anything as they like. Zazzle aren't worth your time. So personally I would find somewhere else to put you product on, possibly shopping around for sites that stand up to this kind of nonsense such as an existing advocacy sites, or host it yourself. You are allowed to publish photos and produce this shirt. All Autism Speaks is doing is using legalese to try and scare parties into taking this down. They haven't filed anything, I don't believe they have grounds to otherwise they would have tried to contact you directly.
I would consider writing to a couple of broad sheet newspapers in the US and aboard. If they pick this up this could be a boost to your cause. Also supply the history of Autism Speaks using SLAP tactics.
I don't think this is a good tactic for Autism Speaks, it probably will backfire badly for them. Mc Donald's didn't come out of the Mc Libel very well PR wise, and this is a much clearer judgment. |
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n4mwd
Phoenix
Joined: Jun 08, 2008
Posts: 707
Location: Palm Beach, FL
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| Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 3:50 pm Post subject: |
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| AspieZach wrote: |
I don't own a federally registered copyright on the slogan... so what you said is not applicable. |
It doesn't have to be a registered copyright. All you need to do is send them a letter like this...
<Your unique text> Copyright 2008 by AspieZach All Rights Reserved.
And that makes it copyrighted under the law. You can register it if you want, but that will cost you an extra $30 or so when you file it with the copyright office. The only problem is that it might be too short for them to accept it. In that case, you need to look into a trademark. It doesn't have to be registered either.
A non-registered trademark is postfixed with "TM" whereas a registered trademark is postfixed with "R" in a little circle.
The bottom line is that these Autism Speaks people are bullying you and I hate bullies. They are clearly trying to intimidate you into stopping. Its up to you as to whether you give in or not.
It would get a lot more interesting if the news media was involved. |
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alex
Developer
Joined: Jun 14, 2004
Age: 23
Posts: 6492
Location: DC Metro Area (No. VA)
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TheZach
Velociraptor
Joined: Aug 11, 2007
Posts: 445
Location: Michigan, USA
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| Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2008 11:18 am Post subject: |
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Thanks yoiu sir
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TheZach
<a href="http://www.thezach.net/blog">My Blog</a> |
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GreatCeleryStalk
Velociraptor
Joined: Mar 19, 2008
Age: 26
Posts: 492
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| Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2008 2:27 pm Post subject: |
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You'll probably regard this as another pessimistic post and ignore it, but I'll give it a shot anyhow. You are not being sued by Austism Speaks. You chose to use a third-party provider to sell and print your T-shirts. The merchant you use for that purpose was served with a DMCA takedown notice--you were not.
Zazzle chose to remove your content rather than risk a lawsuit from Autism Speaks over your shirt. Your use of the phrase 'Austism Speaks' was protected under the First Amendment, but Zazzle is under no obligation to keep you as a customer; if they were sued over your product, they would likely lose money. It's in their best financial interest to remove your content and risk losing you as a customer.
You may be able to file a DMCA counter-notice against Autism Speaks, because you did not violate their intellectual property rights in any way. You did not use their name, logo, service or trade marks in any way that could confuse your site, or Zazzle for that matter, with Autism Speaks.
They're using DMCA notices to harass you precisely because they know you're unlikely to know how to fight back. You would have investigated filing a DMCA counter notice if you did, and as you haven't I can only assume my assumption is correct.
The counter-notice would do a lot more than posting yet another whinge about Autism Speaks on an Autism-friendly site. We all know Autism Speaks doesn't have our best interests in mind. They don't advocate for Autistics; they advocate for people who are affected by Autistics.
If you aren't able to file a counter-notice, you can look in to other options:
Find another merchant to print and sell your shirts for you.
Have them printed and sell them directly. This way, Autism Speaks would have to deal directly with you. |
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TheZach
Velociraptor
Joined: Aug 11, 2007
Posts: 445
Location: Michigan, USA
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| Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 1:21 am Post subject: |
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I have decided to shut down AspieWeb completley for the time being, a message has been posted as to why.
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TheZach
<a href="http://www.thezach.net/blog">My Blog</a> |
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_BRI_
Snowy Owl
Joined: Apr 29, 2008
Posts: 158
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| Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 2:51 am Post subject: |
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| zach, you should live your life to get the most out of it and whoever pieces you off and drives you down does not desserve a minute of your attention. |
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TheZach
Velociraptor
Joined: Aug 11, 2007
Posts: 445
Location: Michigan, USA
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Diamonddavej
Phoenix
Joined: Jun 24, 2005
Posts: 500
Location: Ireland
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| Posted: Sun Jun 22, 2008 5:17 pm Post subject: |
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Your T-shirt contains a Protest Statement that is defended by free speech, it is not an advertisement, so it does not infringe trademarks or copyrights.
e.g. This protester has a placard that incorporates McDonald's trademarked name and image - McDonald's cannot sue him, as it is a protest statement not an advertisement! He is not trying to make money by pretending to be McDonald's.
A Protest Statement is not an advertisement |
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NDjustsayno
Emu Egg
Joined: Jan 03, 2008
Posts: 8
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| Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 11:40 am Post subject: |
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I just contacted Dana Marnay at the communications department at autism speaks and she says that zazzle felt that Zach was violating their terms of service for some reason and that Autism Speaks DID NOT CONTACT ZAZZLE IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM The decision to pull Zach's ads were apparently a unilateral decision on the part of Zazzle. The letter Zach claiming constitutes proof certainly does not prove autism speaks contacted Zazzle. Someone is not telling the truth here. Assuming Zach is an honest person maybe someone at Zazzle was giving Zach the business and not telling him the truth for some reason.
Seems all the anti-cure neurodiversity people want to villify autism speaks without allowing them to tell their side of the story. |
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Nexus
Phoenix
Joined: Aug 15, 2006
Posts: 622
Location: Moved to ZOMG Aspies
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| Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 12:02 pm Post subject: |
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| NDjustsayno wrote: | I just contacted Dana Marnay at the communications department at autism speaks and she says that zazzle felt that Zach was violating their terms of service for some reason and that Autism Speaks DID NOT CONTACT ZAZZLE IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM The decision to pull Zach's ads were apparently a unilateral decision on the part of Zazzle. The letter Zach claiming constitutes proof certainly does not prove autism speaks contacted Zazzle. Someone is not telling the truth here. Assuming Zach is an honest person maybe someone at Zazzle was giving Zach the business and not telling him the truth for some reason.
Seems all the anti-cure neurodiversity people want to villify autism speaks without allowing them to tell their side of the story. |
I doubt that, because Zazzle would not waste it's time cracking down on all "infringements" unless it's contacted by the organization complaining about it or someone dobbed him in (and who would other than someone affiliated with Autism Speaks would actually give enough s*** to report him?). It would tax too much resources and time, to manually check all their clients and products for such things for the sake of it. Not to mention I doubt Zazzle staff would have known 'Autism Speaks' is a registered organization name until they were informed about it in some way.
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alex
Developer
Joined: Jun 14, 2004
Age: 23
Posts: 6492
Location: DC Metro Area (No. VA)
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| Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 12:49 pm Post subject: |
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| Nexus wrote: |
I doubt that, because Zazzle would not waste it's time cracking down on all 'infringements' unless it's contacted by the organization complaining about it or someone dobbed him in (and who would other than someone affiliated with Autism Speaks would actually give enough s*** to report him?). It would tax too much resources and time, to manually check all their clients and products for such things for the sake of it. Not to mention I doubt Zazzle staff would have known 'Autism Speaks' is a registered organization name until they were informed about it in some way. |
That's generally the way it works. Online websites like zazzle that allow users to publish things do not police copyright until they get an email from the copyright holder requesting them to take down the material. This is the nature of the DMCA.
Online service providers are not legally liable for infringements due to the fact that they don't police the content themselves. Zazzle would be opening itself up to a lot of legal liabilities and problems if they began to actively engage in evaluating copyright.
Zach could make a DMCA counterclaim if he wanted to get his content back. Really, Zazzle isn't the group that was accused of copyright infringement by autism speaks. Zach was because Zazzle is just a service provider. |
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alex
Developer
Joined: Jun 14, 2004
Age: 23
Posts: 6492
Location: DC Metro Area (No. VA)
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| Posted: Mon Jun 23, 2008 12:54 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
I just contacted Dana Marnay at the communications department at autism speaks and she says that zazzle felt that Zach was violating their terms of service for some reason and that Autism Speaks DID NOT CONTACT ZAZZLE IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM |
That's the standard response for a PR deparment to make regardless of what happened. The communications department does not communicate with the legal department so they can deny things and not be 'lying' due to ignorance of the legal deparments' actions. I doubt Dana knows anything about what the legal department did or didn't do. |
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asperience
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
Joined: Nov 10, 2006
Posts: 64
Location: San Francisco Bay Area.
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| Posted: Thu Jun 26, 2008 10:35 pm Post subject: |
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I believe you have the right to a copy of the DMCA takedown notice, which should have the full contact info of whoever contacted zazzle. I suppose it's possible some prankster did it, but it seems more likely that there's just miscommunication going on over at Autism Speaks.
At any rate, do file a DMCA counternotice if you want to get the original shirt reinstated as efficiently as possible. It's just a simple document saying you swear this is not copyright violation. |
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