Autism Speaks Going Legal Action on Me
Ichinin
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Joined: 3 Apr 2009
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Posts: 3,653
Location: A cold place with lots of blondes.
Hint: DMCA wasn't put there to protect corporations from free speech (or to try to enforce some lame security barrier in iPhones). You can still criticise in text, but you cannot use logotypes that are trademarked. Get a lawyer to explain it to you.
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"It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring" (Carl Sagan)
Firstly, IANAL. Howrever I have followed a number of "intellectual property" IP (I hate that term) cases and I think I have an understanding of some of the issues.
There are three types of IP. Trade Marks, Copyright and Patents.
Trade Marks allow you to own a term, like Coke, or WongPlanet or even "Autism Speaks". However, to protect your trademark it must first be registered and you must mention where it is used that it is a trade mark by using the (TM) or (R) symbols. It's intended to protect the brand of a product, like Coke. For example if I was to marked my product "Coke Light", I think that Coca Cola might have a legitimate complaint. However if I wrote "Coke (tm) Makes Me Sad", Coca Cola would not have any right to stop this use. In your case, you wrote "'Autism Speaks' can go away. I have Autism. I can speak for myself". There you clearly refer to 'Autism Speaks' which may or may not be trade marked, however you are not challenging the mark, you are referring to them just as would be intended in an article. Since 'Autism Speaks' does not protect their own trade mark with the (TM) designations, I can't see why you should either but you'd need to get some help here.
Secondly, copyright is intended for creative works. For the words 'Autism Speaks' to be a creative work it would need to be somewhat unique. Good luck proving that. Ok, let's assue absurdity for one moment and assume that 'Autirm Speaks' is copyright. You have a right in the USA to 'fair use', and specifically for the purposes as you have used, as a comment. I find it hard to understand how you could violate copyright.
Thridly, patents. Suffice to say, the patent holder needs to have submitted some patent application and provided some kind of invention. Ok, that's absurd too.
It sounds as if this is a frivolous DMCA claim by 'Autism Speaks'. If it is you should try to get help from EFF, but it's clear that using the DMCA to suppress free speech is a serious issue and you should take a few moments to learn about it and I hope you take the time to fight them. The more people fight frivolous DMCA claims the better we all are.
If I were you I would:
a) Record every conversation you have with Zazzle or 'Autism Speaks', date, time, persons name and nature of discussion.
b) Send a nice letter to Zazzle asking if they could provide me with the letter of complaint from 'Autism Speaks' and saying that I have no knowledge of copyright violation in my work and more specifically that I intend to pursue any such accusations legally if they are unfounded and malicious. I would give them a time frame to respond. I would kake sure they get receipt, either a registered letter or a confirmation via email.
c) If I get a response and if there is a legitimate complaint, I would deal with it.
d) If the complaint turns out to be a "DMCA Takedown" I would challenge it based on the unlikliness of there being an infringement.
e) If the complaint is non specific I would complain to Zazzle. I might consider raising a disability discrimination claim.
I find it a little strange that Zazzle would be involved in a DMCA takedown as I'm not sure they would be classified as a "service provider".
In any case, there are quite a number of things that can and should be done about this. Frivolous DMCA takedowns are rampant and toxic and they need to be stamped out where possible. The web does contain a large amount of information about this.
Don't request removal of their items unless the items contain infringing materials. You really don't want to be seen filing false claims yourself.
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