CaféPress.com: don’t want our FREE THE MP 3 tees at RunningWithBulls.com

CaféPress.com: don’t want our FREE THE MP 3 tees

Published by bbt February 23rd, 2006 in apple, bernard, runningwithbulls.com

[UPDATE]:

Below is the e-mail I have sent to CaféPress. I have gotten a reply from CaféPress, but nothing too useful yet. I’ll see what happens tomorrow.

Michele Neylon and ArseBlogger (actually about soccer ) have suggested DangerHere.com, and SpreadShirt.ie.

Lets see what happens, but I fear its all a little silly really!

Anyone got any insider info in CaféPress? Maybe they don’t see the funny side, or as Damien says, I guess they don’t want to get shafted by Apple buldo^^^legal department.

—–BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE—–
Hash: SHA1

Hi there,

Thank you for you e-mail regarding my images on CaféPress.com.

Firstly, let me say that I think CaféPress is an excellent site. I have used it so many times in the past, and will continue to use it in the future.

The images that I currently have on my CaféPress shop are being used for t-shirts, which will be sold with 100% of the profits going to ireland’s Digital Citizen Rights group, Digital Rights Ireland (you can see them here: www.dri.ie) of which I am a supporter.

The t-shirts are to, hopefully, be part of a campaign to bring awareness to the Irish music listeners who use iPods, and other digital music player devices, that the Irish law says that, if you copy music to your iPod or digital music player devices, *even* if you own a copy of the CD, original format in which it came, you are technically braking the law.

My reasoning for using the iPod is that it is synonymous with digital music today.
My intentions are not to, in anyway, cast dispersions on Apple, and iPods in general.

Quite the opposite: to bring awareness to the Irish people, that currently they are potentially felons, as this ridiculous law shows.

I would look forward to your reply.

thanks in advance,
bernard tyers

—–BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE—–
Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (Darwin)

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—–END PGP SIGNATURE—–

Original:

So, I have some great artwork for the iDON’T steal music, do I? t-shirts I mentioned a while ago.

So far I have three great images that, at the moment I am getting onto t-shirts via CaféPress.com, or so I thought until yesterday evening, when I received the e-mail below:

======
Received: from ws25 (Not Verified[192.168.1.91]) by mail4.cafepress.com with NetIQ MailMarshal (v6,0,3,8)
id ; Wed, 22 Feb 2006 10:25:41 -0800
From: “CafePress.com Content Usage Policy”
To:
Subject: Pending Images in Media Basket
Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2006 10:25:41 -0800

Dear Shopkeeper,

Thank you for using CafePress.com!

As you may know, CafePress.com provides a service to a rich and vibrant
community of international users. From time to time, we review the
content in our shopkeepers accounts to confirm that the content being
used in connection with the sale of products are in compliance with our
policies, including our Content Usage Policy (CUP).

We recently learned that your CafePress.com account contains material
which may not be in compliance with our policies. Specifically,
designing, manufacturing, marketing and/or selling products that may
infringe the rights of a third party, including, copyrights (e.g., an
image of a television cartoon character), trademarks (e.g., the logo of
a company), “rights in gross” (e.g., the exclusive right of the U.S.
Olympic Committee to use the “Olympic Rings”), and rights of privacy and
publicity (e.g., a photo of a celebrity) are prohibited.

Accordingly, we have set the content that we believe to be questionable
to “pending status” which disables said content from being displayed in
your shop or purchased by the public.

You may review the content set to pending status by logging into your
CafePress.com account and clicking on the “Media Basket” link. The
content set to pending status will be highlighted red.

Please visit our Content Usage Policy (CUP) for additional information
regarding your use of the CafePress.com service. Once there, you may
access our Copyright, Trademark & Intellectual Property Guidelines and
FAQ’s for more detailed
information regarding Intellectual Property Rights.

We apologize for any inconvenience that the removal of your content may
have caused you. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

Sincerely,

Content Usage Associate
CafePress.com
CUP@cafepress.com

========

Now, since they have disabled the images from being live, I can’t really show them..but, yes they all do contain artwork with iPod shapes on them, or the word “iPod” on them.

Now fair enough, if I was knocking Apple and the iPod, then they have a point. But its quiet the opposite. I have bought 3 iPods, my family own two iPods. I know plenty of people who own iPods.

I like iPods.

Anyway, I have replied to the “Content Usage Associate at CafePress.com” and I will wait and see what they say.

Kinda strange.

Anyone have any thoughts?

Technorati Tags:
digital right ireland, DRI, IRMA, ireland, irish, irish blogs, cafepress, cafepress.com, legal, apple, ipod, runningwithbulls.com

10 Responses to “CaféPress.com: don’t want our FREE THE MP 3 tees”

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1 Michele Feb 23rd, 2006 at 9:14 pm

A European alternative probably wouldn’t have those kind of TOS (though they may do). Have a look at:
http://blacknight.ie/custom_t-shirts.0.html

They’re all produced in Germany, so the cost of postage is significantly lower and they also have a US version if you are targetting that market

HTH

Michele
2 arseblogger Feb 23rd, 2006 at 10:55 pm

Get in touch with the guy who runs www.dangerhere.com

He was putting together a more Ireland/UK version of Cafe Press a while back.
3 MJ Feb 24th, 2006 at 8:35 am

Well, you kinda brought it on yourself. iPod is an aggressively trademarked word and the iPod shape is probably subject to some BS-trademark as well. If you used the word iPod, then yeah, you’re infringing on a trademark.

I don’t quite understand why you need to take a pot shot at the iPod or use it as your poster child for your anti-DRM movement. iPod and iTunes, to my mind, address the best compromise. They permit you to listen to DRM free music if you like (loaded from CDs, culled from artists who give their stuff away, home created) and for those people who CHOOSE to use the iTMS, they can!

Compare that to the first (and only) “MP3″ player I owned which was a Thomson Lyra. It forced me to import my music to some sort of incompatible WMA format which only played on the Lyra. Now that’s a hunk of junk right there.
4 Tom Raftery Feb 24th, 2006 at 9:27 am

I am not a lawyer Bernard but the word iPod is trademarked and can’t be used for commercial purposes (even if the purpose if to help out DRI) without Apple’s express permission.

The shape, I doubt if it can be trademarked - talk to some of the DRI guys - they should be able to advise you here.
5 Damien Mulley Feb 24th, 2006 at 10:02 am

MJ, I think it is more the fact that it is illegal to move your music on to your iPod in Ireland, making anyone that follows iTunes’ “rip and play” marketing into a person who breaks the law.
6 bbt Feb 24th, 2006 at 11:18 am

MJ:

Well its not that I brought it on myself. I understood the consequences of it before I started.
Like I said, if I was bad mouthing Apple and iPods, then sure, fire away.

But I was using the iPod because it was synonymous with digital music today.

I can quiet easily, change the word iPod to MP3 Player, and the redesign the iPod image..but it seems a little too heavy handed.

Yes, I guess tha Cafepress don’t want to get the wrath of Apple brought down on them..Pity.

Tom:

This is not commercial. Its purely charitable. Aopparently the shape *can be trademarked* (at least inthe US), under Trade Dress Rights, as explained in CafePress’s mail:

“Trade Dress protects the “total image” of a product, which can include the color scheme of the packaging, the arrangement of certain elements in a design, and the overall shape “silhouette” of the product. For example, the use of the shape of the Heinz ketchup bottle is problematic for similarly infringing on the Heinz corporations trade dress rights.”

Damien:

This is another reason why I used the iPod. If you buy everything from iTMS, and use your iPod then your happy. Like you said, you actually owning the original media it came on doesn’t seem to make a blind bit of difference.

Anyway, I am going to continue talking with CafePress and see if this can be worked out. Lets see
7 Simon McGarr Feb 24th, 2006 at 11:47 am

I’d suggest not bothering with CafePress and moving on to someone who will print your stuff. There is little point trying to pursuade a company that you fall outside their terms and conditions if they’ve already decided you don’t.

Its a bit like trying to argue with nightclub bouncers. They’re never going to go “you know, I never thought of it like that.” Better just to go to the next nightclub along.

Or, really, go home and have a nice cup of cocoa and listen to Lyric FM.
8 Why? May 5th, 2006 at 11:42 am

why are you even entertaining this discussion? no one is getting arrested for using their legally purchased music on their ipods. i don’t care what arcane law exists concerning this. it simply won’t happen…

it’s like the law: if youre carrying your passport without intent to travel abroad, youre commiting a crime. ive never heard of anyone arrested for this…
9 Why? May 5th, 2006 at 11:43 am

Fuck moderation.