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…

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.

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

The shape, I doubt if it can be trademarked - talk to some of the DRI guys - they should be able to advise you here.

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.

He was putting together a more Ireland/UK version of Cafe Press a while back.