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Censorship Businesses

Best Buy Hands Out Cease & Desist Letters for Christmas 332

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the no-press-like-bad-press dept.
arrenlex writes "Improv Everywhere, a NY-based comedy group, was served a Cease & Desist notice by Best Buy for selling 'improv everywhere' shirts modeled after the blue Best Buy uniform. But that's not the interesting part. From the blog post: 'Here's where the story gets interesting. Today, Best Buy sent a C&D to our friend Scott Beale over at laughingsquid.com threatening legal action unless he removes the blog post referencing our shirts! They're threatening to sue someone for just covering the news story of the shirts!'"
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Best Buy Hands Out Cease & Desist Letters for Christmas More

Best Buy Hands Out Cease & Desist Letters for Christmas

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  • Are they going to go after the T.V. Show "Chuck" ? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by tmroyster ( 309750 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @04:58PM (#21676271)
    Buy More is such a rip of Best Buy.

  • Fuck Them (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MistaE ( 776169 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @04:58PM (#21676273) Homepage
    No court in a million years would honor a C&D sent to a news site covering a news story in good faith. This is what Fair Use is all about, regardless of which Intellectual Property we're talking about.

    In fact, this is the kind of shit I want to see taken to court in the hopes that a judge will give punitive damages to the company that abused the C&D.

    • Re:Fuck Them (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anne_Nonymous ( 313852 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @05:02PM (#21676331) Homepage Journal
      >> punitive damages to the company

      Yeah! I hope the lose their shirts.

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by Lunatrik ( 1136121 )
        Geek Squad: Topless edition! Pornography everywhere... oh, wait, too late :)

      • Re:Fuck Them (Score:5, Informative)

        by JPriest ( 547211 ) on Thursday December 13, 2007 @01:44AM (#21680489) Homepage
        Laughingsquid posted an update [laughingsquid.com]. Best Buy Apologized for the C&D.


        It isn't like BB sent it in error though, here is a quote from Laughingsquid's original C&D post:

        "One thing I wanted to mention is that before posting this C & D letter, I called the Best Buy attorney who sent it to confirm that they really meant to send it to a blogger who was just reporting on another blog post. They insisted that I was "promoting, not reporting" and that the demand letter was valid."

    • Re:Fuck Them (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @05:03PM (#21676343)

      In fact, this is the kind of shit I want to see taken to court in the hopes that a judge will give punitive damages to the company that abused the C&D.
      Who knows? It might be that Best Buy will send a C&D to Slashdot for covering the website that was covering the shirt. Or even worse, they'll send it for the dupe!

      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by sepluv ( 641107 )
        ...or maybe arrenlex is the codename of a Best Buy employee who submitted it to /. to bring down the site without legal action. Best Buy will now inform the owners that the DOS attack will only be stopped when all mention of their shirts is removed.

        There are no Best Buy shirts.

    • Re:Fuck Them (Score:5, Informative)

      by Apple Acolyte ( 517892 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @05:05PM (#21676383)
      Courts don't honor C&D letters. C&Ds are sent to meet the requirement of giving notice to a party before filing suit against said party. You may be thinking of an injunction.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by MistaE ( 776169 )
        Yeah that's what I was thinking. I should have said that I hope that a court would find the C&D lacking proper notice (coupled with the lack of any actual pleading) to such an effect that they would immediately grant summary judgment on an injunction hearing for the defendant.

      • Re:Fuck Them (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Spazmania ( 174582 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @07:16PM (#21677927) Homepage
        Courts do indeed "honor" cease and desist letters. As you point out, they do it by entering an injunction against the recipient upon the request of the sender. And as the OP pointed out, no US court would find fault or enter an injunction in the described circumstances, at least not if the defendant bothered to show up.

        Letting tech folks like ourselves get tied up in the legal process details can lead to errors in judgment. We think, "Technically I did X, not Y so I'm not really guilty." Baloney. Put it in front of a judge and the response is generally, "Your actions speak for themselves. Stop wasting my time."

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by neoform ( 551705 )
      I believe the constitution is quite clear on the whole 'freedom of the press' type thing. Reporting on any current event, even in bad faith is quite legal.

      • Re:Fuck Them (Score:4, Insightful)

        by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @05:16PM (#21676559)
        I believe the constitution is quite clear on the whole 'freedom of the press' type thing

        Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; ...
        The First Amendment has nothing to do with individuals or corporations abridging the freedom of the press, just the Government.

        • Re:Fuck Them (Score:5, Informative)

          by networkBoy ( 774728 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @05:21PM (#21676653) Journal
          We've had this argument before:

          You host can censor you. While possibly unfair, that is not a breach of the first amendment.
          Someone can pay you to remove content. Assuming you consent to the "bribe" that is not a breach of the first amendment.
          Someone can *not* sue you for speech, as that uses the courts(a branch of the government) to silence you, and that is prohibited by the first amendment.
          -nB

          • Re:Fuck Them (Score:5, Informative)

            by jonadab ( 583620 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @06:45PM (#21677691) Homepage Journal
            > Someone can *not* sue you for speech, as that uses the courts (a branch
            > of the government) to silence you, and that is prohibited by the first amendment.

            This is incorrect. Someone *can* sue you for speech, or try to at any rate. Whether they'll get anywhere depends on various stuff. For instance, if they can make a coherent argument that your speech might be considered libelous, they'll probably be able to successfully drag you through the courts, and if they can make a _convincing_ argument that your speech _is_ libelous, they can potentially win the case. Libel is not the only kind of speech that they can successfully sue you for, either. Copyright and trademark violations are another example. Fraud is another (and one you can even be prosecuted for criminally, though generally you only will be if you cost the victims something tangible).

            When the first amendment says "speech" and "press", it is, in context, clearly talking chiefly about political expression, not absolutely anything that anyone could ever say or write.

        • Re:Fuck Them (Score:5, Insightful)

          by tommertron ( 640180 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @05:25PM (#21676715) Homepage Journal
          Yes, but that means that corporations can't go to court to get someone to stop staying something they don't like, because the court is a part of the government, and that would mean the government is abridging someone's free speech. Best Buy is entirely within its rights to kick you off its own property for criticizing them or pretty much saying anything they don't like, but they're not allowed to go knocking on your door and telling you not to say something. Well, I guess they're allowed to, but you don't have to obey them by law.

      • Re:Fuck Them (Score:5, Funny)

        by Stanislav_J ( 947290 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @05:27PM (#21676733)

        I believe the constitution is quite clear on the whole 'freedom of the press' type thing.

        The Constitution? Is that thing still around?

    • Best Buy apologizes to laughingsquid.com (Score:5, Informative)

      by Bananatree3 ( 872975 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @05:34PM (#21676843)
      looks like Best Buy has apologized to Laughing squid for this [laughingsquid.com]

      They are still militant against the blue shirts, though. (rolls eyes)

    • I alread recieved a C&D notice form myself to stop the unjustifiwed spending of REAL MONEY at Best Buy. One Bate and Switch experience, and one laserprinter that stopped workign before the first ream. Cheaper web based merchants will now have all my business,. Soon the big boxes right after the blow out, out of business sale, will become the latest paint ball arenas and blue shirts will be in fashion once again.

  • What is Best Buy thinking? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by log1385 ( 1199377 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @05:00PM (#21676291)
    Honestly, what does Best Buy have to lose if they let someone print shirts that look like their shirts? All they're going to get is bad publicity by asking these guys to C&D. Even worse, they're trying to keep the story off of the internet, which is impossible, as evidenced by the fact that it is here on /.

    • Re:What is Best Buy thinking? (Score:5, Funny)

      by __aaclcg7560 ( 824291 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @05:08PM (#21676447)
      They don't want someone wearing the shirt to enter the store to pretend to be an employee. The customer might think they're getting excellent customer service from an imposter.

      • Re:What is Best Buy thinking? (Score:4, Funny)

        by GwaihirBW ( 1155487 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @05:23PM (#21676687)
        Heh. So true.

        However, you don't need the shirt to pull that off . . . I get asked if I'm a manager (or people assume that and launch straight into asking a store question) at virtually every large store in which I shop. I have on several occasions now had *employees* assume I was a manager. It's kinda amusing when the aisle you're in turns into a helpdesk . . . (I do tell people "actually, no, I don't work here" but then do my best to answer their question, as I often can)

        • Re:What is Best Buy thinking? (Score:4, Funny)

          by SargentDU ( 1161355 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @05:57PM (#21677165)
          Did you stay at Holiday Express the night before? :)

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by Larry Lightbulb ( 781175 )
          My standard work 'uniform' used to be a white shirt, plain tie, suit and photo ID name tag. It was almost guaranteed that people would assume I was a manager at almost any store I went into.

        • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

          by realthing02 ( 1084767 )
          Do you often wear wrinkled khakis and a slightly large button down shirt?

          Just kidding, Every time i wear a red shirt at target, i always get asked questions by customers. God i wish they'd leave me alone and let me stand around for another 8 hours.

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by alshithead ( 981606 )
          "However, you don't need the shirt to pull that off . . . I get asked if I'm a manager (or people assume that and launch straight into asking a store question) at virtually every large store in which I shop."

          Dude, it most sooo suck looking like a retail manager. That's almost as bad as looking like a burger flipper. I'm glad I THINK I look like someone about to go postal. My wife thinks I'm cute and don't look like the nerd that I am. Hmmm...book, cover, and judging seem to fit here somehow.

      • The customer might think they're getting excellent customer service from an imposter.

        In fact this already happened. They had like 50 people standing around a Best Buy in these shirts and kakhi pants. Please note that if you ever get excellent customer service from Best Buy it is probably from an imposter since Best Buy only employs Frat Boys and Thiefs both of which know only one thing each. That is how to drink a lot and pick up women on shift for the former and how to steal in new and creative ways for

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by __aaclcg7560 ( 824291 )
          This box was later sold to somebody at full price. They took it back and were refused a refund.

          During the holiday season at Wal-Mart, I see people buy these huge TV sets that can't possibly fit into their little car and discard the boxes in the parking lot. I'm not surprised if someone tried to return the box and the store didn't check the actual contents.
          • No, the store always checks the contents. That is why the refund was refused. This is just another day at Best Buy with their "employee shrink" in effect. Best Buy employs more criminals then most Drug Cartels.
      • Slashdot needs a MOD +1 RIMSHOT

        seriously....
    • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect [wikipedia.org]

      First words out of my mouth would be .... Streisand Effect. Which is directly the result of ignorance or idiocy. Typical of Dilbertized Corporations.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by KevinKnSC ( 744603 )

      Honestly, what does Best Buy have to lose if they let someone print shirts that look like their shirts?

      What they have to lose is their trademark on the "price tag" logo they've been using for years. If a trademark isn't defended, it can become diluted and unenforceable, like "Aspirin." It's the same as Adobe wanting you to say "modified with Adobe Photoshop software" instead of "photoshopped." It's silly, not unlike most of the legal system.

      Now, what they have to lose if someone covers the story on their blog is a different question, so we now return you to the main point of this story.

  • Slashdot is next (Score:3, Funny)

    by webmaster404 ( 1148909 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @05:00PM (#21676305)
    So, if this trend continues, \. will get a C&D order for the "broken windows" icon for MS related stories.
  • Tell them to cease and desist from existing.

    Anyone can sue anyone for anything, might as well tell sue them right back.
  • Wordpress died before there were even 2 comments on the page. Ouch!

    Hooray! Let loose the hordes of slashdotties -- no need to RTFA, as you couldn't even if you tried!

  • What about Chuck? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by PingXao ( 153057 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @05:01PM (#21676323)
    The American TV show, "Chuck", features a young guy who works at "Buy More", which is clearly a ripoff of BB. I don't watch the show but my girlfriend had it on one night and called my attention to "Buy More" and asked if it reminded me of someplace. Change BB's color blue to green and voila! Buy More.

    But that's OK for them to do that on national TV and get away with it on a weekly and ongoing basis. The reason is probably that the people who run and work at BB are infinitely more incompetent than the people who work at the fictional Buy More.

    • Change BB's color blue to green and voila! Buy More.
      If you change a certain percentage of a logo it's considered not protected. Also, it may fall under parody. But why fight it if people think their geek squad is secret agents or some such nonsense?
    • Fox has big time lawyers who would smack BB down and be able to make a huge deal about it. Normal citizens don't have/can't afford the legal teams that can assure Fox TV that it wouldn't stand up in court so don't worry about it, nor can they easily get their word out the way say, Fox can.

  • Why not? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Linux_ho ( 205887 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @05:02PM (#21676333) Homepage
    Best Buy long ago alienated all customers who watch the news and refuse to shop at businesses which regularly practice sleazy business tactics. I doubt this bad PR will affect their business at all. Nobody who cares about stuff like this has shopped at Best Buy for years.

  • Don't estimate. Litigate! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by TheLazySci-FiAuthor ( 1089561 ) <thelazyscifiauthor@gmail.com> on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @05:03PM (#21676365) Homepage Journal
    How can companies run like this? IN my mind I see this as a big waste of effort and money on Best Buy's part. This wasted money would have to translate into Best Buy's bottom line, and thus affect we, the consumers as higher overall prices.

    I've worked in the corporate world long enough to know that departments and other corporate entities show amazing survival instincts - but the legal departments of these mammoth companies are certainly the most predatory. Really, they must drum-up this kind of litigation.

    I wonder if there was even any kind of financial-impact analysis or at least some kind of brand image analysis presented to the board prior to sending these notices. I would guess that the legal department simply sends them out under the "it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission" assumption.
    • This wasted money would have to translate into Best Buy's bottom line, and thus affect we, the consumers as higher overall prices.

      Despite its stupidity, a C&D costs very little, particularly the size of Best Buy. Now, it's caught them some negative publicity, but I think that negative publicity is mainly going out to the BB haters anyway.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by misleb ( 129952 )

      How can companies run like this? IN my mind I see this as a big waste of effort and money on Best Buy's part.

      Once you've gotten to the point of having full time lawyers (and I'm sure a company the size of Best Buy has many), doing shit like this becomes second nature. I mean, if you've got the manpower, presumably salaried, you can have them do whatever you want as long as it fits in their 9 to 5 work day and not "waste" anything. WHo knows, maybe they just had some downtime in legal and the lawyers got

    • > How can companies run like this? IN my mind I see this as a big waste of effort and money on Best Buy's part. This wasted money would have to translate into Best Buy's bottom line, and thus affect we, the consumers as higher overall prices.

      One minor nitpick here. If BB could charge another $2.50 for a DVD without losing the equivalent sales, they would regardless of their costs. The price any retail store charges has -nothing- to do with what their cost for the item is.

      One more time: their cost has

  • Are you sure.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by rambag ( 961763 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @05:05PM (#21676379)
    that the C&D came from a Best Buy lawyer or just someone in Besy Buy lawyer's clothing?

  • What's next... (Score:3, Funny)

    by __aaclcg7560 ( 824291 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @05:05PM (#21676395)
    The Goon Squad will go out to the offender's house to uninstall the HDTV and replace it with an old CRT TV.

  • Classic Lawyer Spew (Score:2, Interesting)

    by mpapet ( 761907 )
    Anyone who's been around a while will recognize this as low-quality legal practice. It's your typical drag net style of litigation.

    In better cases, it's simple intimidation. In the worst case scenario, the lawyers actually hope to get something out of everyone. Either way, a polite letter back that says, "Nothing to see here. Move along." will pretty much chase the scum bags away.

    Like the RIAA file sharing lawyers, the jokers pulling this stunt should be dragged before their respective bar association and
  • CompUSA is shutting down, Best Buy has gone insane ... from now on I'll do my shopping at Buy More. [wikia.com]
    • Or Amazon for that matter. Everything electronics related is moving online.

  • This looks like MY big chance... (Score:5, Funny)

    by zappepcs ( 820751 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @05:11PM (#21676493) Journal
    I have not done a lot of things yet in life, and receiving a C&D letter is one of them. What do /.-ers think is my 'best' chance of getting one from BestBuy?

    1 - YouTube channel?
    2 - BestChance.com website?
    3 - changing my middle name to bestbuy?
    4 - suing bestbuy for discrimination, on the basis that I didn't get a C&D leter?
    5 - Setting up a store in SecondLife called BestBye? Giving away uniforms for other SL stores?
    6 - Call the secret whitehouse telephone line, claiming to be the bestbuy ceo?
    7 - Getting GreenPeach to name a whale 'best buy'
    8 - Setup a reddit account under the name bEsTbUy, and only submit stories on best buy?
    9 - Number nine left out because the writers are on strike
    10 - buy 300 hours of blimp advertising, with sign that looks like the best buy sign, but done in crayon and written upside down?

    What does /. think?

  • back story (Score:5, Interesting)

    by circletimessquare ( 444983 ) <circletimessquar ... m minus language> on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @05:16PM (#21676565) Homepage Journal
    http://www.improveverywhere.com/2006/04/23/best-buy/ [improveverywhere.com]

    so they went to the chelsea best buy, hundreds of them, in blue shirts, and pretended to be assistants throughout the store, perhaps more helpful than actual staff in some cases

    customers were amused and bemused, management went apeshit, the best part is the the black chick who goes "it's like that movie, 'the thomas crown affair'"!

    but seriously: this is all a case of people with too much time on their hands: the best buy "actors" in the original "event", AND the lawyers suing them

    and isn't there some sort of legal protection for comedy, jokes, mockery? the law that protects political cartoons for example. would they have a case with that? obviously IANAL, as i can't even remember the legal term for this sort of "mockery" that is protected

    • Re:back story (Score:5, Funny)

      by fm6 ( 162816 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @05:48PM (#21677049) Homepage Journal

      but seriously: this is all a case of people with too much time on their hands: the best buy "actors" in the original "event", AND the lawyers suing them
      Dude, litigators charge (a lot) by the hour. For them, there's no such thing as "too much time".

      As for the event people: hey it's art. Maybe not to your taste, but no more a waste of time than, say, sports.

  • Why they happen. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Sneftel ( 15416 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @05:18PM (#21676607)
    Costs vs. Benefits of sending a doubtfully valid cease and desist notice:

    Costs:
    * Postage.
    * Paralegal staffing costs (assume 15 minutes to prepare the boilerplate).
    * Small chance some guys on Slashdot get grumpy for a while, until the next time there's a sale on DVD-Rs (whereupon all is forgiven, transactionally speaking).

    Benefits:
    * Decent chance the guy stops doing whatever it is you feel like stopping him from doing.

    It's not even a close call. A C&D is a warning shot, an initial skirmish. It doesn't commit them to anything legally, and the public image repercussions are vanishingly low.
  • It's more of an intimidation technique.
  • Seems like a likely follow up, stupid as it is.

    Perhaps I should be a corporate Lawyer. Get paid lots of money to waste time and money....

  • Could Improv Everywhere being doing this as a gag? If memory serves, there was a fake suit from McDonald's?

    Not saying this is a gag, but it is hard to trust pranksters. Also, this is assuming the news site is in on the gag.

    My money is on Best Buy having no sense of humor and this is real.

  • Not just about the shirts (Score:3, Insightful)

    by MagicM ( 85041 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @05:27PM (#21676739)
    I'm sure Best Buy isn't just after them for having blue shirts. This is more likely a form of "payback" for the embarrassment that Improv Everywhere caused Best Buy in 2006 [laughingsquid.com] when 80 people showed up at a NYC Best Buy dressed in blue polo shirts and khakis. (Flickr [flickr.com] and YouTube [youtube.com] coverage.)

  • Best Buy apologies for sending C & D letter (Score:5, Informative)

    by laughingsquid ( 871087 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @05:31PM (#21676791) Homepage
    Best Buy just sent us an apology letter for sending us a C & D letter just because we blogged about the Improv Everywhere shirts: http://laughingsquid.com/best-buy-apologies-for-sending-cease-desist-letter/ [laughingsquid.com] Here's the original C & D letter: http://laughingsquid.com/best-buy-cease-desist-letter/ [laughingsquid.com]

  • Best Buy has already apologized... (Score:5, Informative)

    by 1729 ( 581437 ) <slashdot1729@nOsPAM.gmail.com> on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @05:32PM (#21676811)
    I hate to defend Best Buy, but they've already admitted their mistake and apologized for the C&D letter sent to laughingsquid.com:

    http://laughingsquid.com/best-buy-apologies-for-sending-cease-desist-letter/ [laughingsquid.com]

  • Geez, Slashdot! (Score:2, Insightful)

    by dangitman ( 862676 )
    Would it kill you to make laughingsquid.com [laughingsquid.com] a link instead of plain text?

  • Update (Score:2, Informative)

    by cdomigan ( 833362 )
    Laughing Squid just received an apology letter [laughingsquid.com].

  • We've known for years that Best Buy are spammers; see, for example, http://mainsleazespam.com/companies/bestbuy.html [mainsleazespam.com] and http://groups.google.com/groups?q=best+buy+spam&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=N&tab=wg [google.com] for some background on that.

    We also know that their personnel steal private customer data, see for example http://consumerist.com/consumer/insiders/leaks-how-geek-squad-investigated-its-own-porn-thieves-328654.php [consumerist.com] and http://consum [consumerist.com]

  • If anyone needs anymore evidence that the modern corporation is the new communist/dictator/monarchy oppresion machine, whose sole purpose is to extort tributes from the pesants, enjoys 100% exclusions for the norms of civilized behavior, and apparently lacking a conscious that would normally make a person sympathetic to the plight of those pesants, this is it. There is no difference between Imelda Marcus enjoying a shopping holiday while the people starve, or Hussien having garages of cars while the Iraqi

  • DMCA (Score:5, Informative)

    by lunenburg ( 37393 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @05:50PM (#21677083) Homepage
    I'm the sysadmin for improveverywhere's server (currently curled in the corner in the fetal position, sucking its thumb and begging for its mommy), and we got a DMCA takedown notice, in addition to the C&D improveverywhere got.

    #####

    Subject: Digital Millennium Copyright Act

    Dear Sir or Madam:

    I represent [OUR ISP]. Attached to this e-mail, or set out below, is a notice [OUR ISP] received alleging that material on your website infringes a copyright. This notice was sent to [OUR ISP] under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). A good summary of the DMCA can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMCA#DMCA_Title_II:_Online_Copyright_Infringement_Liability_Limitation_Act

    The DMCA has three steps. The notice [OUR ISP] received is the first step.

    This notice triggers automatic removal or take down provisions under the DMCA. What this means is that the material identified in the DMCA notice must be removed by you, or taken down by [OUR ISP]. This must be done before you can dispute the claims set out in the notice. [OUR ISP] understands that this "guilty until proven innocent" aspect of the DMCA can be unfair, but its required by law.

    If you believe the DMCA notice contains errors, you should immediately contact the person who sent the notice. Please let me know by e-mail if they agree to withdraw the notice. I will then contact them to verify the withdrawal.

    After you remove the material, you may present [OUR ISP] with a "counter notice." This is the second step.

    The elements of the counter notice are identified below, and in more detail in the wikipedia entry. Please make sure you fully understand the DMCA before presenting [OUR ISP] with a DMCA counter notice. It may be helpful for you to consult with your attorney. Unfortunately [OUR ISP] can not provide you with legal advice on this matter.

    It is important that you take action immediately. Please let me know, within 5 days of the date of this e-mail that you have taken down the material. If I do not hear from you within this period of time, the DMCA requires [OUR ISP] to take down the material.

    On behalf of the staff at [OUR ISP] I thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

    Sincerely,
    [THEIR LAWYER]

  • My BB Blue Shirt Experience. (Score:5, Funny)

    by mr_resident ( 222932 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @05:57PM (#21677177) Homepage
    A couple of years ago, I ducked into my local BB completely unaware that I was dressed very much like all the people who work there. I had the khakis and a (Penguin logo) blue shirt, same shade as their official "uniforms". As I'm walking by the laptop display, this harried looking soccer mom stops me and starts asking me a bunch of questions about the laptops in that "Hurry up young man, I've got to pick up my kids in 20 minutes" way. Completely not understanding her insistance, I told her I couldn't help her. So, she says, "Well, if you can't be bothered, I'll just take my business elsewhere!" I replied something like, "Whatever makes you happy sweetheart." and went on with my shopping.

    About 2 mins later, I hear her shrill voice and look over. She's got the floor manager out and she's yelling at him about "That rude young man! That one! Right there!" Pointing at me! Okay, now I figured it out and started to walk over to explain while the manager is going, "Ma'am, he doesn't work here. He's a customer too."

    Now, I kind of feel bad about the next part, but I honestly couldn't help it. I saw his nametag had "Scott" on it, so as I walked up, ignoring the unconvinced customer, I said, "Hey Scott, sorry, but I've already punched out and I'm in a real hurry. See you in the morning! Bye!"

    The poor guy was still trying to talk her down as I was leaving!

    Scott, buddy, if you're out there - Sorry, but really, it was kind of funny, right?

  • You can't always wear what you want.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Fatal67 ( 244371 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @06:06PM (#21677293)
    I went down to the Chelsea boxstore
    To get my wii that was on sale..
    I was standing in line with a fake assistant,
    And man, he did the job pretty well.

    We decided that we should have a party,
    My favorite pastime, mocking newbs.
    My storys been posted up on /.
    My servers dead, guess we filled the tubes.. .

    You can't always wear what you want,
    You can't always wear what you want,
    You can't always wear what you want,
    But if you try sometimes you just might find
    A cease and desist, ...oh yes

  • They apologized. (Score:5, Informative)

    by sllim ( 95682 ) <{ten.knilhtrae} {ta} {ecnahca}> on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @06:10PM (#21677331)
    http://www.laughingsquid.com/ [laughingsquid.com]

    Best Buy sent LS.com a letter by both email and next day delivery apologizing for sending the C&D to a news source.

    I am impressed.

    Check out http://www.laughingsquid.com/ [laughingsquid.com] front page for details.

  • Appropriate Reply (Score:3, Funny)

    by jetpack ( 22743 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @06:46PM (#21677695) Homepage
    I think the correct response to this cease-and-desist letter would be a fuck-off-and-die letter.

  • C&D to Blog retracted before story hit /. (Score:4, Informative)

    by thehossman ( 198379 ) on Wednesday December 12, 2007 @06:48PM (#21677719)
    While the C&D to Improv Everywhere and Neighborhoodies still stands (although the shirts seem like clear parody to me) If you actually look at laughingsquid.com you'll see that BestBuy apologized [laughingsquid.com] for sending them a C&D for reporting about the existence of the shirts as a matter of fact, and acknowledged they were in error.

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