What is Digg?136 Comments
- laughingsquid, on 12/12/2007, -1/+49There are actually two issues here:
1) BB going after Improv Everywhere for t-shirt with the parody logo
2) BB going after bloggers who wrote about the t-shirt. - oskay, on 12/11/2007, -1/+47C & D for covering news-- holy crap these guys are scary!
- mythicflux, on 12/12/2007, -2/+45The point is that this C&D was not sent to the people who created the shirts, merely a blog that posted a link in an article about them.
- ekai, on 12/11/2007, -0/+38except when their own employees do it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tbXZVQzu_4 - tppeters, on 12/12/2007, -1/+29In case you haven't seen it, here's the hilarious prank that started all of this nonsense:
http://www.improveverywhere.com/2006/04/23/best-bu ...
(Improv Everywhere sends 80 people into a Best Buy wearing blue polo shirts. The controversy here is that they then started selling blue polo shirts that said "Improv Everywhere" in the yellow price tag logo, so folks could buy the shirt and try the prank on their own.) - Dylson, on 12/11/2007, -9/+35I hate Best Buy.
- Wetzilla, on 12/12/2007, -12/+29I think Best Buy has a legitimate complaint with the sale of the shirts. The C&D to the blog reporting it is a bit sketchier, but you can make the case that they are promoting the shirts. The original best buy mission was quite harmless, but now they are offering these shirts to the general public. Best Buy has a right to protect their reputation, and these shirts provide a way for people who don't like Best Buy to attempt to hurt them.
- spyd3rweb, on 12/11/2007, -6/+20Best Buy went south when they started marking garbage products to people stupid enough to buy them.
- Spanktacular, on 12/12/2007, -5/+19You're an idiot.
Parody is protected speech, and reporting on someone else's parody is protected as well. There is no legal leg to stand on for Best Buy in this argument.
Also, a C&D is not a legal order of anything. Basically, it's a polite letter making a request with a warning of possible legal actions to take place later if one does not comply with the REQUEST. - bszaronos, on 12/12/2007, -1/+13You should make a tee shirt with the cease & desist letter on the front and back.
- Disodium, on 12/12/2007, -0/+12More like digg rocks at breaking hyper links
- inactive, on 12/12/2007, -10/+21Nevermind. Digg me down.
- bglav, on 12/11/2007, -4/+15Wishing I could delete this...
- andrewthrice, on 12/12/2007, -2/+12This is parody and covered under fair use. I've seen lots of similar shirts created in this vein, parodying various cultural icons and artifacts. ***** you Best Buy.
- Dylson, on 12/12/2007, -4/+13Make me.
- therightclique, on 12/11/2007, -27/+35I don't really see the problem honestly. I'm no fan of Best Buy. Quite the opposite, but come on, it is THEIR logo. Come up with your own logo. Don't just feed off of what other people are doing. Come up with your own ideas for once.
- KaJuN4, on 12/12/2007, -0/+7Good thing Best Buy opted for the extended warranty on their trademark.
- doshindude, on 12/12/2007, -1/+8Weird Al gets permission to do all his parodies. He doesn't just randomly take a bunch of songs and rip them off.
- earlysound, on 12/12/2007, -4/+11A bit of an extreme title for this Digg submission, but it's pretty ridiculous of Best Buy to send someone a C&D like this. Evens out, I guess ;)
- lydecker, on 12/11/2007, -2/+9Nobody tarnishes the Best Buy brand but themselves. Satire and Free Speech just brings it to light.
Best Buy, want to stop people bad mouthing you? Stop deserving it! - Zippo, on 12/12/2007, -3/+10Graphic designer and super-geek Zippo, reporting for duty.
While clearly a parody, and very similar, the shirt is not using the Best Buy Logo. If the yellow tag was of identical proportions and the exact yellow spot colour, then Best Buy might have a case since they have that trademarked. However...
Exhibit A - Best Buy's logo: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f5/Best ...
Exhibit B - The parody logo: http://laughingsquid.com/wp-content/uploads/improv ...
Note the different length, slightly different angle, and different typeface.
It's not similar enough, nor does it actually mention the words "Best" nor "Buy". One could easily say it's simply a yellow tag with writing on it. All Improv Everywhere needs to do is make sure the yellow and blue colours used do not match that of Best Buy's graphic standards. - laughingsquid, on 12/12/2007, -0/+6The front page digg is providing a good test for the WordPress Super Cache plugin. Going into lock down mode is really helping reduce the server load: http://ocaoimh.ie/wp-super-cache/
- chicoer2001, on 12/12/2007, -0/+6Just go to Target wearing red and khaki. Much easier way to ***** with people.
- Veritate, on 12/12/2007, -5/+11They probably didn't need to send the C&D to LaughingSquid, though I don't blame them for defending their TM. If they don't, even for stupid stuff like this, they could lose it.
Though, given that it increases the lawyer's billable hours for that extra letter to a blogger. . . sending it to LS may have been a good move. - tppeters, on 12/12/2007, -0/+6Also, the video of the original prank is here: http://revver.com/video/80988/best-buy/
- lacronicus, on 12/12/2007, -3/+9If Ron Paul were elected president, all your dreams would come true, you would live in the disneyworld castle, win the lottery, and angels will sing a chorus wherever you go.
Actually, if Ron Paul were elecetd, he would push for more rights for large corporations, which might include elimination of anti-trust laws, less restrictions on product quality, and a whole hows of other things that are actually good things to have. - Veritate, on 12/12/2007, -2/+7Letter to blogger = $400 in billable hours. I'd send the letter too.
- mythicflux, on 12/12/2007, -1/+6Kill it! For the love of all that is holy.
- MattJhsn, on 12/12/2007, -1/+6I'm a blogger covering another blogger that covered the story. Should I be worried? ;-)
- DavidYeah, on 12/12/2007, -0/+5http://www.goodlogo.com/ has pretty much any corporate logo you can think of, if any of you were feeling creative.
- Taciturn, on 12/12/2007, -3/+8And flocks of doves will ***** rainbows into your eyeballs.
- EvilAnimator, on 12/12/2007, -1/+6No you are wrong. Because Best Buy is wrong. This is protected fair use. Best Buy doesn't HAVE to do anything. Read a book.
- inactive, on 12/12/2007, -6/+10A trademark is not something bored people do for fun in the weekends. If you neglect to legally protect it, you lose it. Best Buy did the right thing. But hey, this is Digg, you know, police state and stuff.
- otbeverly, on 12/12/2007, -0/+4I think that letter is good for 10% off any any Best Buy store. (some exclusions apply)
- tech42er, on 12/12/2007, -0/+4IT IS NOT THEIR ***** TRADEMARK! If they were protecting their trademark, it would be one thing, but they're not!
- blake_mooney, on 12/12/2007, -0/+4They are NOT infringing on anyone's trademark. It's not the same logo, so Best Buy can go ***** themselves. I hope those ***** go out of business. They suck ass and their employees are ***** irritating as hell - I wanna punch every one of them in the face.
- Veritate, on 12/12/2007, -0/+3That you're going to get mail? No...
- GoatRoper, on 12/12/2007, -0/+3Just flip the yellow ticket 180 and make it a slightly different color, it will still ***** with people
- mal1964, on 12/12/2007, -1/+4Coming soon their new hit video,, taken over the unemployment line!
- dasdef, on 12/12/2007, -1/+4seriously that is so lame that its hilarious Hahaha. Cool how they were allowed to do that (or were they?).
- adml_shake, on 12/12/2007, -0/+3When I worked for them, someone (at another store) walked in off the street wearing a blue polo shirt black pants (warehouse guy attire) he then went walking in the back got a big plasma TV out of the ware house and told the Loss prevention guy he was loading this up in a red pick up truck. Well the truck pulled up the loss prevention guy was busy with other stuff so didn't ask any questions and let the guy walk out with a TV. I'm not sure but I think it also happened a few more times during the day. So I'm wondering if thats why they don't want people seeling anything that looks like a BB shirt. Twisted manager logic.
- Scorpionturtle, on 12/12/2007, -0/+3It's called a parody, folks. Best Buy has no legal standing and sending the letter is just a tactic that only works on clueless people.
- jmlambe, on 12/12/2007, -1/+4I think it's funny that I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not...
- Vegabondsx, on 12/12/2007, -0/+2Maybe it's just me, but notice the yellow tag doesn't have the "Best Buy" in it but rather bellow it as if to make their trademark more generalized...
- hockeypaul, on 12/12/2007, -2/+4Actually psychologists have found out blue and yellow together are the two most soothing colors to read.
Now the tag, i agree with ya there. - mal1964, on 12/12/2007, -0/+2***** the mail doesn't arrive on the same day it was sent.
- cusoman, on 12/12/2007, -3/+5I hate you.
- BlackJackJester, on 12/12/2007, -0/+2What people do with purchased merchandise isn't the problem of the company, unless that is more or less the only real use for it, or they are instructed to pull such pranks. Looks like they are just selling a parody shirt, no strings attached.
- ttamshadbolt, on 12/12/2007, -1/+3http://laughingsquid.com/improv-everywhere-best-bu ...
for those too lazy to type in the URL... - davecor, on 12/12/2007, -0/+2Crap... I'm in trouble next....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M83NElI35vU -
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