That’s dumb move number one.
So then a few blogs pick up the picture, making fun of it, including BoingBoing.
Ralph Lauren then hires an attorney to write this silly DMCA notice. (courtesy of craphound). For the uninitiated, a web host will usually remove something from its servers in response to a DMCA notice. Not this time.
Hilarity ensues as BoingBoing’s web host not only refuses to comply, but BoingBoing opens up the Streisand Effect whup ass.
[I]nstead of responding to their legal threat by suppressing our criticism of their marketing images, we’re gonna mock them. Hence this post.
As Wendy Seltzer from the Chilling Effects project said, “Sounds like a pretty solid fair use case to me. If criticism diminishes its effectiveness, that’s different from the market substitution copyright protects against. And I’ve rarely seen a thinner DMCA form-letter.”
So, to Ralph Lauren, GreenbergTraurig, and PRL Holdings, Inc: sue and be damned. Copyright law doesn’t give you the right to threaten your critics for pointing out the problems with your offerings. You should know better. And every time you threaten to sue us over stuff like this, we will:
a) Reproduce the original criticism, making damned sure that all our readers get a good, long look at it, and;
b) Publish your spurious legal threat along with copious mockery, so that it becomes highly ranked in search engines where other people you threaten can find it and take heart; and
c) Offer nourishing soup and sandwiches to your models. (source)
Heee heee, get it? Wendy is funny.
Numbskull, the DMCA is for copyright infringement — not for fair use. If you don’t know what fair use means, you shouldn’t be sending out DMCA notices. Why not? Because the DMCA, she bite sometimes.
Hat Tip to Staci K.
