Wanna hear something fucked up?
 

So, I've been pressured to set up a store via CafePress.com so you guys can buy some TFP merchandise. I go to sign up the store.. and I discover that the shop ID 'tfproject' was taken. What the hell? Who would want that for their shop ID?

So, I browsed on over to the shop with said shop ID, and discovered a whole page with merchandise for the TFP. I sure as hell didn't set this store up. It's kinda fucked up that someone would do that, ya know? I'm all in favor of capitalism, but find your own products to sell.

So what did I do? I called up CafePress's Intellectual Property Rights Agent, and had a brief conversation with him. Within a few minutes, they had the store taken offline. Justice served.

Now, I'm not a mean son of a bitch. I'm not gonna press charges or demand compensation. I sincerely doubt this guy has sold very much either. I just took over the store ID so nobody can pull that kinda shit. I think it's pretty low to bite off someone else's bread. I have an acute idea of who was responsible, but I'm not gonna tell anybody anything, so don't ask.

If you by chance have actually bought anything from that particular store recently, you may consider sending it back for a refund.

Anyways, this is just to give you all a heads up. If it isn't blatantly plugged all over the TFP, then it's not a part of the TFP. I own the rights to the TFP and nobody else.

Damn, that's crazy. I hate when I go to different websites to sign up and someone has taken every damn screen name I can think of, even wild ones that make no sense.

I think you had every right to get the store shut down.

-Lasereth

What a good business man you are Halx. :)

Damm... That's a low blow...

But let me know when the store comes up for real, so i can buy some schwag!

It's not a matter of if I had the right or not - because I DID. There is no question about anything that happened. It's just fucked up that someone would do that.

w00t...
well let us know when theres stuff for us to buy :d

kick some bootay! *cheers*

you see, there's a difference between squatting on a domain or a site like that (which i see is not necessarily right, but particularly clever) and actually using something you don't have any rights to to make money.

i'd equate this to bootleggers who make fake shirts and hats and stuff with team logos. shitty enterprise.

That is pretty messed up :/

Good to hear your prevailed :)!

I can't believe someone would do this. Seriously, didn't Einstein realize that Halx would maybe, just maybe, find out about it?

That is damn low...but uh, let us know when the store is up, so we can buy stuff.

And, if its paypall enabled, hopefully, i can make a donation through there!

That's great that eveything worked out. Obviously CafePress have their shit together and was able to help you with little or no problem.

Some of us haven't been that lucky. Try going to court, winning and getting nothing.

That is weird fucked up shit.

As phredgreen said about "Bootleggers".

That's messed up. As some small consolation, at least they had a Intellectual Property Rights Agent who didn't stuff you around a whole lot as some companies seem to enjoy doing. Also I suppose nobody who would be inclined to buy would then choose to proudly wear a shirt that had been specifically flagged as bootleg.

Yeah, I'm actually pretty impressed that there isn't a whole paragraph written about how you got the run around by CafePress and now you need some lawyering up to affirm your rights. So... it's bad that it happened, but CafePress has shown some good colors.

good thing you found out about it.

Do you know which user did it?

That's pretty low.

You werent lieing when you said that was fucked up. Who would steal a company logo, and not to be harsh, but of a public forum board, to sell merch. Way to be halx.

Recognizing a fucked up situation and getting a quick resolution without it getting more fucked up. Now if more people in the world would do that there would be more time to solve bigger problems. Way to pick your battles man.

You would think the guy who made the store would have made some ads?

that is seriously fucked up.

damn, it sure is a hella good thing that you just happened to want to go to that website to set up an account, otherwise who knows if anyone woulda found out about that shit. That is crazy man. And it sounds like the website was pretty cooperative about the whole situation. Glad it got worked out easily.

sorry for the tangent in advance, but i wanted to reply to this.

i don't think i'd equate it with that simply because those bootleggers don't try to pass their stuff off as official items (at least that i've seen). plus, they have to compete with the actual team merchandise, where whoever was producing the unofficial tfproject items was the sole provider of merchandise.

besides, the enterprise they're exploiting can seem just as shitty at times. that little tag that says "licensed" easily adds $5-$10 to a shirt... for what? the team gets that much profit from each item and they didn't even make the stupid thing. i doubt the store that sells it or the manufacturer or anyone else that had something to do with the existence of that item has margins that high.

i'm sure some of you have heard of the store chain called steve & barry's which sells unlicensed college apparel. everything in their store is under $20, including hoodies and coats. they can do this because they don't have to pay out the ass for the license rights, which seem like a complete ripoff to me, and they pass those savings onto their customers. is this really such a bad thing?

or what about items at concerts... $25 for one t-shirt?? someone please explain why these prices need to be so high. seriously, i would love to have an understanding about this.

now, i know two wrongs don't make a right... all i'm trying to point out is the other side of the enterprise, which can be just as shitty.

Hopefully, the best part of this story is someone is now sitting on 50 "TFP Rules!" t-shirts that they can't unload.

Applauds.. that was the best way to handle the situation and I totally agree with you.

Hmmmm.... I agree that someone trying to make a profit off the TFP is fucked up and wrong, but this statement scares me a little. I've always thought of the TFP as belonging to everyone that contributes to it. Afterall, there wouldn't be much of anything here if people didn't add to it every day. It's kind of like the Linux operating system, in my mind. Everyone is welcome to contribute, and the "steering committee" makes sure contributions abide by the rules, and the end product is freely available to everyone that contributes... and no one, no matter how much they contribute is allowed to resell that. But since the TFP is your conception, I don't think anyone would argue against you selling TFP merchandise, especailly if the proceedes from sales go toward upgrading hardware, or otherwise making this place better.

However, when you say you own the rights to the TFP, do you mean to say that you own the rights to everything that gets posted here too? Does everything we post become your property? How much ownership, if any, do contributers have here?

The TFP has never been described as anything BUT a benevolent dictatorship. As with EVERY SINGLE WEBSITE that you can potentially submit property to, everything that you DO submit becomes the property of the site. You're very much a part of the community, but please don't start thinking of yourself as a shareholder.

:(

So, essentially, every poem written, every journal entry, every photograph taken, every painting painted, and every exhibition revealed, that gets posted to this site becomes exclusive property of tfproject.org. Suddenly the line "All text and layout graphics are (c) 2002-2004 TFProject.org unless noted. " strikingly jumps out at me. I don't have any reason to believe that Halx is anything but benevolent... and I don't think he would ever fuck any of us over by reselling our original creations... but it kinda makes me uneasy about really sharing myself.

Not exactly... slashdot.org doesn't claim to own user's posts. Their copyright line reads: "All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest © 1997-2004 OSDN."

Well, think of it this way if it makes you feel any better: I'm willing to take responsibility for everything you post. That's partially why we have strict rules.

Ouch! That's pretty nasty!

Just another comment about how fucked up that is.

How did this guy plan to promote his wares? Doing it on the TFP wouldnt have worked out so great..."Hey buy this shit I ripped off from Halx!"

Exactly. If you have to take the heat if someone goes overboard and blows it for you and your site and you are liable for it, you deserve the rights to our posts.

The only problem I would ever have is if anything I wrote on here was to show up in a book and someone made profit from my words. OR if I were to collect my poems or short stories and included something I wrote here and Halx sued me for copyright infringement and claimed the poem was his property and not mine.

I don't see either ever happening, so I won't lose sleep over it till Halx sells and some greedy fuck tries it.

That was very LOW from the person that did it. If at least asked for permission to do it, but still, not the same.

Wow thats friggin shady.... but hey lemme know when the store comes up so i can buy some stuff!!! i'm all for supporting the TFP!

...the late, Ronald Reagan.






















Halx, you bad bad man, we know about you!

Very nice Halx.

Glad to see you put them in their place.