Best Buy Hands Out Cease & Desist Letters for Christmas

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!'"

Fuck Them

[MistaE]

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.

What is Best Buy thinking?

[log1385]

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 /.

never would have heard of this if best buy did not

[Anonymous Coward]

I never would have heard of this if best buy did not send out C&D letters.
When will big companies learn just to let it go and it will quickly die off by itself?
Never I suppose. Now thousands of us have just one more reason not to shop at best blow.

I cannot get over the price of their DVDs when I was last in there. 20+ dollars for the F4 silver surfer DVD? yikes!
I am so glad I got it from the public library instead because it was a major disappointment.

Why not?

[Linux_ho]

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!

[TheLazySci-FiAuthor]

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.

Re:Fuck Them

[neoform]

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

[fahrbot-bot]

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.

Why they happen.

[Sneftel]

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.

Re:Fuck Them

[tommertron]

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.

Not just about the shirts

[MagicM]

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.)

Geez, Slashdot!

[dangitman]

Would it kill you to make laughingsquid.com [laughingsquid.com] a link instead of plain text?

Re:back story

[PCMeister]

IANAL either, but keep in mind that while Best Buy is open to the public, it's still private property. One of the few things that could've happened the day of the "event" was to arrest the "actors" for trespassing. Unless mistaken, that can only be done lawfully if the manager asks them to leave and they refuse, which is where local law enforcement comes in.

Given the times we live in, I'm sure they'll try to nail them with disturbing (or breaching) the peace, or some other bullshit charge(s). The caveat is that they'll have to file charges against each of the "actors" and try to lump them into one big court case.

It's a crying shame that this country has lost its sense of humor!! Bravo to those trying their best to keep it alive.

Good luck to us all! We sure as hell need it.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again...

[StressGuy]

Slashdot needs a MOD +1 RIMSHOT

seriously....

Re:Best Buy apologies for sending C & D letter

[Just Some Guy]

Best Buy just sent us an apology letter for sending us a C & D letter just because we blogged about the Improv Everywhere shirts

I'm actually kind of pleasantly surprised by the second letter. They flat-out admit that they messed up and apologize for it. That's almost unheard of these days. Congratulations on a happy resolution.

Oh, and to the jackass who modded you "flamebait": WTF were you thinking?

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Why they happen.

[fishbowl]

You left off:

Risks:

* You send the C&D letter to someone with litigious interests of their own, and in doing so gave them an argument that you have attempted to abridge *their* rights.

Always consider Risks in your Cost/Benefit analysis. Sending a letter may indeed commit you, legally, to a course of action.

Re:back story

[Speare]

They did NOT pretend to be employees. When asked, they were simply guests, they were shopping, they were waiting for their girlfriend who is in another department, etc. They didn't try to help anyone, nor try to hinder anyone. The shirts used were just plain blue polo shirts with no special embroidery or logos. They simply arrived in the same colors as if by coincidence. Yes, they knew it would cause confusion. Sometimes confusion is just a part of joie de vivre.

Re:What is Best Buy thinking?

[ehrichweiss]

"it could allow anyone to pretend to be a Best Buy employee"

So could having a real BB shirt printed up to look EXACTLY like the real thing but somehow a shirt that's meant to be a joke is more apt to allow crime? I'm sure that's why I see people all the time getting into concerts because they wear black tshirts with white lettering that says "Scrutiny" or "Staph(infection)". Seriously, it costs nothing to get a *realistic* tshirt printed so why one would think that it's more likely to happen with one that's a joke is beyond me.

Re:Fuck Them

[tieTYT]

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.

Speaking of which, aren't the shirts themselves safe from the courts too? I would think this falls under "parody".

"Poor mom?"

[Tony]

Really?

Just because you are harried and in a hurry does *not* give you the excuse to be rude, especially to some sap making damned close to minimum wage who's just there to help you. If she had been polite to start with, his response itself would've been rude. However, being rude in response to rudeness is perhaps the only valid response.

think about what could have happend

[Anonymous Coward]

what BB has a problem with is that these people could have done something that would make a customer mad and angry. And beacuse they were dressed like a BB employee, BB will get the blame. Its just like if you walked into Mc'Donalds, saw a person that was wearing a Mc'Donalds uniform, asked them a question (ie: "Where are the bathrooms?") and they tell you to go fuck off. Wouldn't you be mad at the company beacause you thought this was one of thier employees?

Re:What is Best Buy thinking?

[fm6]

Sending scary letters to quash news of this is reprehensible. Still, a trademark that is not actively enforced can be lost.

They weren't trying to quash news. They were just doing the usual hyperactive bit in response to somebody using their trademark. People who send out these C&D letters don't have any incentive to take the extra effort to figure out whether something is a genuine violation or something that's protected as satire, news, or "not potentially confusing". Indeed, if they overlook somebody they might well lose their job. So they just fire off letters to everybody. Then if the recipient claims an exemption (as laugingsquid did) they fire off another letter apologizing. Since both letters are form/boilerplate, the total cost is a few bucks for certified mail. It's on a par with call centers and other such methods for communicating with people on a pseudo-personal basis. It scales up, and when you're in a high-volume low-margin business, you need things that scale up.