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!'"

BestBuySux

I'd point out bestbuysux.com right now but unfortunately it's not around anymore. It was such an awesome resource of testimonials and other crazy things Best Buy was doing.

Re:BestBuySux

Can you send a C&D regarding C&Ds?

Re:BestBuySux

Yes, they're called counter-notices and (as far as I understand) the only recourse after receiving one is to take legal action. Though the 'under penalty of perjury' claus probably discourages people from using these handy tools.
A nice template for such a notice can be found at http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Terrorism/form-letter.html [cmu.edu].

Re:BestBuySux

wayback machine ftw:

http://web.archive.org/web/20070410022442/www.bestbuysux.org [archive.org]

well for old entries anyway.

Are they going to go after the T.V. Show "Chuck" ?

Buy More is such a rip of Best Buy.

Re:Are they going to go after the T.V. Show "Chuck

... and the "Nerd Herd" is obviously a reference to the "Geek Squad" (other than the Nerd Herd folks are portrayed as being competent).

Cheers,
Dave

Re:Are they going to go after the T.V. Show "Chuck

That's still one too many

Re:Are they going to go after the T.V. Show "Chuck

... and male punctuation, cockhead.

Re:Are they going to go after the T.V. Show "Chuck

I was in Best Buy (Rockwall,Tx) last Sunday, and I swear the guy thought he was a secret agent. He spoke like Captain Awesome and wore an ear piece putting his finger to it to inform the front desk we were on our way with our new purchase.

Perhaps this Best Buy should be sent a cease and desist for ripping off 'Chuck'.

To the sales rep's credit, he stopped trying to sell me Antivirus/anti-malware stuff after I said I was going to stick Ubuntu on the new laptop.... he just said 'Awesome, good choice'... (in his Captain Awesome voice... with a 'thumbs up' )

Fuck Them

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

>> punitive damages to the company

Yeah! I hope the lose their shirts.

Re:Fuck Them

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

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:Fuck Them

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:Fuck Them

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:Fuck Them

As the operator of whitehouse.net, I'm intimately familiar with parody and fair use.

The video and pcictures of their prank? Wonderful. Easily defended as parody. The special edition set with included best-buy shirt? Yeah, that probably gets a pass. Call it gray-zone. The shirt as a standalone, context optional? Sorry, that's pretty obvious infringement.

Not that I'd call Best Buy's lawyers smart given the Streisand Effect, but legally I'd have to side with Best Buy's position.

Re:Fuck Them

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

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

> 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

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

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

looks like Best Buy has apologized to Laughing squid for this [laughingsquid.com]

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

Re:Best Buy apologizes to laughingsquid.com

Rats. I'm wearing a blue shirt today.

I'm going to look pretty silly after I cut it off and come home in my white cuffs, collar, and tie.

My wife will probably expect a dance . . . :)

hawk

What is Best Buy thinking?

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?

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?

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?

Did you stay at Holiday Express the night before? :)

Re:What is Best Buy thinking?

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.

never would have heard of this if best buy did not

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.

Slashdot is next

So, if this trend continues, \. will get a C&D order for the "broken windows" icon for MS related stories.

Re:Slashdot is next

Its ok, /. will send out a cease and desist against the obviously fake \. site you are advertising.

Just send a cease and desist letter right back.

Tell them to cease and desist from existing.

Anyone can sue anyone for anything, might as well tell sue them right back.

Hmmm....

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?

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.

Why not?

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!

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.

Are you sure..

that the C&D came from a Best Buy lawyer or just someone in Besy Buy lawyer's clothing?

What's next...

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

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 flogged with paper clips. ( or whatever the bar does to punish lawyers)

Well, that tears it

CompUSA is shutting down, Best Buy has gone insane ... from now on I'll do my shopping at Buy More. [wikia.com]

This looks like MY big chance...

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

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

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:back story

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.

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: vanishingly low?

So you told us you haven't bought much stuff at Best Buy in the past although you visited the store more, and now you are refusing to buy anything in the future. Yep that'll hurt 'em. Hit them where it counts ... in the guy-wanders-around-store-alot-but-now-we-don't-see-him-anymore department!