Ford Claims Ownership Of Your Pictures

Mike Rogers writes "In a move that can only be described as 'Copyright Insanity', Ford Motor Company now claims that they hold the rights to any image of a Ford vehicle, even if it's a picture you took of your own car. The Black Mustang Club wanted to put together a calendar featuring member's cars and print it through CafePress, but an attorney from Ford nixed the project, stating that the calendar pics and 'anything with one of (member's) cars in it infringes on Ford's trademarks which include the use of images of their vehicles.' Does Ford have the right to prevent you from printing images of a car you own?"

EULA

[gEvil (beta)]

Does Ford have the right to prevent you from printing images of a car you own?

Hold on a moment. Let me get the EULA out of the glove box.

Re:Form?

[bonkeydcow]

Yeah, you know, maker of the dustang!

Huh

[pwnies]

I was going to use a car analogy to show how ridiculous this was...

It's obvious!

[Pig Hogger]

All your images are belong to us.

heh heh

[427_ci_505]

Bold moves indeed.

Seems good news

[Anonymous Coward]

Means Police can no longer take pictures of Ford cars for photo enforcement either. Hooray!

Stupid

[Digital Vomit]

I've heard a lot of stupid claims over intellectual "property" before, but this one really takes the cake*.

(*used with permission from Duncan Hines, a subsidiary of Pinnacle Foods Group, LLC.)

Re:Boycotting Ford....

[deft]

Profits?

We're talking about ford, right?

I think you mean hit them with more losses.

Re:Dangerous precedent

[nolife]

Yes but let's use yet another car analogy here, what if Ford.... oh wait.

Re:Dangerous precedent

[Osurak]

Sorry, you can no longer take pictures of yourself because you're wearing clothes, and a representation of those clothes falls under the IP rights of the brand/store you bought them from.

Re:Seems good news

[tiedyejeremy]

They don't sell the image for profit, but they absolutely are using the images as a source of revenues. Where do we draw the line?

Just Boycott Ford!

[numbsafari]

Oh...that was easy...

Oh well

[greg1104]

I'll just have to return to my previous hobby, taking pictures of Chevy trucks sporting a window sticker with Calvin peeing on the Ford logo.

Re:Dangerous precedent

[That's Unpossible!]

What's it look like?

Re:Form?

[Smallpond]

So the answer to the copyright question will depend on whether Form is using Get or Post?

Re:EULA

[plague3106]

No, I think Ford is going into extinction by making shitty cars.

Re:Form motor company....Hooray!

[king-manic]

I thought "at Ford, quality is job 1?" Maybe they should change their motto: "At ford, quality is an afterthought. Looks and stylishness are job 1! Oh and litigation is job 2!"/quote>

I'd argue it's:
"At ford, quality and style is an accident. Desperately trying to stay afloat is job 1! Oh and litigation is job 2!"

Re:Just Boycott Ford!

[Aqua_boy17]

Staples just called. You'll need to retract your 'That was easy' post.

Re:Form?

[palegray.net]

Also widely known as the Ford "Crustang", "Rustang", "Mustake", and "My Little Pony" where I come from.

Re:Boycotting Ford....

[Anonymous Coward]

"Ford you get to lose out on at least one sale."

Great. There's another $20k that's coming out of our taxes when the inevitable government bailout comes...

(appropriately enough, the captcha is "detest")

Re:EULA

[paanta]

I'm going to loose the grammar police on you.

As requested.

[palegray.net]

This ought to do it: This car is not what you think it is [classhelper.org].

Re:OT: Explain Porsha...

[halber_mensch]

This is offtopic I know I know... But why on earth do people call their Porsche PorSha? I never understood this.

If you say the word Porsche in English the e is silent. And since I speak fluent German the e at the end is not an Sha, it is more like the e in wet or like the e in Good Day, eh. What I am wondering is how the e turned into a?

The same way "Danke schön" became "Donkah shane", Frankenstein became "Frankensteen", and "Weimaraner" became "Whymeriner", Americans love above all else to butcher a language. And that ain't irregardless of nobody y'all.

In other news...

[CF4L]

Companies who weren't ruled by morons encouraged consumers to create calendars with their cars in it. The referred to this bizarre practice as "free advertising".

Re:people own the *cars*, too, and their pics

[jimbojw]

I'm reposting my own Ford pics on my sight the very next thing I do.

Some marketing exec at Ford: "HaHA! Our brilliant plan to get free advertising on obscure blog sites is beginning to unfold! Ford FTW!"

Ford's Business Plan?

[Greyfox]

So, apparently, Ford's business plan is to:

1) Find one of the three guys who's actually PROUD to own a Ford.
2) Piss in that guy's corn flakes.
3) ???
4) Profit. I believe *I* made more than Ford did last year...

Re:Nope.

[merc]

Sigh... so much for the days when the average slashdot user wasn't a lawyer ;-)

Re:EULA

[merc]

Feel free to hop back into your time machine and join us in 2008.

Wrong automobile manufacturer, you're thinking of the De Lorean, not Ford.

What was ford, again?

[dotancohen]

Four Old Rusty Doors?
Forcing Our Rights Downyourthroat...

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Unreasonable restriction of trade

[cheros]

I think these boys have just managed to get themselves in line for a VERY large lawsuit. I have no idea which corporate idiot dreamt that up, but if they have been sending out letters they've dug themselves a rather deep hole, and not just from a PR point of view. Knowing corporate idiocy they will continue digging until they hit bedrock, then order in the dynamite to go deeper once more.

Thankfully it's Ford. I mean, if it was Ferrari or something I'd care, but Ford?

Ab-so-lu-te-ly, totally, completely insane. I thought I'd seen everything now, but this is award winning stupidity. This may not be bettered, not just in 2008 but possibly this decade (well, OK maybe by another Sony rootkit or RIAA, but those are easy targets. This is in a stupidity class of its own).

Applause guys. Could we have the names of the clowns who dreamt this up so we could avoid accidentally employing them? Thanks.

Re:Huh

[Spc01]

Well yes. If i buy CD and lean this CD to a neighbour .. it's stealing and it's illegal so if music industry is doing this why not FORD ?