Can Ford really do this?

Ha Ha Ha!!!!!! I really think Ford needs to concentrate on making a profit, instead of harrasing the very people who are supporting their product. What idiots. They deserve what they get. Wonder if the top brass has any idea of what is happening in their own backyard? If I produced a product, that people LOVED to purchase and modify, I would LOVE the fact that it was being promoted for FREE. Hell, what better advertising can you get than that!




Darrell.

 

I'm not surprised one bit, it's FORD what do you expect.

 

Im on numerous ford related websites and this is the only case Ive heard about. Pretty stupid if you ask me.

 

Hmmmm.....maybe Ferrari is buying Ford? That would explain it!

 

Porsche does the same thing

 

it just kills their customer relations a little bit more, what a joke.

Bold Moves, Ford. HA!

 

And wasn't Ford just dropped to third in US sales by Toyota? Seems they have bigger things to worry about!

Dave

 

I would pay good money to know the name of the dumbass responsible for disgusting their own fanbase..

 

From my past experiences with Volkswagen, Geffen Records, and Disney, I know that alot of companies just outsource this thing to law offices who actively hunt down anything they think they can get a ruling on. They are paid by the corporation on either 'quota' system (shutting down so many, or so much $ worth of "damages" in a fiscal year or contract term), or by a % of any money collected from these suits.

I've been approached by a lawyer on Geffen Records behalf due to a website I own, which has never broken a copyright law at all, but simply for the domain name. A close friend was harrassed by a law office on Disney's behalf due to her personal website which featured her own hand illustrations of Winnie The Pooh.
I personally know of many individuals, and businesses (who are not representing themselves as associates of, in any way, VW), by law offices on behalf of VW of America, for using the VW logo on personal websites, or even publishing photographs of their cars on "un authorized" websites.

I won't say this is how Ford deals with this but I wouldn't be totally amazed if it was. It's *possible* someone at Ford Corporate doesn't even know about this (yet) and it's just some aggressive younger law team looking to make the big boys happy and get a paycheck. Then again, Ford could also have their own inhouse vultures that love to just suck the enjoyment out of their customer's lives

It's like class-action law suits. When you hear someone has to pay $2M for a CA lawsuit against them, up to about 80% of it goes to the Law office that drew up the CA lawsuit... not the complaintants. This is just lawyers generating revenue out of thin air, and everyone elses pockets.

 

Yet another example of this country's never ending tidal wave of juris doctorates that have to manufacture their own work.

Get a real job, guys!

 

HEY ARTIE!! Put down the shfigadelle! F JACKIE!

 

Right, i've heard vw gives new meaning to the word "Nazi", of which they are probably the worst company that does rediculous **** like this.

 

That IS low... I've dealt with Daimler-Benz for fair use of their media and copyrighted images. They've told me politely, that I cannot use their website images as my own... BUT, I can use any photos that I take myself or submitted by contributors, and of course, I can draw my own.

~shahedc
.

 

No they don't, they just keep people from using their trademarks and distance themselves from people who try to associate a product or site with Porsche.

 

If this gets more press, the weight of the movie studios will be felt by ford and they will cave. No movie studio wants to get all the licensing for the background cars when they film on a public road.

And they're wondering why their stock is in the gutter.

 

Maybe Ford wants to use all their marketing prowess to promote the new Knight Rider TV show.

~shahedc
.

 

This story sounds like BS. Must be more to the story, maybe a logo that infringes added to pictures. You cannot control the image of a car that you do not own. Typical internet story that lacks all the facts.

 

There you go! Now let's all go out and buy a Ford.

 

Ford's PR department woke up and kicked the crap out of its legal department. Issue is dropped.

NOTE: As a general rule of thumb, advice from attorneys tends to be the opposite of good business sense. In this case, suing to protect every trademark slapped all over every Ford product makes perfect legal sense (imagine MGM *not* suing if you photgraphed and sold their Lion), but fails the common sense test (e.g. alienating your core enthusiasts and causing symbiotic businesses like Hemmings, DuPont Registry, and AutoTrader to fire up their own legal teams to protect their right to sell pictures of cars with trademarks on cars in their magazines).

In fact, if I just want to p!55 off even more people, broadly speaking doctors make lousy investors and salesmen are suckers for pitches outside their area of expertise.

 

For those of you not familiar with CafePress, what they do is put logos that customers provide on all sorts of products: shirts, jackets, mugs, even thongs! I am willing to bet that they were approached by Ford to stop selling products that people had uploaded involving the Blue Oval and its associated trademarks. To avoid getting in trouble with them, CafePress has since cracked down on any products involving the Ford Motor Co. That seems very likely at this time to me, I'm glad they got it resolved.

It's obvious that Ford would not want to lose any more fans at this point, they need all they can get...

 

FWIW, Disney shut down my sisters grade school production. They wanted the school to pay a fee. Damn Disney.

What gets me is they must have a team that scours all the media to see if anyone is promoting a Disney play.

 

Evey large company pays media monitors to cover their name, competitors or events that interest them.