Custom Toy Blogger Accused Of Infringing On Wolverine

from the take-a-look-at-the-photos dept

Mon, Apr 20th 2009 1:22pm — Mike Masnick

Reader shaniac points us to a blog post on a custom toy blog, where the blogger explains how some of his photo galleries of custom toys he made were forced offline due to a DMCA takedown notice from 20th Century Fox, claiming that they infringed on intellectual property from the Wolverine movie. Except, if you look at the images, it seems pretty clear that they've got nothing, whatsoever, to do with Wolverine. In other words, 20th Century Fox appears to have broken the law, in claiming it held the copyright over the figures in those images, when it appears it did not. Unfortunately, the site hosting his content doesn't fully understand that under the DMCA it can re-enable his content if he files a counternotice and 20th Century Fox fails to file a lawsuit within a specified period of time. Instead, it's told the blogger that he needs to get the lawyer from 20th Century Fox to agree that the content doesn't infringe -- and the lawyers don't seem to be responding to any emails, meaning that the blogger is stuck in limbo for no good reason.

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Filed Under: copyright, custom toys, dmca, takedown, toys, wolverine
Companies: 20th century fox, news corp

15 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 20 Apr 2009 @ 1:52pm

gotta love the dmca file&forget
it does not get any better
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Apr 2009 @ 2:00pm

Wow, this one is beyond reason. If you look at the figures the only resemblance to Wolverine is one character has sideburns. Instead of blogging he should retain a lawyer who will work for a cut of the settlement cuz they have 20th Century by the balls.
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interval, 20 Apr 2009 @ 2:08pm

And we're always reminded that ignorance of the law is no excuse...
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Coyote, 20 Apr 2009 @ 2:08pm

So?
Host. Somewhere. Else.
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The infamous Joe, 20 Apr 2009 @ 2:21pm

Re: So?
Why should he have to? He hasn't done anything wrong!
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Overcast, 20 Apr 2009 @ 2:21pm

I wonder how much money these companies are wasting on trolling the web for their crap...

And because they are acting like such asses - when I go to the Cinema next, I will intentionally avoid any and all movies from this company.

This is so stupid, I don't know why people even bother with their content anymore. This is really crying out "WE NEED NEW MEDIA COMPANIES".
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Davis Freeberg, 20 Apr 2009 @ 2:23pm

Shoot First Questions Later
It does sound like he has a lousy hosting company, but there should be consequences when the studios make these types of false accusations. I bet if some random person started filing DMCA complaints against the official Wolverine site, it would never even get pulled down.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Apr 2009 @ 3:09pm

Re: Shoot First Questions Later
There are consequences for filing false DMCA takedowns. Its part of the DMCA itself, and has always been there. Thats the whole point of this article, to point out that the hosting company has no clue how the DMCA works.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Apr 2009 @ 3:10pm

Re:
why avoid their movies? Just download them for free like everyone else does. And keep downloading them for free until they figure it out.
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Slackr, 20 Apr 2009 @ 3:20pm

Honestly this is just sad. Take a look at those photos and TRY and see the similarity. Someone at 20th Century Fox either has way too much time on their hands, a drug habit, or a really really good imagination (probably all three).

This kind of stuff should never happen. Plain ridiculous.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Apr 2009 @ 3:37pm

Re: Re: Shoot First Questions Later
There hasn't been any consequences to anyone as of yet that I've heard of. The consequences should be to who ever file the false DMCA take-down notice. As I understand it part of the DMCA take-down notice is that the copyright of the subject material is owned by the originator of the notice. Even a moron in a hurry (I know that's actually a legal standard for trademark law) would know that these images have nothing to do with the Wolverine therefore Fox and their lawyers have violated the law. They should be prosecuted and the lawyers who actually filed the notice should be disbarred or at the very least severely sanctioned. But that would mean the law was actually fair and equally enforced.
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ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 20 Apr 2009 @ 3:40pm

The law is fair, just and equitable
...for anyone who can afford it.

In a related development, the estate of General Burnsides is considering its legal options.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Apr 2009 @ 6:26am

Re: Re: So?
Because his host is an idiot and he shouldn't be giving them his money.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Apr 2009 @ 6:28am

Re: Re: Shoot First Questions Later
There are potential consequences, but that doesn't mean they're enforced.
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hegemon13, 21 Apr 2009 @ 10:28am

Re: Re: So?
Well, he doesn't have to. He can continue to get ripped off. I can tell you that if a store sold me a defective good and gave me a hard time returning it, I probably wouldn't go back. This seems like a similar situation. He CAN continue to use this host, but personally, I'd move my stuff far away from them and warn all my associates to avoid them, as well.
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