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04 April 2007

Copyright: Indecision 2008

Dear Shopkeeper,

Thank you for using CafePress.com!

As you may know, CafePress.com provides a service to a rich and vibrant community of international users. From time to time, we review the content in our shopkeepers accounts to confirm that the content being used in connection with the sale of products are in compliance with our policies, including our Content Usage Policy (CUP).

We recently learned that your CafePress.com account contains material which may not be in compliance with our policies. Specifically, designing, manufacturing, marketing and/or selling products that may infringe the rights of a third party, including, copyrights (e.g., an image of a television cartoon character), trademarks (e.g., the logo of a company), "rights in gross" (e.g., the exclusive right of the U.S. Olympic Committee to use the "Olympic Rings"), and rights of privacy and publicity (e.g., a photo of a celebrity) are prohibited.

Accordingly, we have set the content that we believe to be questionable to "pending status" which disables said content from being displayed in your shop or purchased by the public.

You may review the content set to pending status by logging into your CafePress.com account and clicking on the "Media Basket" link. The content set to pending status will be highlighted red.

Please visit our Content Usage Policy (CUP) for additional information regarding your use of the CafePress.com service. Once there, you may access our Copyright, Trademark & Intellectual Property Guidelines and FAQ's for more detailed information regarding Intellectual Property Rights.

We apologize for any inconvenience that the removal of your content may have caused you. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

Sincerely,


Content Usage Associate
CafePress.com
CUP@cafepress.com

7 comments:

  1. These images were erroneously flagged. I made those images myself using GIMP's text tool, an open source flag image, and the official USA presidential seal, which is in the public domain. These images were put together in order to further our own political views.

    Malachi

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear EOTI Sales,

    Thank you for contacting CafePress.com!

    We apologize for any inconvenience this matter may cause you. Unfortunately, use of the likeness of the seal of the President is a violation of federal law under U.S. Code, Title 18, Section 713. For more information regarding use of the seal please visit

    http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/casecode/uscodes/18/parts/i/chapters/33/sections/section_713.html.

    Accordingly, we have set the images in question to 'pending status' which disables said content from being displayed in your shop or purchased by the public. You may review the content set to pending status by logging into your CafePress.com account and clicking on the 'Media Basket' link. The content set to pending status will be highlighted red.

    For more information regarding our Content Usage Policy please visit http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/help/cup.aspx.

    We apologize for any inconvenience our actions may cause you. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you for finding that. I did not realize that the seal could not be used for presidential campaigns.

    Would the attached image be an acceptable replacement?

    Thanks,
    Malachi

    ReplyDelete
  5. You can't use the Presidential Seal? Since when?!?!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Well, I looked over the law on one of the .gov sites, and it appears that it was originally put in during Nixon's presidency -- but the law at that time would have allowed it for our use. The most recent change to the law happened in 2004. The current law says that the exceptions are listed in the Federal Register. Checking their site, I could find no information....

    So I contacted:
    Sharon C. Bisdee
    Chief of the Presidential Appointments Staff
    United States Department of State
    Tel: (202) 647-9731
    Fax: (202) 647-4694

    She said that the best bet is to talk with an attorney, but that the general rule of thumb is that it is allowed for educational use but not commercial use -- regardless of whether it is for the Presidential Elections or not.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Well, CafePress said that
    this image
    isn't acceptable either and that if I want to try any other images I have to contact a lawyer.

    I don't know about you but I think that is complete BS. Who in their right minds is going to assume that image is the "official" seal?

    ReplyDelete