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Retraction from Tumblr

istumblrdown.com

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Re: Retraction from Tumblr

#41

Post by samuelfine »

bowlofpetunias wrote: post #40

> ...pursuing trademark infringers... That's the part they should be apologizing for. Unless their business is actually getting hurt in any way (is someone selling fake Chinese made Tumblr t-shirts on the black market?), this is just a systematic exercise in corporate bullying. They shouldn't be engaged in this in the first place. Tumblr is not friggin' Nike.

"...is someone selling fake Chinese made Tumblr t-shirts on the black market?"

I wouldn't be surprised. Tumblr just sold for a billion dollars, remember? That's certainly a brand worth protecting.

Re: Retraction from Tumblr

#43

Post by Groxx »

alan_cx wrote: post #32

Why no appreciation of the apology? If all people are going to do is find fault with people apologizing, why bother? How should Tumblr reacted? What are they supposed to do?

Probably because, as nice as this is, fixing an instance doesn't imply fixing the problem. The problem is (arguably) over-zealous protection - this does nothing to address that, it just brings back a single high-profile HN-popular site.

Re: Retraction from Tumblr

#44

Post by ben0x539 »

alan_cx wrote: post #32

Why no appreciation of the apology? If all people are going to do is find fault with people apologizing, why bother? How should Tumblr reacted? What are they supposed to do?

Why should we appreciate the apology? We might blame tumblr a little less now than if they'd stayed their course, but I don't see why it should swing over into appreciation of what they're doing.

Perceivedly, it happens a lot that big scary companies bully smaller entities with meritless but expensive-to-fight legal threats. That sometimes there's enough of a public notice of that to make the company reconsider and to limit the damage done is just part of the game and doesn't really leave them without blame, it just means they got "caught" this time.

Re: Retraction from Tumblr

#45

Post by sjtgraham »

bowlofpetunias wrote: post #40

> ...pursuing trademark infringers... That's the part they should be apologizing for. Unless their business is actually getting hurt in any way (is someone selling fake Chinese made Tumblr t-shirts on the black market?), this is just a systematic exercise in corporate bullying. They shouldn't be engaged in this in the first place. Tumblr is not friggin' Nike.

There's no choice in the matter. Do you realise trademark holders have to vigorously defend their marks in order for them to remain protected? Failure to do so jeopardises protection.

Disclaimer: IANAL

Re: Retraction from Tumblr

#46

Post by zachinglis »

alan_cx wrote: post #32

Why no appreciation of the apology? If all people are going to do is find fault with people apologizing, why bother? How should Tumblr reacted? What are they supposed to do?

I am appreciative. I wrote as much to the lawyer who contacted me. I should put that I am appreciative in.

Re: Retraction from Tumblr

#47

Post by aespinoza »

ben0x539 wrote: post #44
alan_cx wrote: post #32

Why no appreciation of the apology? If all people are going to do is find fault with people apologizing, why bother? How should Tumblr reacted? What are they supposed to do?

Why should we appreciate the apology? We might blame tumblr a little less now than if they'd stayed their course, but I don't see why it should swing over into appreciation of what they're doing. Perceivedly, it happens a lot that big scary companies bully smaller entities with meritless but expensive-to-fight legal threats. That sometimes there's enough of a public notice of that to make the company reconsider and t…

I think you are missing the point here. It is stupid to blame Tumblr for all the other big scary companies. They made a mistake. They apologized and fixed the problem, and according to the apology they found a bug in their process and fixed it.

Instead of bashing Tumblr for apologizing, we should be happy they retracted. If HN was the reason why they retracted, then great. But let's stop looking down on Tumblr purring ourselves at the top.

We are all at the same boat and same level. We are all trying to make our companies work.

Re: Retraction from Tumblr

#48

Post by chadwickthebold »

sjtgraham wrote: post #45
bowlofpetunias wrote: post #40

> ...pursuing trademark infringers... That's the part they should be apologizing for. Unless their business is actually getting hurt in any way (is someone selling fake Chinese made Tumblr t-shirts on the black market?), this is just a systematic exercise in corporate bullying. They shouldn't be engaged in this in the first place. Tumblr is not friggin' Nike.

There's no choice in the matter. Do you realise trademark holders have to vigorously defend their marks in order for them to remain protected? Failure to do so jeopardises protection. Disclaimer: IANAL

... and istumblrdown.com is somehow stealing tumblr's business?

Re: Retraction from Tumblr

#49

Post by mikeash »

alan_cx wrote: post #32

Why no appreciation of the apology? If all people are going to do is find fault with people apologizing, why bother? How should Tumblr reacted? What are they supposed to do?

It's a bad apology. There's no real admission that they messed up (they implicitly blame a third party, and "process") and no mention whatsoever of doing anything to avoid future mistakes like this.

Re: Retraction from Tumblr

#50

Post by whistlerbrk »

aespinoza wrote: post #47
ben0x539 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should we appreciate the apology? We might blame tumblr a little less now than if they'd stayed their course, but I don't see why it should swing over into appreciation of what they're doing. Perceivedly, it happens a lot that big scary companies bully smaller entities with meritless but expensive-to-fight legal threats. That sometimes there's enough of a public notice of that to make the company reconsider and t…

I think you are missing the point here. It is stupid to blame Tumblr for all the other big scary companies. They made a mistake. They apologized and fixed the problem, and according to the apology they found a bug in their process and fixed it. Instead of bashing Tumblr for apologizing, we should be happy they retracted. If HN was the reason why they retracted, then great. But let's stop looking down on Tumblr purrin…

He is missing the point, it's not even his apology to accept, it's Zach's. He's appeared to do since he considers the apology 'genuine'.

The thing to note in all this is:

"Our legal department very recently started using a third party vendor to assist us in pursuing trademark infringers and, due to an error in our new process, your domain was mistakenly caught in the cross-fire."

If tumblr has switched to yahoo! legal, that is not a nice side effect of the acquisition.

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