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Getting a Cease and Desist from Waffle House

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Re: Getting a Cease and Desist from Waffle House

#201

Post by closewith »

AStonesThrow wrote: post #172
frereubu wrote: post #158

I put up a (much less interesting and more nerdily annoyed) site that described how Dannon / Danone was using made-up sciency names for the bacteria in their yoghurt, and their legal department got in touch. I didn't back down: https://whatisbifidusregularis.org/legal-action-against-this... I think this example would have been fine if the Waffle House branding had been removed. Then just put a big disclaimer at the t…

Your website seems to be an aggregator of surface-level news blurbs from the mainstream media and some interviews with individual physicians. There are claims about "made-up" names and "correct scientific names". Putting health claims aside, there are no citations to any legislation that may have prevented a manufacturer from writing these names on a label. This website has a UK perspective, but I was trying to recal…

> Always receiving legal assent to sell fruit juice [nuts are fruits] with a mammalian name.

If you mean things like oat milk, it's unlawful in the EU (and I think still the UK) to label plant-based alternatives as milk or dairy under EU Regulation 1308/2013.

Re: Getting a Cease and Desist from Waffle House

#202

Post by frereubu »

AStonesThrow wrote: post #172
frereubu wrote: post #158

I put up a (much less interesting and more nerdily annoyed) site that described how Dannon / Danone was using made-up sciency names for the bacteria in their yoghurt, and their legal department got in touch. I didn't back down: https://whatisbifidusregularis.org/legal-action-against-this... I think this example would have been fine if the Waffle House branding had been removed. Then just put a big disclaimer at the t…

Your website seems to be an aggregator of surface-level news blurbs from the mainstream media and some interviews with individual physicians. There are claims about "made-up" names and "correct scientific names". Putting health claims aside, there are no citations to any legislation that may have prevented a manufacturer from writing these names on a label. This website has a UK perspective, but I was trying to recal…

I know that all names are essentially "made up". It's the implicit nature of the "sciency" bit that annoys me. I don't believe Danone did a stroke of real science to come up with a bacteria that had any material difference from any other live yoghurt. The astronomers who discovered 25924 Douglasadams did do the science. Do you think Danone did any randomised controlled trials to measure its effectiveness over any other kind of live yoghurt? Of course not.

The idea of the site and its domain name is to try to get to the top of search engine rankings - which it has done successfully - so anyone who searches for it gets a clear answer, rather than just marketing fluff. I noticed that the Pages widget on the right was missing, which I've now reinstated, but here's the background to why I did it: https://whatisbifidusregularis.org/about-this-site/

Re: Getting a Cease and Desist from Waffle House

#203

Post by Havoc »

rapidaneurism wrote: post #191
Havoc wrote: post #113

>No live feed, no map, and certainly no counter of closed restaurants I wouldn't be so sure about that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waffle_House_Index#/media/File...

I think the op implies a feed, map, or counter that is relatively fresh. The image you link to is 11 years old. Is there a link to a map no older than say a few hours?

I don't think it ever was public - either 11 years ago or now. My point was more there is a dashboard and FEMA does seem to have access

Re: Getting a Cease and Desist from Waffle House

#205

Post by mystified5016 »

cainxinth wrote: post #204
mickey475778 wrote: post #195

[dead]

They also likely don’t want consumers associating their brand with natural disasters.

They very specifically and emphatically do want you to associate the brand with natural disasters. They put a significant amount of money and effort into this

Re: Getting a Cease and Desist from Waffle House

#207

Post by DrillShopper »

cinntaile wrote: post #198
lurkshark wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately Craigslist pushed a precedent that puts scraping into risky territory. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craigslist_Inc._v._3Taps_Inc . Obviously this was a much different circumstance than a not-for-profit side project but still something to keep in mind.

All the AI companies are doing it so it must be fine. Right?

This but also with copyright.

Re: Getting a Cease and Desist from Waffle House

#208

Post by myvoiceismypass »

AStonesThrow wrote: post #172
frereubu wrote: post #158

I put up a (much less interesting and more nerdily annoyed) site that described how Dannon / Danone was using made-up sciency names for the bacteria in their yoghurt, and their legal department got in touch. I didn't back down: https://whatisbifidusregularis.org/legal-action-against-this... I think this example would have been fine if the Waffle House branding had been removed. Then just put a big disclaimer at the t…

Your website seems to be an aggregator of surface-level news blurbs from the mainstream media and some interviews with individual physicians. There are claims about "made-up" names and "correct scientific names". Putting health claims aside, there are no citations to any legislation that may have prevented a manufacturer from writing these names on a label. This website has a UK perspective, but I was trying to recal…

> Conversely, the food industry has taken names such as "milk" and "water", and expanded their definitions far beyond what common people recognize as those substances. Always receiving legal assent to sell fruit juice [nuts are fruits] with a mammalian name.

People don't seem to be complaining about that substance (not to be named) that usually goes with jelly on bread, and is not actually a dairy product.

This timeline is interesting: https://www.soyinfocenter.com/pdf/166/Milk.pdf

Re: Getting a Cease and Desist from Waffle House

#209

Post by listenallyall »

quantified wrote: post #165
HWR_14 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't blame the legal department. They are legally required to send a C&D in situations like that or they can lose their trademarks.

What about the Big Mac index that the Economist uses to measure purchase price parity across countries?

The equivalent would be a simple text list of all Waffle Houses currently closed, sourced by physically visiting each location and noting any closures. The author here used Waffle House's branding and logos, and also sourced the data by scraping their web site.

Re: Getting a Cease and Desist from Waffle House

#210

Post by listenallyall »

Molitor5901 wrote: post #87
mk_stjames wrote: post #84

I'm surprised at some of the comments here that don't see Waffle House's side of this. You're a company, and some third party makes a website that very much looks like it could be official, using your name and logo in part, and this website is purporting to know the open/close status of your stores. Literally an indicator if people should bother going out to spend money at your business or not. An actual signal to ec…

I think we all see Waffle House's side of this, but there is a best, better, and worst way to engage a customer. A cease and desist is the worst, it's taking something which could have been handled by PR, to a legal threat. Regardless of Waffle House's legal rights, which they do have, from a public perception and way to run a company it was not the right approach. They should have embraced this guy and his website,…

What gives you the impression that WH loves what he was doing? The company has never embraced its utility as a disaster index.
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