Behind the Buzz - digital and interactive advertising and marketing

Black Mustang Club and Ford

by Rachel on January 19th, 2008

Earlier this week there was a huge blog blowup regarding how Ford had sent a Cease and Desist Letter to Cafe Press and the Black Mustang Club preventing them from printing a calendar featuring club members and their cars. The reaction was generally about how stupid Ford were, how they could not do this, how they were being big, archaic old media business trying to shut down the brand fans they rely on. The truth was not as clear cut.

• Jan 5 - the club upload the calendar images to Cafe Press and open the doors for orders
• Jan 9 - the club find out that 90 out of 197 images they had were removed from Cafe Press. They’d not been notified by Cafe Press that the images had gone and on contacting them found out the Ford had apparently told CP that the images were infringing. The BMC start working with an attorney.
• 13 Jan - post appears on Boing Boing. Blogstorm blows up.
• 15 Jan - BMC founder Lisa posts an update, thanking people for their support and askingthem to ot contact Ford and let her know of any communications that had been received.
• 15 Jan - in a second update, Lisa confirms that all is OK. Ford had never sent a C&D and were fine with the Club printing their own calendar. From Whitney, who works for Ford.
  

  Yesterday we spoke to both Cafe Press and the Black Mustang Club
  and explained the situation (about the Black Mustang Club’s calendar) to everyone’s satisfaction. Ford has no problem with Mustang or other car owners taking pictures of their vehicles for use in club materials like calendars. What we do have an issue with are individuals using Ford’s logo and other trademarks for products they intend to sell. Understandably, we have to take the protection of our brands and licensing very seriously.

  Ford did not send the Black Mustang Club a “cease and desist” letter telling them that they could not use images of their own cars in their calendar. The decision not to allow the calendars to be printed was made by Cafe Press, because we had gotten in touch with them in the past about trademark infringements on products they sold.

  The Black Mustang Club, and any other Ford enthusiast club, are free to take pictures of their own vehicles for use in calendars or other materials as long as they don’t use Ford trademarks in products that will be sold.

  I think it is great that the Black Mustang Club, and any other enthusiast club, would take pictures of their own vehicles for use in calendars or other materials.

  The BMC ask everyone to spread the word that Ford are not the villain here, that they never were involved and they are OK with fans taking photos of their own cards.

So Cafe Press had taken a unilateral decision, based on previous notifications, to remove images without informing the owner. This appears to be against their own policy, which is based on the DMCA, which means that rights owners need to actively request take downs in each case - and the uploader needs to be informed. This may have unintended consequences for the popular site, apart from the BMC not using them again.

For a brand, it’s an example of how quickly a story can spread, especially if it hits some key interests, such as IP rights and technology and Web2.0 sites. Social media cannot be controlled and brands need to be watchful and be ready to work with fans when something like this happens to reduce damage and hte spread of a false story.

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POSTED IN: Buzz Marketing, Influence Marketing