Best Buy Goes C&D Happy

I've often marveled at the stupidity of corporate empires. Retail chains conjur images of Corporate Moguls sitting high upon their thrones far and away from the petty serfs that work their land an produce profits from which the moguls grow fat. Soon, a dashing young man comes in to mock the system playfully, but the moguls are unhappy with the mocking, so they send Sheriffs Cease and Desist to end the young man's games. Unfortunately for the moguls, all it does is splash more mud upon their faces and generate ill will among the masses.

I'm not sure I want to bring the ire of this corporation down on Homotron, but this story is just too much. Improv troop Improv Everywhere decided to print up shirts that mocked an iconic national retailers' work uniforms. Originally, I was going to refrain from saying which company (read the C&D to understand why), but after reading the apology letter I feel confident in saying that the company was Best Buy. The shirts were navy blue and featured a yellow price tag with the words Improv Everywhere inserted in the price tag.

Now, Best Buy sent a C&D to Improv Everywhere to get them to stop selling the shirts, as the company interpreted the shirt mockery as copyright infringement. Where the story gets absurd is when website Laughing Squid posted about the C&D Improv Everywhere recieved, they also received a C&D, saying Laughing Squid was abusing the copyrights of BB because Laughing Squid promoted the sale of said t-shirts and used copyright infringing images!

Laughing Squad insisted that they were bloggers simply reporting on a news story, and Best Buy eventually sent them an apology letter and backed down from the C&D, but to me the damage has already been done. You "screwed the pooch" on this one Best Buy. Sending a C&D to Improv Everywhere was bad enough, but trying to use scare tactics to infringe upon a bloggers journalistic efforts (yes, the Supreme Court has already decided that bloggers that make journalistic efforts can be considered journalists) is just plain shameful.

[via: Slashdot]
[Image of Improv Everywhere's Shirtless Men via Improv Eveywhere]