Text 6544, 49 rader
Skriven 2005-08-11 11:00:40 av Rich Gauszka (1:379/45)
Ärende: used Fedex boxes violate DCMA?
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From: "Rich Gauszka" <gauszka@hotmail.com>


http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,68492,00.html?tw=rss.TOP

Most of us have been there. You can just barely afford to pay the rent. But
forget about buying furniture -- not if you want to eat, anyway.

Jose Avila recently found himself in just that predicament. Although he has a
good job as a software developer, he's locked into two rents after moving to
Arizona, and has no extra cash for an Ikea shopping spree. But instead of
scouting street corners for a ratty, unwanted couch, Avila got creative and
built an apartment full of surprisingly sturdy furniture -- out of FedEx
shipping boxes.

Fanciful as his creations may seem, FedEx is not amused. The shipping giant's
lawyers have sent Avila letters demanding he take down the site he created to
document his project, invoking, among other things, the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act (.pdf), or DMCA.

Avila said he never intended to make money from the site, or to exploit FedEx
in any way. He said he simply wanted to spread the word that "it's OK to be
ghetto."

"That's pretty much the motto of the site," he said. "When you're stuck in a
bind and you're feeling down, it's not the end of the world."

But that feel-good message seems to be lost on FedEx. The company claims that
Avila is infringing on its trademark and its copyright. The day after Avila
launched the site in June, FedEx asked him to take it down, claiming he had
violated the DMCA.

Lawyers at the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society, who are
representing Avila, argued the company's claims don't relate to copyright and
therefore the DMCA doesn't apply. Rather, the claims refer to trademark
infringement and conversion. After talking with his lawyers, Avila put the site
back up.

"DMCA only applies to copyrighted works, and they were basically making
trademark-related claims, so it was completely outrageous," said Lauren Gelman,
associate director of the Stanford center. "This is just an example of how
lawyers take advantage of copyright laws to use protecting provisions like
those in the DMCA to take down stuff they just don't like."

A FedEx representative did not respond to questions about the claims and
whether the company planned to take legal action against Avila.

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