I have no idea what that phrase means. My point was that I don't think someone else needs to ask my permission to use the my name or my company's name first, b

I have no idea what that phrase means. My point was that I don't think someone else needs to ask my permission to use the my name or my company's name first, but likewise I don't think they should be surprised (let alone indignant) when I ask them knock it off, politely or not. This is doubly true if they're being a bit cheeky and they know it. Honestly, if I'm running a site premised on integrating with another service in a particular way without that service's buy-in, I'm going to expect at some point they'll get in touch with me. If I'm doing something I know they won't like, I'm going to expect that contact will come in the form of something between a strongly-worded email and a C&D. We're talking about a C&D here. This is not some life-ending legal apocalypse. He could simply choose not to respond. He could pay an attorney $100 for an hour of his time if he felt that was too big a risk and learn about nominative use. I just don't think this rises to the level of moral outrage everyone else seems to think it does. I'm not defending Tumblr, but I don't think what they did was beyond the pale.