4 ms·

No but suspending someones twitter handle because you accidentally named a conference after their online identity is still a dick move. How hard is it to goggl

by Fuxy 12y ago

No but suspending someones twitter handle because you accidentally named a conference after their online identity is still a dick move. How hard is it to goggle something before you name a conference after it.

chiph 12y ago
He started changing his account to look like theirs. So as far as the Twitter rep knew, he was infringing.
- Fuxy 12y ago
  Parody is not really impersonation and Future Snack =/= Future Stack =/= Future Shack etc. If they have a problem with it they shouldn't have named the conference after his identity to begin with. It's first come first serve in my book and he definitely got the domain to prove it. Isn't it like branding/marketing 101 get the twitter handle, get the domain, etc?
  - RubyPinch 12y ago
    fair use (parody relevance) only comes into play if it starts getting treated as a legal thing additionally it was more than enough for someone to mistake that account as the conference account at a glance http://futurestack.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Screen-shot-2014-07-23-at-11.04.00-PM.png http://futurestack.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Scree... from this you can see at the time he was using the FutureStack image itself (the line just below the logo is from the original, not his edit), so presumably at the time he got suspended, he was using the original FS logo
    - x1798DE 12y ago
      I think that's definitely his mock logo, not the original. The original logo is anti-aliased and thin, not in that blocky 8-bit style. You can also see the squared-off "NeoFossil" logo above, not the rounded New Relic logo. I think he probably cut it out of a different mock splash page he made that had a line starting with "changing..."
  - unreal37 12y ago
    I used the name "Unreal" as an internet handle before the game Unreal came out. First come, first serve - I guess I should have gone after them.
  - pyre 12y ago
    > Isn't it like branding/marketing 101 get the twitter handle, get the domain, etc? Dropbox was at getdropbox.com for a while before they were able to purchase the dropbox.com domain.
ben336 12y ago
He admitted he was trying to impersonate them on Twitter. Thats the type of move that will get anyone suspended.
- x1798DE 12y ago
  Doesn't seem to have gotten this popular account suspended: https://twitter.com/untitledairlane https://twitter.com/untitledairlane
  - jasonlfunk 12y ago
    There are plenty of parody accounts out there. Impersonating someone is different.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - eli 12y ago
    Twitter actually has specific rules for parody accounts: https://support.twitter.com/articles/106373-parody-commentary-and-fan-account-policy https://support.twitter.com/articles/106373-parody-commentar... Does not seem like he was following them.
unreal37 12y ago
He said he began to impersonate them to try to gain some of their followers... That got him suspended. As someone who is involved in naming things for big companies sometimes, it's actually quite hard to find a name that isn't registered as a trademark. I don't like the idea of someone claiming all uses of a name forever. Very few companies (McDonalds, Disney, Coca-Cola) get that right over all uses of their name, and it should remain very few.
- alasdair_ 12y ago
  Even McDonald's doesn't "get that right over all uses of their name" - there are plenty of shops in Scotland called McDonalds. (In particular, there is a Hallmark-like shop in Glasgow that has the same name as, and is on the same street as, a McDonalds hamburgers).
  - unreal37 12y ago
    In Scotland, I can see that being a difficult case for McDonald's to win. But then in the U.S., they win a case against a guy trying to market "MacDimSum", as they claim consumers would be confused that its a McDonald's product. They won that case, so food products cannot have the prefix Mc or Mac. Trademark can sometimes grant vast powers to famous brands.
    - frobozz 12y ago
      Macsween and McVities are both major food brands.
- danielweber 12y ago
  Impersonating the other FS also confused his story. I saw the logo on his tweets was the logo at futurestack.io, I thought that he made the logo first, and then futurestack.io copied it. And that would have crossed a serious line. Instead, the artist crossed the line first and cost himself a claim to clean hands. He deliberately caused confusion, which is what brands are supposed to protect against.
aknalid 12y ago
I just tried to goggle something. Didn't work. So, makes sense.
cyorir 12y ago
Maybe they skipped Google. After all, there is already a better search engine[0] when looking for existing names of brands. [0] http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/ http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/

by Fuxy 12y ago

chiph 12y ago

He started changing his account to look like theirs. So as far as the Twitter rep knew, he was infringing.

Fuxy 12y ago
Parody is not really impersonation and Future Snack =/= Future Stack =/= Future Shack etc. If they have a problem with it they shouldn't have named the conference after his identity to begin with. It's first come first serve in my book and he definitely got the domain to prove it. Isn't it like branding/marketing 101 get the twitter handle, get the domain, etc?
- RubyPinch 12y ago
  fair use (parody relevance) only comes into play if it starts getting treated as a legal thing additionally it was more than enough for someone to mistake that account as the conference account at a glance http://futurestack.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Screen-shot-2014-07-23-at-11.04.00-PM.png http://futurestack.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Scree... from this you can see at the time he was using the FutureStack image itself (the line just below the logo is from the original, not his edit), so presumably at the time he got suspended, he was using the original FS logo
  - x1798DE 12y ago
    I think that's definitely his mock logo, not the original. The original logo is anti-aliased and thin, not in that blocky 8-bit style. You can also see the squared-off "NeoFossil" logo above, not the rounded New Relic logo. I think he probably cut it out of a different mock splash page he made that had a line starting with "changing..."
- unreal37 12y ago
  I used the name "Unreal" as an internet handle before the game Unreal came out. First come, first serve - I guess I should have gone after them.
- pyre 12y ago
  > Isn't it like branding/marketing 101 get the twitter handle, get the domain, etc? Dropbox was at getdropbox.com for a while before they were able to purchase the dropbox.com domain.

ben336 12y ago

He admitted he was trying to impersonate them on Twitter. Thats the type of move that will get anyone suspended.

x1798DE 12y ago
Doesn't seem to have gotten this popular account suspended: https://twitter.com/untitledairlane https://twitter.com/untitledairlane
- jasonlfunk 12y ago
  There are plenty of parody accounts out there. Impersonating someone is different.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- eli 12y ago
  Twitter actually has specific rules for parody accounts: https://support.twitter.com/articles/106373-parody-commentary-and-fan-account-policy https://support.twitter.com/articles/106373-parody-commentar... Does not seem like he was following them.

unreal37 12y ago

He said he began to impersonate them to try to gain some of their followers... That got him suspended. As someone who is involved in naming things for big companies sometimes, it's actually quite hard to find a name that isn't registered as a trademark. I don't like the idea of someone claiming all uses of a name forever. Very few companies (McDonalds, Disney, Coca-Cola) get that right over all uses of their name, and it should remain very few.

alasdair_ 12y ago
Even McDonald's doesn't "get that right over all uses of their name" - there are plenty of shops in Scotland called McDonalds. (In particular, there is a Hallmark-like shop in Glasgow that has the same name as, and is on the same street as, a McDonalds hamburgers).
- unreal37 12y ago
  In Scotland, I can see that being a difficult case for McDonald's to win. But then in the U.S., they win a case against a guy trying to market "MacDimSum", as they claim consumers would be confused that its a McDonald's product. They won that case, so food products cannot have the prefix Mc or Mac. Trademark can sometimes grant vast powers to famous brands.
  - frobozz 12y ago
    Macsween and McVities are both major food brands.
danielweber 12y ago
Impersonating the other FS also confused his story. I saw the logo on his tweets was the logo at futurestack.io, I thought that he made the logo first, and then futurestack.io copied it. And that would have crossed a serious line. Instead, the artist crossed the line first and cost himself a claim to clean hands. He deliberately caused confusion, which is what brands are supposed to protect against.

aknalid 12y ago

I just tried to goggle something. Didn't work. So, makes sense.

cyorir 12y ago

Maybe they skipped Google. After all, there is already a better search engine[0] when looking for existing names of brands. [0] http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/ http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/