Cease and Desist - scam reviews?

Lynne Level 1

August 5, 2016, 2:55 am

7

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Cease and Desist - scam reviews?

Can anyone advise? As most of you know I have done a good number of scam reviews on my one website. I did a review of SmashFund a while back and they have now sent me a cease and desist legal letter. I have been instructed to remove all content from my website, from Youtube and from all my social networks.

My personal feeling is that they are just being threatening, what you think? If you check them out on Google Trends they are on the way down and fast.

I suppose to be on the safe side I should just remove everything right? What a bummer!

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Webguy2024

Webguy2024

Don't be so quick to follow these demands! Is this a free speech issue?

Did the letter come from an actual law office? Smashfund is a Delaware Corp but arbitration is in Oregon so, they are USA company. What are they claiming that you did that requires a takedown of the information? If you are just reporting on a company and giving a review you have every right to say whatever you want as long as you don't slander a person. Reviews are protected speech and even use of their logo's in the review are considered fair use.

9 years ago

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Lynne

Lynne

Yes that is what I thought but these companies can have a lot of clout and make things difficult for me. I don't know if it is worth the effort of fighting them about it.

I think they are just being threatening and trying to intimidate me.

I said what I think of their so called opportunity, it certainly wasn't a very good review, but I don't believe what I did was slander or done in any way maliciously. I just believe it is a shoddy opportunity that will make people lose money.

9 years ago

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Webguy2024

Webguy2024

Don't worry about Trademark infringement unless you are engaged in the same business and using their trademark or trade name to earn revenue.

http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/what-is-fair-use/
http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/four-factors/

"What Is Fair Use?

In its most general sense, a fair use is any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and “transformative” purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work. Such uses can be done without permission from the copyright owner. In other words, fair use is a defense against a claim of copyright infringement. If your use qualifies as a fair use, then it would not be considered an illegal infringement.

So what is a “transformative” use? If this definition seems ambiguous or vague, be aware that millions of dollars in legal fees have been spent attempting to define what qualifies as a fair use. There are no hard-and-fast rules, only general rules and varied court decisions, because the judges and lawmakers who created the fair use exception did not want to limit its definition. Like free speech, they wanted it to have an expansive meaning that could be open to interpretation.

Most fair use analysis falls into two categories: (1) commentary and criticism, or (2) parody.

Commentary and Criticism

If you are commenting upon or critiquing a copyrighted work — for instance, writing a book review — fair use principles allow you to reproduce some of the work to achieve your purposes. Some examples of commentary and criticism include:

quoting a few lines from a Bob Dylan song in a music review
summarizing and quoting from a medical article on prostate cancer in a news report
copying a few paragraphs from a news article for use by a teacher or student in a lesson, or
copying a portion of a Sports Illustrated magazine article for use in a related court case.

The underlying rationale of this rule is that the public reaps benefits from your review, which is enhanced by including some of the copyrighted material. Additional examples of commentary or criticism are provided in the examples of fair use cases.

Parody

A parody is a work that ridicules another, usually well-known work, by imitating it in a comic way. Judges understand that, by its nature, parody demands some taking from the original work being parodied. Unlike other forms of fair use, a fairly extensive use of the original work is permitted in a parody in order to “conjure up” the original." Don't worry about Trademark infringement unless you are engaged in the same business and using their trademark or trade name to earn revenue. http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/what-is-fair-use/ http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/four-factors/ [i][b]"What Is Fair Use?[/b] In its most general sense, a fair use is any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and “transformative” purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work. Such uses can be done without permission from the copyright owner. In other words, fair use is a defense against a claim of copyright infringement. If your use qualifies as a fair use, then it would not be considered an illegal infringement. So what is a “transformative” use? If this definition seems ambiguous or vague, be aware that millions of dollars in legal fees have been spent attempting to define what qualifies as a fair use. There are no hard-and-fast rules, only general rules and varied court decisions, because the judges and lawmakers who created the fair use exception did not want to limit its definition. Like free speech, they wanted it to have an expansive meaning that could be open to interpretation. Most fair use analysis falls into two categories: (1) commentary and criticism, or (2) parody. [b]Commentary and Criticism[/b] If you are commenting upon or critiquing a copyrighted work — for instance, writing a book review — fair use principles allow you to reproduce some of the work to achieve your purposes. Some examples of commentary and criticism include: quoting a few lines from a Bob Dylan song in a music review summarizing and quoting from a medical article on prostate cancer in a news report copying a few paragraphs from a news article for use by a teacher or student in a lesson, or copying a portion of a Sports Illustrated magazine article for use in a related court case. The underlying rationale of this rule is that the public reaps benefits from your review, which is enhanced by including some of the copyrighted material. Additional examples of commentary or criticism are provided in the examples of fair use cases. [b]Parody[/b] A parody is a work that ridicules another, usually well-known work, by imitating it in a comic way. Judges understand that, by its nature, parody demands some taking from the original work being parodied. Unlike other forms of fair use, a fairly extensive use of the original work is permitted in a parody in order to “conjure up” the original."[/i]

9 years ago

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Lynne

Lynne

Thank you Webguy2024 this has been most helpful! I will have a think about this

9 years ago

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Corzhens

Corzhens

What exactly was the cease and desist order for? If not for copyright infringement then I guess you are on the safe side and the company is just bluffing. However, if your review is not factual then I guess you have a case on your hand. I don't know that site but if you say it is scam and it happens to be not a scam site then they have a right to sue you. But to be on the safe side, what you did is right in removing all contents pertaining to that site. Let it be a neat lesson to all of us in being careful with reviews of supposed to be scam sites.

7 years ago

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