Photoshop Disaster Draws DMCA Notice For Boing Boing

Pickens writes: "Cory Doctorow writes that Ralph Lauren issued a DMCA takedown notice after Boing Boing republished the Photoshop disaster contained in a Ralph Lauren advertisement in which a model's proportions appear to have been altered to give her an impossibly skinny body with the model's head larger than her pelvis. Doctorow says that one of the things that makes their ISP Priority Colo so awesome is that they don't automatically act on DMCA takedowns and proceeded to dare Lauren to sue. 'This is classic fair use: a reproduction "for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting," etc,' writes Doctorow. 'Copyright law doesn't give you the right to threaten your critics for pointing out the problems with your offerings.' Doctorow adds that every time Lauren threatens to sue he will 'reproduce the original criticism, making damned sure that all our readers get a good, long look at it,' 'publish your spurious legal threat along with copious mockery,' and 'offer nourishing soup and sandwiches to your models.'"

Comments

Another shot of the model, more realistic

[RichMan]

Found the link in a BoingBoing comment
http://www.ralphlauren.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3558821&camp=affiliate_k108283
She looks more human here.

Re:wth

[Not_Wiggins]

More up-to-date, BB has posted that Ralph Loren has admitted a "my bad," and that they promise to be more diligent about it in the future. Scroll to just above the comments.

Re:wth

[Blue Stone]

Please mod my parent post down - as the other replies point out, events have moved on:

http://extratv.warnerbros.com/2009/10/blog_and_ralph_lauren_fight_over_skinny_model_ad.php

"On Thursday, Polo Ralph Lauren released the following statement about the retouched ad: "For over 42 years we have built a brand based on quality and integrity. After further investigation, we have learned that we are responsible for the poor imaging and retouching that resulted in a very distorted image of a woman's body. We have addressed the problem and going forward will take every precaution to ensure that the caliber of our artwork represents our brand appropriately."

Re:Too open for abuse...

[bcrowell]

Publishers are often extremely careless about sending out scattershot DMCA notices. For example, I'm the author of a free and open-source calculus textbook. My book is available on my own web site, and also on some other sites such as lulu and scribd. I got an email today from one of the folks at scribd saying they'd received the DMCA takedown notice below. The takedown notice is so vague and sloppy that it's hard to tell what they're even claiming. Are they claiming that scribd is violating my (Ben Crowell's) copyright? If so, then what business of it is theirs? (Macmillan isn't my publisher, and I've never heard of Attributor, Inc., until today.) Or are they claiming that my book contains content that infringes Macmillan's copyrights? (It would seem not, since they list "Original Work: Calculus," as if it's the entire book whose copyright is being infringed.)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <remediesspamproofing@attributor.com>
Date: Wed, Oct 7, 2009 at 6:14 PM
Subject: Unauthorized Use of Macmillan Publishers Material
To: copyrightspamproofing@scribd.com

*** Sent via Email - DMCA Notice of Copyright Infringement ***

Dear Sir/Madam,

I certify under penalty of perjury, that I am an agent authorized to act on
behalf of the owner of the intellectual property rights and that the
information contained in this notice is accurate.

I have a good faith belief that the page or material listed below is not
authorized by law for use by the individual(s) associated with the
identified page listed below or their agents and therefore infringes the
copyright owner's rights.

I HEREBY DEMAND THAT YOU ACT EXPEDITIOUSLY TO REMOVE OR DISABLE ACCESS TO
THE PAGE OR MATERIAL CLAIMED TO BE INFRINGING.

This notice is sent pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA),
the European Union's Directive on the Harmonisation of Certain Aspects of
Copyright and Related Rights in the Information Society (2001/29/EC), and/or
other laws and regulations relevant in European Union member states or other
jurisdictions.

My contact information is as follows:

Organization name: Attributor Corporation As Agent for Macmillan Publishers
Email: remediesspamproofing@attributor.com
Phone: (650) 306 9474
Mailing address:
Attributor, Inc.
1775 Woodside Road, Ste 100
Redwood City, CA 94061

*** INFRINGING PAGE OR MATERIAL ***
Infringing page/material that I demand be disabled or removed in
consideration of the above:

Original Work: Calculus
Infringing URL:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/10559480/pdf-mathematics-calculus-volume-1
Infringing URL: http://scribd.com/doc/240367/calculus-by-benjamin-crowell

My electronic signature follows:
Sincerely,
Attributor, Inc.
/s

Re:Well, not really...

[Demolition]

If you read a bit farther, it appears that the ISP did cave and remove the image.

Just to clarify... Boing Boing's ISP is Priority Colo. They did not cave.

On the other hand, Photoshop Disaster's ISP, Blogspot, did cave in to the DMCA takedown notice. Needlessly, as it turned out.