RSSBunch of Yahoos
March 11th, 2006 | View Comments
Sew Fast Sew Easy probably figured, “Hey, Yahoo has been such a willing accomplice in our campaign to harrass knitters nationwide, why not try again?” and had Yahoo send around another round of cease & desist notices for anyone who dared use their precious “Stitch and Bitch” in their group descriptions. As usual, the girl from auntie has the scoop.
Given that Yahoo has shown absolutely no interest in the rights of knitters, perhaps it’s time to think about moving our groups to different services. In other words, perhaps it’s time to boycott Yahoo too. I’ve been doing a little legwork on alternatives to Yahoo Groups, and here’s what I’ve found so far:
Option #1: The free and easy
Move your group to Google Groups, as suggested by deety. The question is, of course, whether Google would behave like Yahoo if handed a cease & desist.
I’ve read over the Google Groups Terms of Service several times, and they have no explicit statement on how they handle allegations of trademark infringement. I did send an email requesting clarification on their policy, but only received an autoresponse saying that they don’t respond to individual emails. However, there are things that I found encouraging.
Google has an extensive procedure for handling allegations of copyright infringement; for one, they only accept allegations in writing and not by email. This is encouraging even though this is a trademark case because it provides a model for how they might approach a trademark case.
It begins the section on infringment notification with;
To file a notice of infringement with us, you must provide a written communication (by fax or regular mail — not by email, except by prior agreement) that sets forth the items specified below. Please note that you will be liable for damages (including costs and attorneys’ fees) if you materially misrepresent that a product or activity is infringing your copyrights.
[emphasis mine, it is also worth noting that a near identical sentence appears in the section on counter notification ]
and then continues to explain that they forward copies of all c&d letters to Chilling Effects, a group dedicated to fair applications of intellectual property law, and then lists the procedure for people to file a counter notification if they don’t believe they are infringing.
Compare this to Yahoo’s Intellectual Property Policy. Yahoo does accept allegations of infringement by email and they conveniently fail to mention the possibility of a counter notification, despite the fact that you are entitled to submit a counter notification under the law (section g, paragraph 3).
You do the math on who is more likely to consider your rights, and who is more likely to behave like SFSE’s hired gun.
For those keeping score, MSN’s copyright policy does make mention of the counter notification. However, my experience with MSN Groups has found that the service is somewhat spotty and prone to random technical hiccups, so I would not recommend moving your group to MSN.
Option #2: Not free, less easy, but a good long-term solution for some people
Buy your own web space, and set up your own community. This is not a good option for computerphobes. It will take a certain amount of technical savvy, or at least a willingness to muck around with computer stuff and learn the ins and outs of being a webmaster.
It depends on which web host you use, but I’d say that most web hosting services are more likely to evaluate the merits of any claims of infringement, and thus much less likely to yank your content at the slightest provocation. My web host, Hosting Matters, contains the following statement in their Acceptable Use Policy.
Any activity that infringes on copyrights, trademarks, service marks, patents, software ownership, or trade secrets held by any third party entity is prohibited…. Disputes between parties where clear legal decisions cannot be determined by individual claims must be settled between those parties and valid legal documentation must be provided for action related to content on sites within the Hosting Matters network. In no instance will Hosting Matters be responsible for individual site material for which no authoritative documentation has been provided. [emphasis mine]
I interpret that to mean that in cases like this one, in which the use of “Stitch and Bitch” could be argued to be fair use, my web host will wait for claims to be settled in or out of court before touching anything.
If you’re seriously considering this option, I do recommend my web host highly, although they aren’t the cheapest around. I’ve been with them since June 2001 and I’ve always found their support staff to be responsive and helpful. For example, I submitted a support ticket today at 4:38pm. It was resolved less than an hour later at 5:28pm. And I get nothing if you sign up with them, since they don’t have any sort of affiliate or referrer incentive program.
If you like the phpBB system that powers the Bitch & Bitch Cafe and the Knitty™ Coffeeshop, you can set one up easily at my web host. Their most basic hosting plan, the M250 plan, should give you everything you need for $6 a month. You can install the forum software with just a few mouseclicks using the Fantastico option in the control panel.
After that, it’s just a matter of configuring the forum and publicizing your new URL. You will need to choose and register a domain name (Host Matters can take care of that for you as well, and hey, sewfastseweasysucks.com is available), which will run you $15 a year to maintain, so your total annual cost for running your own group on Host Matters will be $87.
Which I know sounds like a lot. Or maybe it doesn’t, considering that I’ve dropped $87 on yarn for a single project.
But if your group has 30 members, and they all kick in $3, you’ll have it covered. Or if six groups band together to share a single domain and a B1000 account (which allows for 6 databases and thus 6 different forum installations), the total annual cost for all six groups combined will be $127.20, or $21.20 per group, per YEAR, if paid up front.
This isn’t a lot for peace of mind, and I am willing to provide a certain amount of technical assistance for people who might want to go this route.
You can also get web host recommendations at WebHostingTalk.com.
Feel free to leave a comment or email me if you have questions.
Yvonne posted this on March 11th, 2006 @ 7:16pm in KnitBlogging, Stitch & Bitch | Permalink to "Bunch of Yahoos"
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