I'm not one of those people that thinks bloggers are all powerful but I know that blogs are often an effective way to expose bad behavior by some corporations. If I know this, you'd think everyone in the corporations would know it, too. I guess the word didn't get out to Best Buy:
Best Buy sent a cease and desist letter to blogger Scott Beale (Laughing Squid) for having had the audacity to blog news that prankster/comedy troupe Improv Everywhere selling t-shirts that were a parody of the Best Buy brand. Whether or not the parody is legally in the clear is one matter, but Best Buy nastygramming Beale for simply blogging about it -- not selling the shirts or participating directly? IANAL ["I am not a lawyer."], but seems *way* out of line. (Boingboing)
With this as guidance, I popped over to The Laughing Squid and found all the relevant documents and a nice "thank you" to Best Buy from blogger Beale for boosting his traffic. He'd hit the traffic jackpot on Boingboing, Digg, The Consumerist and a bunch of other sites. There was also a the original "cease and desist" order and Updates on Beale's communications with both Best Buy's corporate PR (they promised to check with corporate legal) and corporate legal:
UPDATE 3: One thing I wanted to mention is that before posting this C & D letter, I called the Best Buy attorney who sent it to confirm that they really meant to send it to a blogger who was just reporting on another blog post. They insisted that I was "promoting, not reporting" and that the demand letter was valid. (Laughing Squid)
The latest Update (6) has the resolution:
This is amazing. Best Buy's legal department has just sent us an apology letter for sending yesterday's Cease & Desist letter regarding our blog coverage of the Improv Everywhere Best Buy Blue Polo Shirts parody.
The letter was the result of my call yesterday to Best Buy Corporate Public Relations Group explaining the situation regarding their demand letter. Best Buy did the right thing here, by quickly responding and issuing the retraction their legal threats against a blog that was simply reporting on another situation.
I am sure the corporate PR folks were horrified at the incompetence of the dumbass corporate legal types and I'm just as sure that the dumbass corporate legal types still think they did the right thing.
The lesson here is that just because a lawyer thinks it's OK doesn't make it OK. I'm sure no one reading this realized that, so now you know.
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Best Buy did the wrong thing first. Their legal eagles went on the attack, hoping they could bully somebody into not showing them for the asses they are. By sticking with the "promoting, not reporting" outrage, they set themselves up for a global public humiliation.
All Scott Beale would have to do was get his story to the wire services, so that the mainstream media would do exactly what his blog was doing, making Best Buy look like a monstrous steaming pile. Against that barrage of examples of the free press -- to report, critique, and opine -- the bullying gambit would crash and burn.
Best Buy has a reputation that stinks to the very Throne of God. So this C&D letter does not come as a surprise.
If you doubt that statement as to reputation, Google search on the following string.
"best buy" scam
I do not, and will not, as a matter of policy, use Best Buy for any hardware purchase. And the only software I will buy there is games.
It's funny how complicated living in a country with speech can make things! But I say it is worth it even if we have to spend a lot of time untangling who did what to who.
Dave Briggs :~)