GoalCoin

[theymos]

I received a complaint from FIFA regarding GoalCoin's usage of the the FIFA world cup trophy in their topics. I believe that the complaint is legally valid, so I have removed all topics posted by the user goalcoin. While the complaint only specifies one topic, I decided to remove them all because further complaints seem extremely likely otherwise. (All of the topics were filled with the offending image.) Hopefully goalcoin can recreate the topics without using the trademarked images/terms. If any important information was lost in a deleted post, let me know and I'll restore it.

I am opposed to all intellectual property, but it doesn't really make sense to expend resources and expose the forum to additional risk in order to fight intellectual property complaints of this sort. Unfortunately, we'll just have to live with these stupid laws for now. (Trademarks are the least-bad form of intellectual property IMO, but I think that this case demonstrates how they can hurt innovation and destroy value in some cases.)

Here is the complaint:

Dear Sirs

We write on behalf of Federation Internationale De Football
Association ("FIFA") who owns and/or controls all rights for the
following trademarks:

* 2014 FIFA World Cup™ Official Emblem
* FIFA World Cup Trophy
* FIFA Logo
* FIFA Wordmark

We have noticed that your website
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=610271.0 is displaying
and/or
offering the FIFA World Cup Trophy.

On behalf of FIFA as owner of the exclusive trade mark rights
and/or
copyright to in the above copyrighted material at issue in this
notice
mark, we hereby state that we have a good faith belief that
use/display of the above material in the manner complained of is
not
authorised by the copyright rights owner, its agent, or the law.

We wish to make you aware that your present use/display is an abuse
of
FIFA’s rights.

Please immediately cease all such unauthorized use of this mark on
any
and all of your web sites and confirm to us via email that you have
done so. Should you believe you have authorisation from FIFA to use
this mark, please provide written confirmation to this effect which
we
will bring to FIFA’s attention for clarification on.

Nothing in this letter is intended or shall be construed to
constitute
an express or implied waiver of any of FIFA’s rights or remedies,
all of which are expressly reserved.

We thank you for your cooperation.

I, May Ho , as a representative of NetResult Solutions hereby
digitally sign this e-mail message under penalty of perjury under
the
laws of the United States of America. I confirm with the additional
statement under penalty of perjury that the information in the
notice
is accurate and that I am authorized to sign on behalf of FIFA
which
is the owner of the copyright mentioned above.

Yours faithfully,

May Ho

"NetResult (May Ho)"
NetResult Solutions, part of Thomson Reuters
PO BOX 68506
London
SW15 9DT
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)20 8246-4131

[farlack]

Pretty odd that they found this.

[Mikez]

I was so intrigued to see a topic named 'GoalCoin' started by theymos.
Well, something like this was bound to happen eventually, but indeed, surprised they found it.

[dogie]

Pretty odd that they found this.

Google image search has its downsides I guess.

[iram3130]

Pretty odd that they found this.

Google image search has its downsides I guess.

May be, but seriously it's not easy to find just pic all over the internet.

[jaberwock]

Pretty odd that they found this.

Google image search has its downsides I guess.

May be, but seriously it's not easy to find just pic all over the internet.

Maybe it rank high on seach engines when fifa searched it's keywords or maybe someone reported it to fifa.

[mprep]

Pretty odd that they found this.

Google image search has its downsides I guess.

May be, but seriously it's not easy to find just pic all over the internet.

Maybe it rank high on seach engines when fifa searched it's keywords or maybe someone reported it to fifa.

Or maybe they just hired a guy to look for such images. Or maybe some user reported it to FIFA.

[Cryptopher]

Pretty odd that they found this.

Google image search has its downsides I guess.

May be, but seriously it's not easy to find just pic all over the internet.

Maybe it rank high on seach engines when fifa searched it's keywords or maybe someone reported it to fifa.

Or maybe they just hired a guy to look for such images. Or maybe some user reported it to FIFA.

Yeah they will outsource a team to lookout for infringement of their trademarks and such, but it is very possible that it was reported by some other employee within FIFA and passed on to the relevant department.

It could be somebody not related to FIFA who wants to set GoalCoin back (for all their success), and simply reported their usage of trademarked images. Who knows, but the actions and offer to recover other information is a fair response.

[mprep]

Pretty odd that they found this.

Google image search has its downsides I guess.

May be, but seriously it's not easy to find just pic all over the internet.

Maybe it rank high on seach engines when fifa searched it's keywords or maybe someone reported it to fifa.

Or maybe they just hired a guy to look for such images. Or maybe some user reported it to FIFA.

Yeah they will outsource a team to lookout for infringement of their trademarks and such, but it is very possible that it was reported by some other employee within FIFA and passed on to the relevant department.

It could be somebody not related to FIFA who wants to set GoalCoin back (for all their success), and simply reported their usage of trademarked images. Who knows, but the actions and offer to recover other information is a fair response.

Maybe there's a hidden bounty for exposing such copyright infringements? For example, somebody reported something to FIFA, was correct and got some kind of reward so they try to get another one again.

[Lauda]

Maybe there's a hidden bounty for exposing such copyright infringements? For example, somebody reported something to FIFA, was correct and got some kind of reward so they try to get another one again.

Possibly and most likely. It's either someone who's employed or there's a hidden reward. I guess even FIFA will be watching Bitcoin, if they haven't already..

[shorena]

Maybe there's a hidden bounty for exposing such copyright infringements? For example, somebody reported something to FIFA, was correct and got some kind of reward so they try to get another one again.

Possibly and most likely. It's either someone who's employed or there's a hidden reward. I guess even FIFA will be watching Bitcoin, if they haven't already..

Probably similar to the content mafia. They hire companies to do the "research" which in turn hire students to download and listen/watch/etc. to mp3s/movies/etc. all day. Usually these companies are given a certain song, movie or artist to research within a few days and findings are rewarded with a bonus to the company. Most of them do not give any bonus to the employees, most of the time they do not even know there is one. The results are transfered to certain law firms that specialize on these cases.


NetResult [1] [2] apparently does the same but also handles brands.

NetResult routinely monitors the entire Internet, including peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, UGC sites, public and private forums, blogs, newsgroups, and Internet Relay Chat (IRC).

Incorrect usage or serious abuse of brands and trademarks

[1] http://www.nr-online.com/solutions.php
[2] http://www.nr-online.com/solutions_how_works.php

[Lauda]

Probably similar to the content mafia. They hire companies to do the "research" which in turn hire students to download and listen/watch/etc. to mp3s/movies/etc. all day. Usually these companies are given a certain song, movie or artist to research within a few days and findings are rewarded with a bonus to the company. Most of them do not give any bonus to the employees, most of the time they do not even know there is one. The results are transfered to certain law firms that specialize on these cases.

NetResult [1] [2] apparently does the same but also handles brands.

NetResult routinely monitors the entire Internet, including peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, UGC sites, public and private forums, blogs, newsgroups, and Internet Relay Chat (IRC).

Incorrect usage or serious abuse of brands and trademarks

[1] http://www.nr-online.com/solutions.php
[2] http://www.nr-online.com/solutions_how_works.php

This is why the Deep Web is much more fun. Snooping around there is pointless for them. 

[shorena]

-snip-

NetResult routinely monitors the entire Internet, including peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, UGC sites, public and private forums, blogs, newsgroups, and Internet Relay Chat (IRC).

-snip-

This is why the Deep Web is much more fun. Snooping around there is pointless for them. 

IRC, private forums, etc. is considered Deep Web [1] . The term Deep Web is bullshit IMHO. "Deep Web" is just "what can not be found on google". If you are refering to the Tor network, I am sure they have people there as well. Why do you think they hire students? Well they are cheap, but usally they also know where to find stuff.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Web

[Cryptopher]

Just saw this article whilst on my lunch break: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/28344335

I wonder if they have a crackdown push around the time of the World Cup.

[mprep]

Just saw this article whilst on my lunch break: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/28344335

I wonder if they have a crackdown push around the time of the World Cup.

Might be. They could just be increasing the hidden bounties for each correct case and/or the overall influx of content regarding FIFA logically would include more people using FIFA's copyrighted material.

[Cryptopher]

Just saw this article whilst on my lunch break: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/28344335

I wonder if they have a crackdown push around the time of the World Cup.

Might be. They could just be increasing the hidden bounties for each correct case and/or the overall influx of content regarding FIFA logically would include more people using FIFA's copyrighted material.

I'm surprised that they the creators of the design didn't have the Mercedes legal team look into the usage of this design, particularly due to the huge commercial interest in Formula One.

[acs267]

Pretty odd that they found this.

It's not odd.

When Coinye came out, Kanye West jumped on it like hot spring just because it sounded like his name, and included a logo didn't even belong to him.

[Cryptopher]

Pretty odd that they found this.

It's not odd.

When Coinye came out, Kanye West jumped on it like hot spring just because it sounded like his name, and included a logo didn't even belong to him.

That's different though. That was something that travelled by word-of-mouth fuelled by a load of media - it was in your face and easy to detect.

The FIFA situation is some relatively small-time alt making use of an image that infringed on terms within FIFA's branding. Having just been on their website it is possible that it was found through use of n-grams.

The deleted topics are still there to be viewed in Google's caches should you choose to view them.