FedEx Cracks Down on Box Furniture, Citing DMCA

nospmiS remoH writes "Wired is running an article about a guy with no money making furniture out of FedEx boxes. If that weren't strange enough, FedEx is going after him, legally citing the DMCA. Yes, the DMCA. Apparently they are not upset about the furniture itself but rather this site that he put up with pictures of his creations (pretty good work really). My favorite quote from the article, '...Avila clearly intended to operate a business from his website because he used the .com domain suffix, the "commercial level domain," rather than .net.' You just can't make this stuff up."

Only a matter of time

[Anonymous Coward]

It's only a matter of time before FedEx starts going after the homeless that live in FedEx boxes...

Back in college...

[TheOtherAgentM]

They put out these stupid phone directories. No one wanted them. They were the biggest waste of money, and they ended up sitting outside on huge stacks for people to grab. One night, we took a whole bunch of them, added some duct tape, and we had a couch for our dorm room. The only problem was that the covers were glossy and we would also slide off the couch.

slashdotted

[BobVila]

Is the server made out of fedex boxes.

Its common

[hackstraw]

Wired is running an article about a guy with no money making furniture out of FedEx boxes. If that weren't strange enough, FedEx is going after him, legally citing the DMCA. Yes, the DMCA.

Its common for homeless people or people without money to commit stupid crimes in order to get locked up for a while in order to get a free place to stay and food. This guy must have been clever to be able to first get temporary free furniture and then a temporary free place to stay and free food.

Very clever.

they'll probably just shut down the site...

[paulsgre]

...and, erm, send him on his way.

He's a geek

[digitalvengeance]

My favorite part of the site, the footer:

If any shipping corporations have problems with our site please feel free to forward requests to /dev/null. By emailing us any questions or comments you give fedexfurniture.com the right to post any such message, and or replies on our site.

Re:It does sound silly, but...

[Hawthorne01]

But information (and shipping boxes) WANT to be free... :-)

Re:Best example of corporate stupidity...ever

[necro2607]

Yeah it's like...

Insane Lawyer: "hey, this guy is making our logo and related corporate branding imagery get seen by millions of people worldwide... hmm... let's ruin our reputation with every single one of those people!"

CEO: "hey yeah good idea! proposal approved!"

Take down!

[Fr05t]

Fedex gave him warning, then posted a link to his site in a ./ article.

Free Beer

[howlin_walleye]

When I was in college my roommate and I made a couch out of cases of empty (beer) returnables. Can I sue somebody to get free beer?

Even better!

[Thud457]

You put your stuff in those boxes, print out a postage label, slap it on the box, call up UPS and they move your stuff for you!

Probably cheaper & safer than hiring "Luigi's take your stuff and jack up our rates while we hold your stuff for ransom movers".

Re:It's all about shutting down the site.

[Kelson]

And, by making sure he gets Slashdotted, they've already succeeded!

Poor FedEx Pope

[DragonMagic]

He can't catch a break.

He's a nerd, without a doubt.

[mark-t]

FTA:

The bed can handle his 5-foot-6-inch, 165-pound frame, even when he jumps up and down on it (an experiment he tried in response to an e-mail asking if the bed could support two people).

FedEx Sued Him Just for the Slashdotting...

[KnarfO]

I doubt FedEx really cares about the suit; they just wanted to do something crazy enough to pop up on the /. radar so we'd all go over and melt down his server.

We've been duped!!
 
:-/

Slashdotted?

[k98sven]

Hmm..

1) Someone puts up a website that irritates your corporation
2) File a frivolous lawsuit against the website
3) Wait until Slashdot picks up the resulting story
4) Watch the site go down in flames due to the subsequent slashdotting.
5) Objective achived, site is offline!

Slashdot - greater threat to free speech than the DMCA? :)

Wired vs. Slashdot

[ds_job]

It just goes to show the level of interest / level of readership both sites have. I saw this on Wired earlier, clicked the link and had a butchers, saw lots of nice photos of furniture made from cardboard and then got back to doing some proper work. Then this appears in my RSS reader and I go back to have another chortle and the damn thing is unreachable. Slashdot and aa419.org should team up and become the worlds largest manual instigated DDOS system

Re:Full mirror here

[khazad]

It's a classic story. The crusader is attacked by evil copyright bad-guys. He refuses to submit and puts his website back online. In a cruel twist, his site is ultimately annihilated by those who support him.

Re:Best example of corporate stupidity...ever

[Valiss]

Same as before (read: currently) with the record industry:

"I dont get it. We sue the fuck out of them and they STILL won't buy our products!"

Re:Full mirror here

[bizitch]

I wonder if he can make a new webserver out of FedEx boxes ;)

Obviously!

[isa-kuruption]

The bed can handle his 5-foot-6-inch, 165-pound frame, even when he jumps up and down on it (an experiment he tried in response to an e-mail asking if the bed could support two people).

And the reason he couldn't actually test his bed with two people on it obvious.... right?

Re:Heya

[Anonymous Coward]

Looks like he made his webserver out of FedEx boxes too!

Re:Free Boxes from UPS & FedEx

[sheehaje]

Maybe if U-Haul and similar places didn't overcharge severly for boxes. I'd be happy to pay anyone for boxes if they weren't overpriced.

You should be irritated with the pricing (both the high prices and the free giveaways) on both sides.

Re:Free Boxes from UPS & FedEx

[Anonymous Coward]

At least he's not a loudmouth.

Christ, why are the "ethical" people all so fucking loud and annoying?

Re:He's a nerd, without a doubt.

[JahToasted]

I think if your furniture is made out of Fedex boxes you aren't going to have many women staying the night. Even if you're willing to pay them.

Re:Free Boxes

[Yocto Yotta]

Well, one's thing is for sure -- I won't be posting pictures on my website showing off my USPS poster tube bong (DISCLAIMER: For tobacco use only) anytime soon. My USPS "toilet" probably wouldn't go over too well either . . .

Slashdot.org

[cparisi]

I guess that makes slashdot.org a "non-profit" organization...

Re:Trademark yes, copyright no

[OrangeTrafficCone]

If you have a non-decent judge, you better hope his robe stays closed...

Re:He's a geek

[Dare nMc]

and definitive proof from the site.

can handle his 5-foot-6-inch, 165-pound frame, even when he jumps up and down on it (an experiment he tried in response to an e-mail asking if the bed could support two people).

Re:It does sound silly, but...

[Wescotte]

Jose Avila: I'm broke! See how broke I am? I'm funny too! Can't you spare just a little change?

Lawyer: See! Right there, I told you so! If you allow Mr. Avila to continue using the FedEx trademark, customers will become confused, and may think they're donating money to the REAL FedEx corporation!

So, does that mean when he can't pay the legal fees to defend himself he will be forced to sell his furniture and get sued again?!?!

Re:Free Boxes

[dubl-u]

My USPS "toilet" probably wouldn't go over too well either . . .

Wow! When the box is full, where do you ship the stuff?

Re:Free Boxes

[Greslin]

Heh.. I can imagine the cellblock conversation now:

"Judges and juries, man. They don't get nothin'. They don't know that sometimes God wants you to kill your family and, like, do stuff with their body parts. Read the Bible, man - God's all into that. So, what you in here for, man?"

"Eh.. I got these boxes from the Post Office.."

Re:Free Boxes

[nocaster]

Before USPS will send you your order they will make you sign an Affidavit stating that you will not use their boxes for any other purpose. Having said that, they make great boxes for Christmas gifts...

Oh, if I were UPS right now..

[Free_Trial_Thinking]

I'd pay this guy to replace all his furniture with UPS boxes and come out looking like a hero!

Oh yeah, I should go into PR!

If I was UPS....

[cyberassasin]

I would offer to help him and send him all of the packaging materials he needs..... You couldn't buy that kind of advertising.

New UPS Commercial: "What can Brown do for you? Help you stick it to FedEx and furnish your apartment...."

Re:Free Boxes

[CyanDisaster]

...Wow! When the box is full, where do you ship the stuff...

I'm sure it could be sent to SCO...considering that's what they're full of...

Hope be with ye,
Cyan

W-i-i-i-lson!!!

[carrier lost]

Can't make a raft out of 'em, either, I'll bet.

MjM

Re:.com domains

[Anonymous Coward]

.com domains were established for commercial enterprises. I think it's perfectly reasonable to postulate that a web site in the .com domain is commercial! What's so outrageous about that? The police department of a town near me has a web site in the .com domain. http://harborpd.com/ [harborpd.com] . Since the town was established and exists primarily as a speed trap, it seems perfectly reasonable that they advertise themselves as a for-profit organization. ;-)

Re:Free Boxes

[shokk]

I think FedEx has a case here. I went to that site and thought I was at FedEx.com, no lie. For some reason it took longer to type into my browser than fedex.com, but I was still confused between the FedEx brand and this guy's attempt to make furniture.

In other news...
* Scotch brand tape will be suing anybody making a 3D contruct of tape similar to a ball
* Swingline will be suing anyone who makes a CD/floppy eject tool out of a paperclip
* International Paper will literally crucify anyone who makes paper footballs,
* various rubber-band manufacturers have formed a consortium specifically to pursue legal action against anyone that uses a rubber-band as a device similar to a slingshot or a projectile in itself
* the Ticonderoga pencil company will be after anyone who bundles pencils together into a tube shape to simulate a solid piece of wood

Sounds ridiculous? Wait and see!!!

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Mod parent -1 Misleading, please.

[Anonymous Coward]

You are wrong, and you were an ass about it. Well done, Internet fuckwad [penny-arcade.com]. (Don't bring up the irony, God dammit! I will not stand for it!)

But seriously now. The USPS is not independent. You wouldn't call me "independent" from my girlfriend if I required her signature to spend money, would you? It's a government-owned, government-regulated corporate entity. The fact that it's "corporate" doesn't make it "independent" at all!

And it's a federal offense in the same way that many kinds of tamperings with federal affairs are. Destruction of currency, for example. Feel free to assume it's not a federal offense, though. A few discarded envelopes, and we won't have to worry about you posting on Slashdot anymore. Or do they have the Internets in Federal Pound-Me-In-The-Ass Prison now?

Tools to circumvent

[Anonymous Coward]

Not only must we stop the insidious production of box furniture but we must see that box cutters, packing tape, and rulers are destroyed as well. These are the evil tools these evil doers use to violate our rights.

Then....on to Web Browsers and HTTP Servers! Then to the mother of all violators....Operating Systems. No other tool has caused so much duplication and distribution of our most sacred IP.

We cannot let such things to continue.

Re:Free Boxes

[Savatte]

I think UPS' slogan says it all: "what can brown do for you?"

Re:Free Boxes

[JonasH]

Here's what I wrote them, in response to their hilarious Terms of Use [fedex.com] for fedex.com which they also appear to be using to fight him with:

I'm not sure I found the right contact form.

In the "fedex.com Terms of Use" it is stated that "fedex.com is provided solely for the use of current and potential FedEx customers to interact with FedEx and may not be used by any other person or entity, or for any other purpose.".

I just wanted to say that I'm sorry, since I visited this very website and I have absolutely no intention of buying any service from FedEx. FedEx doesn't seem to like that, but since I have no relations to FedEx besides having looked at its metaphorical street window display, I don't really feel I have to obey these Terms of Use.

I'm still sorry though.

Actually, I think someone once sent me someone using FedEx. I'm not sure though. Would that make it alright? I guess not, since I wasn't the customer. How about that everyone is a potential customer in a sense - even if they don't know it? You know, much like the saying "a stranger is someone you haven't met", it could be said that "someone you haven't made business with yet is a potential customer"? Oh well.

If that deosn't make it alright, I still truly am sorry.

Oh right, I almost forgot. I only relunctantly picked the option that said that I'd like you to respond by email. You don't really have to respond, since I don't want to waste more of your time, but there was no option that said that.

Sincerely,
DELETED

PS: If you're a real person, you have my permission to print this out and put it on display anywhere your coworkers will read it. Or send it to whoever you like. Working for a company that has such awful Terms of Use for their website of all things, I'm sure you could do with a laugh.

PPS: I really am very sorry.