Porsche Pin Up Threads and T-Shirts...

[Wayne 962]

The pinup thread was brought to my attention by the legal department of Porsche Cars North America this afternoon. I had not seen it prior to this, as I have been very busy, and have not had a great amount of time to read all the threads on this board.

A couple of things:

- No one is allowed to sell anything on this board without first clearing it with me. The exceptions are used Porsche items and cars in our classifieds section.

- Anything on this BBS that attracts the attention of the legal department of PCNA is highly detrimental to the survivability of this board. I have and wish to continue to maintain a "low-profile" prescence under their watchful eyes. Just to be "crystal clear," this means no discussion/selling/trading of illegal Porsche merchandise, no bootlegged copies of PET, or no photocopied factory manuals.

If you have a doubt about whether something is appropriate, clear it with me first. The person who started this thread did not contact me, and has been temporarily banned from this forum until further notice.

-Wayne

[CRH911S]

Just curious as to your thoughts on this. Sometimes a post contains reference to a PET cd. If a person says they have a copy of the PET and uses a diagram from the unauthorized copy how is this a legal issue here? I understand it's the selling of unauthorized items you are refering too.

[Stanley]

CRH911S- The PET cds are now legal. Pelican even sells them! However, someone burning copies and distributing them on the board is illegal

Edit- i just re-read your post and didn't catch the part about the unauthorized copy. However, I don't even think there is difference in the diagrams from the unauthorized one and the one that Pelican sells. So this wouldn't even be a problem, I might be wrong though.

[82SC]

I wonder how they even find such info...is there a guy a PCNA that just surfs the web...what a cool job...

i bet he did save a copy of the logo before contacting wayne

[randywebb]

They probably have an intern in the legal dept. or in whatever big law firm they use read this and other bbs's and do web searches to find Intellectual Property violations. If the latter, they are being wildly over-charged... A better guess could be found from Todd Serota on the Email version of Rennlist - Todd is an IP lawyer (and Porsche driving instructor).

Although Porsche has gone after people for IP non-violations, they have a lot of money and few will want to fight them as IP lawyers are not cheap. But these particular threads are pretty clear violations. The name Porsche stands for something and the company gets to say what (even if Dr. Wienie-King is himself diluting the brand...). That goes for their symbols, trade dress, etc. They just might have other claims too, related to the near soft-core porn effects on their image -- e.g. wealthy female tennis stars might not want to promote the cars anymore... you can make up your own scenario, and be certain that a good law firm will.

Most importantly, you are doing Wayne & Pelican a disservice and potentially costing him money by hijacking his FREE public service to 911 owners.

It is just common courtesy to NOT do this.

I have had my scientific work product ripped off by some environmental groups and it really pissed me off. I know that IP law is way behind common usage on the internet, and if interested I can give you some publications on just that by law professor friends (and cartoonists) but that's the way the law is. If you break the law, you can have some serious problems, and harm a lot of others too. I posted on my concerns about IP violations on one of these threads. I think if I see something like this again, I will instead contact Wayne directly.

[RickM]

If I recall correctly the original image was taken from another website. I wonder if it's still there.
If it's the Pinup pic I'm thinking of the end image didn't have the Porsche crest in it....anymore.

[Chuck Moreland]

Originally posted by RickM
If I recall correctly the original image was taken from another website. I wonder if it's still there.
If it's the Pinup pic I'm thinking of the end image didn't have the Porsche crest in it....anymore.

What happened is that someone else was inspired by that original thread.

They photochopped a pinup onto the porsche crest/name and planned to make tshirts with the image. They solicited orders for the shirts.

[RickM]

Oh, I see....now I recall the thread.
Glad it wasn't you, Chuck. Not that I want to see anyone kicked.