| Sometime around August/September
2000, following a local newsgroup posting, I posted
a few Priceless pics on the web. Shortly after that
a hardware site linked to the pics and people started
to come from everywhere to see them.
Ever since then the Priceless collection
has grown. From only 5 pictures a year ago to over
300 today. The whole thing is simply a parody of the
successfull Mastercard Priceless advertising campaign
- nothing more. I'm not trying to compete with Mastercard
in anyway whatsoever. The whole aim of this site is
for people to get a laugh, some relief, or just to
have some fun.
A couple of weeks ago I got a letter
in my email from Solicitors in Australia representing
Mastercard. It went something like this:
Dear Sir
MasterCard International, Inc
We act on behalf of MasterCard International, Inc.
("MasterCard"). Since 1999, in Australia
and worldwide, MasterCard has aired and published
a series of television and printed advertisements
(the "MasterCard Priceless Advertisements")
that feature the names and/or images of a series of
goods and services purchased by one or more individuals
in which, either voiceovers and/or other visual displays,
convey to the viewer the price of each of these items.
At the end of each of the MasterCard Priceless Advertisements,
the phrase identifying some priceless intangible that
cannot be purchased (such as "a day where all
you have to do is breathe") is followed by the
word and/or voiceover: "priceless". Immediately
following "priceless" are words and/or voiceover
"there are some things money can't buy, for everything
else there is MasterCard". All of these words
appear in lower case letters, except for "MasterCard".
In addition, MasterCard is the owner in Australia
of the registered trade mark MASTERCARD in a number
of classes and the registered trade mark PRICELESS
in class 36.
It has come to our client's attention that you are
currently publishing at URL http://orsm.ii.net/priceless/index.html
(the "Orsm Website") offensive and obscene
content using the format of the MasterCard Priceless
Advertisements. This content also uses the PRICELESS
trade mark without our client's consent or license
(the "Infringing Material").
Please be advised that by publishing the Infringing
Material you are:
" Breaching MasterCard's copyright in the MasterCard
Priceless Advertisements; and
" Breaching the PRICELESS trade mark.
Accordingly, our client demands that within seven
(7) days of the date of this letter, you will:
1. Remove the Infringing Material from the Orsm Website;
and
2. Refrain from publishing or distributing the Infringing
Material or other material which infringes MasterCard's
rights as set out above.
Our client reserves its rights.
Yours faithfully
Karen Hayne
Basically, all they
are saying is that if I don't get rid of the Priceless
collection - I am in deep shit. They also put the
pressure on my web
host saying that they would commence procedings
against them if they didn't pull down my site.
What a joke. This is
scare tactics at it's finest. From what I understand,
my site is protected under laws relating to parody
material. Ie. I or whoever wants, is able to produce
parodies in any form of whatever the fuck they want
so long as they are not using it as a way to compete
with the party being parodised... in this case Mastercard.
[is parodised a word?... looks like it is now huh!?]
The response that I
have recieved from you guys who surf my site has been
unbelievable. I've had a constant stream of email
from people who really do wanna see everything stay
where it is and continue to grow. Check it out below:
--------------------------------------------
Greetings Mr Orsm, top class
website!!
How stupid can Mastercard as a corporation be? How
the fuck can you call a word from the English language
your copyright or any other language for that matter?
Secondly as a Mastercard customer myself, I shall
endeavour to transfer my account balance elsewhere
and close my Mastercard account! PRICELESS!
Keep up the good work, regards Gareth Williams.
The last thing I want
anyone to do is stop using Mastercards products or
services on account of this whole fiasco. At the end
of the day they are a business and only trying to
protect their interests. To be honest I'd rather see
people using Mastercard as a thanks for all the enjoyment
these spoofs on their ads have given us.
--------------------------------------------
Dude
Don't let those high affluent
dildos put pressure on you. I believe the word "priceless"
is in the dictionary meaning:
a.. Of inestimable worth;
invaluable.
b.. Highly amusing, absurd, or odd: a priceless remark
I'm not sure where they get
off claiming rights to the word "priceless"
Does that mean Budweiser has claim on "whassup?"
I see no reference to MasterCard anywhere on your
"Priceless" section. Keep us all informed
of how you do with those corporate DILDOs.... Hey
can I use that word or does the pR0n industry have
rights to that??
-Greg
Macquarie
Dictionary
Priceless: / adjective 1. having a value beyond all
price; invaluable: she was a priceless help to him.
2. Colloquial delightfully amusing; absurd.
Cambridge
Dictionary
Priceless: A priceless object is one that has such
a high value, esp. because it is rare, that the price
of it cannot be calculated.
Your
Dictionay
1 a : having a value beyond any price : INVALUABLE
b : costly because of rarity or quality : PRECIOUS
--------------------------------------------
Don't let the bastards get
you down. I'll be switching my balance to Visa!!!
I appreciate the support but if you
are happy with the services you are receiving from
Mastercard I suggest you to stay with them.
--------------------------------------------
Mr ORSM, I'm from South Africa
and hate Banks. I say fuck em. Fuck em good. Keep
your series going and change the name to something
like, RIDICULOUS or RIOTOUS. We all know your site
and your fans are all behind you in SA. Holding thumbs
and hope you give those sheepshagging banker arseholes
something to think about.
Good Luck
Best Regards
Tofie
If worst comes to worst, I probably
will look to replacing the word 'priceless' for something
else. I've had countless suggestions so far but at
this stage the word 'spiceless' is leading the pack.
Suggestions go here.
--------------------------------------------
I support your parodies of
the Priceless ads... Quite frankly, I see no conceivable
way those parodies could detract from MasterCard's
business.. stick to your guns.. I emailed your webhost
to do the same.. MasterCard is only trying to get
their name in more of a spotlight by fighting you...
Keep up the great material!!
Robb Fox
Manchester NH
USA
Good point. I think thats what the
whole thing comes down to - I am not using Mastercards
ideas, intellectual property or copyrights to sell
a similar product or compete with them. As far as
my hosts go, they have given me their support and
I appreciate that. If you are in Australia I highly
recommend iiNet
for all of your internet and hosting
needs.
--------------------------------------------
I enjoyed this one. The sender actually
CC'd me aswell as sending it to a whole shit load
of Mastercard staff email addreses.
Dear Sir/Madam:
Recently, I was asked to visit a web site that was
being told by MasterCard Attorney (Karen Hayne) to
stop using the word "Priceless" on their
web pages.
I understand wanting to protect your Trademark. I
have one myself. But...
We live with a different generation now. Younger audience
acceptance is key to market share these days. MasterCard
is pissing off young people by nit-picking over silly
things like this. The MTV generation can make or break
a business very quickly if they want to. Your attorneys
are messing with this generation's interests. You
might be protecting your Trademark, but your also
pissing these people off.
I believe this is why Visa leads the pack these days
(sorry). Because their commercials feature young minded
subjects having fun and endulging in contemporary
and creative fun, where MasterCard revolves around
old time thinking with the messages it sends. AND
the actions of your attorneys don't help this matter
either.
If one acts like an asshole, nobody will want to deal
with that person.
Remember young people love to talk and pass information
through Internet newsgroups, chat rooms, and IRK.
I can easily see MasterCard getting a bad rap as being
against the younger generation.
Or, could it be that your attorneys are just picking
on small time web pages just to charge you more time
for their services? Who knows?
Best wishes,
Ade
--------------------------------------------
Man thats fucked up, if the
corporation had any fucking sense they would realize
that the most you could be doing is fucking promoting
their fucking shit mastercard.... but they are so
money hungry that they just want to sue you instead
of letting you sorta promote their shit for them....
man if i had a company and some one used my shit id
be happy its not like your profiting off of the priceless
stuff anyway.....
--------------------------------------------
tell them to go buy a rudimentary
book on patent law cause they dont seem to have a
clue, get some legal advice but keep your stuff up
man, they are just tryin to use scare tatics to get
you to take your stuff down, but what you have done
(even though you dont make the pics yourself) is not
a breach of copyright,
keep up the good stuff
I actually do make a some of the
pics myself. There'd be atleast a 100 that I'm responsible
for. Others were around before I started the site,
others I get from people who have taken the pictures
themselves. Priceless submissions go here.
--------------------------------------------
Hi ORSM
I'm new to your site, since
when were we able to copyright the English language,
maybe we should do some copywriting of our own! Maybe
we should start with words like these: the, at, is,
or, if, bite, me, Mastercard (oops that's taken).
Michael Fletcher
--------------------------------------------
So you all know - I will be fighting
this. Attrition.org
had similar problems earlier this year. After contacting
someone from that site they said Mastercard had not
pursued the matter with them any more than a few emails
back and forth between the two parties. You can read
it here.
As one email pointed out, perhaps
Mastercard should turn their attentions to sites such
as Priceless420.com as they actually charge fror the
stuff that I give you for free.
Thanks again to all of you that have
emailed
me or posted in the forum
and are supporting me with this. It's a good feeling
to know so many of you give a shit and don't want
to see a corporation like Mastercard use bully tactics
to remove something that so many people love.
Orsm. |
