I want to type this entire post in all caps in the largest font size possible so you know how genuinely delighted I am by the situation. I'm like a girl at a Taylor Swift concert, if Taylor Swift were the funniest comedienne that ever existed...because the FUNNIEST thing is currently happening to me and oh man, oh man, oh man... I can't even express with words.
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So, regarding yesterday's post, I received an e-mail from a "lawyer" telling me to take it down (and also my tees) because defamation in the form of libel and copyright infringement. Well, at least one point is moot since they sent the same thing to Spreadshirt and my designs were "rejected". But never you fear, little bunnies, there's a solution for that too.
Let's start from the beginning, here is the e-mail (you will likely have to click on the image to read it) :
And here is what we need to know about libel :
Filing a lawsuit is one thing, but winning it is another. To prove that defamation has occurred, you would have to first prove that the statement was indeed false. Next, you have to show that the statement harmed you. Then, you have to prove that the person making the statement did not ensure that it was true. If you are well-known, you may have prove that the statement was made with actual malice. This means, it must have been made with disregard for the truth, and with the intention of doing harm to you.
Apparently, the husband and wife who run The Bee and The Fox don't like to be called idiots or hypocrites and don't like to be told that they are patronizing and lack integrity. But like, is it UNTRUE? Man, like I said, we had some e-mails that went back and forth...and I gotta tell you, I couldn't even read them. 'Cause I was so mad by this point. See, via Instagram, I never actually attacked them or said anything mean. I mean, unless you consider calling an excuse "bullshit" is mean, which I don't. And they were SUPER PATRONIZING to me in our messages. But when I e-mailed them, I told a very, very personal story and I apologized and offered to delete all my comments and make amends. But they are not the kind of people who make amends, because the reply I received was super patronizing, EVEN AS IT AGREED WITH ME. (Straight up, she agreed that I should keep trying to ask companies to represent models of size, but I just went about it the wrong way.) I had Adam read them and summarize them because I could not anymore...and then I came up with my solution, which was just going ahead and making their t-shirts on my own.
Actually, first I considered trademarking their designs because I knew they hadn't done so. 'Cause trademarks are public record and their designs are not registered for trademark...mostly because they can't be. Basic sayings in a common typeface can't really be trademarked because they are so BORING that anyone could claim use of them. (Trademark laws are super interesting, y'all.) Also, trademarking costs money and you have to prove you had the idea first, which obviously I couldn't.
So what about that copyright infringement? As I said, it's moot, 'cause they sent the same threatening crap to the site that hosts my designs and my designs have since been "rejected" :
It's hard to cease and desist copyright infringement when someone already does it for you.
Anyway, WHY DOESN'T IT MATTER? Because Spreadshirt has a t-shirt designer set up so that you can design your own t-shirt in any way you want and have it created and sent to you!
Like I said in my previous post, the shirts are fully customizable. So if you want to make shirts with the same phrases that The Bee and The Fox think they own under copyright law...and if you want to make them better by using a cool font and printing on a pretty color instead of BORING WHITE, then just go to Spreadshirt and design your own!
Oh, and if you're dedicated to seeing me profit from this mess, which I have not yet in any way...just choose one of my shirts and change the design to one of the sayings from The Bee and The Fox and I'll get the commission.
Isn't it nice to know you don't actually have to do business with people who not only suck at customer service but also think they can get away with threatening someone?
Anyway, why would you buy one of their shirt designs when the ones I made are so much better? Also, if you take any of my ideas and reproduce them as your own and open up your own Spreadshirt shop and call me a hypocrite who lacks integrity, rest assured that I will not care. I just really, really, really don't care. When the lawyer said it was clear my "feelings were hurt," I had to laugh. 'Cause no. But I guess someone's feelings were hurt, right?
Also, if we're talking copyright infringement, let's talk about this :
I've already begun contacting Merle Haggard's estate so they can know about it. I wonder if their precious reputations will be hurt by committing actual copyright infringement.
