*Update (See Below)* KGMB Asks Me to Remove Their Logo From a Blog Posting

8 Responses

1. Andy Parx, on January 20, 2009 at 9:02 am said:

   Nope- not illegal That’s why they’re just “asking” you.not telling you. Called “fair use” under Title 17 USC

   But it seems you’ve stumbed onto one of the more disgustingly reprehensable local TV news practices- running these commercial “video news releases”. There are commercials disguised as news pieces that local news programs use to fill their news hole… and often they are scams. But the stations are reluctant to admit that.

   Anyway, it’s fair use if you are reporting on a story- even if you quote . If you were using it to deceive people into thinkig you were doing soething with KGMB it could be fraud but they arent telling you to do it because they can’t
2. Devany, on January 20, 2009 at 6:09 am said:

   Damon,

   I agree, it is a very strange request.

   From a PR perspective (my former career) I guess they are thinking that their logo represents their brand and their brand has now been associated with a negative (for them) story. Let’s just say they would rather hide their heads in the sand than get free press from you. We live in such a litigious society where law suits are filed for the silliest of reasons and the only winners are usually the lawyers with change jingling in their pockets. Perhaps they are concerned about some kind of liability issue with their logo being associated with what you wrote. It is really too bad, because it was an important story and you brought the truth to light.

   Anyway, just because they ask you to take it off does not mean that you have to. On the other hand… it is the aloha thing to do. Maintaining a cooperative relationship might be worth it in the long run.

   Aloha au i Hawai`i,
   devany
3. Larry, on January 19, 2009 at 5:31 pm said:

   P.S. To explain my point more: trademarks are similar to copyright in that while they are property, there’s a principal called “fair use” that applies to “purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research.” Basically, just as KGMB can put up the Ford logo when discussing an auto-industry bailout, you can put up a KGMB logo when discussing reporting. On the other hand, KGMB couldn’t prominently display the KITV logo for substantial parts of their nightly news (or vice versa), because doing so might confuse a viewer as to which channel they were watching.

   The “simplest thing that could possibly be true” is that the way you presented their logo may have been confusing to a reader (Someone may have mistakenly thought “Gee, that TV station labeled this guy a scammer.”) That sad truth is that TV and newspapers are so scared of lawsuits that they’ll never actually state a conclusion such as that. The best you can hope for is “Some say this man is a scammer.”

   Damon – I appreciate your well thought out logic.
4. Larry, on January 19, 2009 at 5:17 pm said:

   Does the “simplest thing that could possibly be true” work? That the way the page was presented might have led someone to confuse KGMB’s editorial stance with yours? The “likelihood of confusion” is probably the only way that the use of a logo is not fair use.

   You must be doing something right getting all these people to tell you to delete their photos, remove their logos, etc.
5. Paula Bender, on January 19, 2009 at 5:07 pm said:

   I don’t get it. No such thing as bad press, right? Maybe they see the logo tie in as an endorsement or affiliation. I wonder if they have any kind of legal foot to stand on here. If so, they should tell you. Doesn’t the link draw more hits to their site? hmmm.

   Damon – Good point! Just for this… I’m dropping their RSS feed! Don’t need to support them. ;)
6. Laughing Girl, on January 19, 2009 at 4:49 pm said:

   Why didnt you just ignore them and see if they went away?

   Damon – I’m not sure of the laws, but I felt it’s better to err on the safe side for now. Ignore them… Yeah right! Hard for me to ignore anything these days!
7. Frightened to Death, on January 19, 2009 at 3:31 pm said:

   Sounds like they’re being wankers on this ’cause they realized they aired an “ad” without any real reporting / basic questions. If what you posted had shown them in a real ‘positve’ light, think they would have sent the cease & desist
   email? Unlikely.

   They can “ask” all they want, but they are being pretty funny to single you out…just google : kgmb9 photo or kgmb9 logo photo and see how many blogs & webpages have their logo (sure some have their permission, but not all).

   What if you copy & pasted a tweet of theirs that has the logo…it’s on a public social network site, and typically thumbnail images have been shown to be outside the copyright-gestapo boundaries. (See the Google court victory in 2002).

   Ah, ‘ain’t the Hawaii Copyright Cops grand? Bet the marketing director has no clue about any of this as it relates to the new digital era…

   Hope somebody Tivo’d the video since it’s gone now. ;)

   Damon – That is where I got the original image from was TWITTER.
8. Doug, on January 19, 2009 at 3:13 pm said:

   Are you SURE the “image” the people at KGMB are talking about is the logo and not something else (like maybe the video)? Sounds very odd to me.

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