If you’ve been thinking about getting into the business of selling progressive political merchandise like bumper stickers, buttons, or tshirts online, I have some advice for you. Stick with CafePress or Skreened. Don’t bother with Zazzle.
This month, the Republican National Committee has threatened shopkeepers with frivolous lawsuits, trying to shut down shops that criticize the Republican Party. The RNC claimed that no one besides them has the right to mention the GOP, or the Grand Old Party, or the Republican National Committee, or the RNC, or to show an elephant representing the Republican Party. They claimed that to do so would be an infringement of their trademark rights.
That’s ridiculous, of course. People have the right to criticize a company or organization, using that company’s trademarked names or logos. That’s because trademarks are intended to keep commercial competition fair and honest, not to prevent criticism or satire. So, when the movie WAL-MART: The High Cost of Low Price was released, Wal-Mart couldn’t have sued over the use of the trademarked name Wal-Mart in the title, or the filming of the store logo. When there’s criticism involved, even when the thing discussed includes a trademark, trademark law can’t be used to force censorship…
…at least not in a court of law. Lawyers from powerful groups like the Republican National Committee can send out threatening cease-and-desist letters to try to intimidate people from engaging in free speech, though.
When the RNC threatened CafePress, CafePress called the Republicans’ bluff. They said that they’d take the matter to court, if necessary, because they weren’t about to let their shopkeepers get pushed around by bullies who didn’t respect free speech. The Republican National Committee had to back down, because the law was not on their side. The RNC was forced to drop its legal claims.
Skreened, which helps us sell anti-Republican t-shirts manufactured in the USA by American Apparel, made its position on matters like these clear from the start. Skreened will not be intimidated into silence, by jihadists upset over cartoons of Mohammed or by Republican lawyers threatening frivolous lawsuits.
Zazzle, on the other hand, was not so brave. Instead of standing up for the rights of their shopkeepers, the people at Zazzle headquarters surrendered to fear. They agreed to the demands of the Republican National Committee without a fight, and sent out emails to shopkeepers announcing that their anti-Republican stickers, t-shirts and buttons would be censored.
When push comes to shove, Zazzle will sell out its shopkeepers. Skreened and CafePress won’t. That’s why, though I’ll continue to work on marketing progressive campaign gear on Skreened and CafePress, I can’t for the life of me understand why I should bother contributing my designs to Zazzle. All it takes is some high-paid Republican lawyer to come along and make a threat, and my work there will be destroyed, regardless of my legal rights.
Thanks for the heads up on which companies are still allowing such merchandise.
Zazzle.com have now deleted almost all products using the Obama logo.
This does not surprise me.
Dig around Zazzle and you will find more anti-Obama designs than you will anti-Republican designs. I couldn’t figure out why that was until I ran across this and other posts on Irregular Times. You search “liberal” on Zazzle and you get far more anti-liberal designs than you do pro. Curious to me…
Even though this article is nearly a year old, it is still relevant to Zazzle and the way they stock their market place and manage their forum.
When articles like this are posted to the Zazzle Forum, they are promptly removed. There is no allowance for dissent on the Zazzle Forum. The forum is censored beyond belief and reason, at times. You can’t even use the word “scrap” without it being bleeped, for crying out loud!
It makes me wonder if Zazzle folded to the Republican heavy hand or if they agree with them and did it out of support.
For two days, despite my complaints, they had up a shirt calling for the assassination of President Obama. They also had a whole line of “Tiller NEEDED killing” shirts (“George Tiller, a good man to shoot”, “George Tiller, a good place to start”) and others that suggested another doctor needed to be shot. Several of the shirts then printed the doctor’s address.
They eventually took the shirts down, but they also banned my account for complaining about them, which meant I couldn’t report the new batch of shirts the user posted 2 hours later. So I created a new account, reported the new batch, was banned again. Rinse and repeat, except that the user seems to finally have moved away from violent threats in his newer shirts.
They seriously need to work on auto-screening their items, and they should stop banning me for doing their own damn work. I don’t think it’s the company’s politics, I think it’s their lax methods that are attracting the crazies.
I am a bit late to this party but it is a bunch of bunk.
Were you as outraged when CP pulled White House images down of Obama?
What about when Obama’s logo was pulled off everything?
Your sense of outrage might be believable if it were not simply an anti-republican rant.
Get off the anti gop rag and take a look at your guys “change”. Hows that working out for you?
1. Barack Obama’s not “our guy.” We criticize him plenty: See here:
2. You can’t use someone else’s unadulterated photo of Barack Obama; that’s against the law.
3. If you want to engage in “fair use” of Obama logos, you have to accompany it with some idea of your own, which can include criticism. Otherwise, again, it’s just a rip-off. See above, a shirt incorporating the Obama logo for purposes of critical comment which clearly CafePress has NOT taken down.
4. The issue with Zazzle’s take-down was that they were removing GOP Elephants even when accompanied by “fair use” commentary and change, which is thoroughly bogus.
Yes, you are late to the party. If you’re going to make a dramatic entrance, make it a good one.