I was going to post something on physical media vs online distribution, but I guess I'll have to save it for later. Because Hard Rock Cafe (or at least a lawyer there) decided to send a copyright claim to a service a lot of people use for making t-shirts and other stuff for an image I did that seems to have offended their copyright. It was of a hard and sturdy rock, on a stage, with some speakers behind it.
Do notice that there was no use of the word cafe, nor anything imitating the style of the franchise like typefaces or colors.
It was just a dumb joke that had more to do with the music genre than the franchise... Seriously people need to calm down with all these "copyright infringement" notices. Especially when there's no copyright infringement.
Pray tell, how is this infringing on the copyright of hard rock cafe? Is it just the word combination? Which btw is a word combination used to describe the properties of an object. Does that mean I can copyright my name and sue everybody else that has the same name?
If this is the case, then it's dumb, you shouldn't be able to register and copyright just a word or two and claim it as yours. It should be the whole thing with the logo and style included. If the image did include the same typeface as the one the company uses and had a circle behind it then yeah, I would be at fault.
Do notice that there was no use of the word cafe, nor anything imitating the style of the franchise like typefaces or colors.
It was just a dumb joke that had more to do with the music genre than the franchise... Seriously people need to calm down with all these "copyright infringement" notices. Especially when there's no copyright infringement.
If this is the case, then it's dumb, you shouldn't be able to register and copyright just a word or two and claim it as yours. It should be the whole thing with the logo and style included. If the image did include the same typeface as the one the company uses and had a circle behind it then yeah, I would be at fault.