Cafepress: Points and counter-points

Mr.Shroom · Post by **Mr.Shroom** » Mon Jun 09, 2003 10:16 am

This seemed an apt place to post this, so I'll do so. A bit of old news, but I'm not sure how fast it spreads in this circle.

First, read Updated Members Agreement for Cafepress. Then take a gander at this fellows take on the issue, which totes several Trademark and profit changes that affect artists and ownership of items.

Then read this quote from a e-mail from Cafepress, regarding the reactions of certain artists who closed their accounts due to this (taken from a quote by Chris Morrison's site):

Hi,

I noticed you recently closed your CafePress.com shop. You stated that
the reason was because of "CafePress.com's ownership of your images".
There is a misunderstanding of what is stated in our Member Agreement
regarding "Intellectual Property Rights" and what is being interpreted.
OUR MEMBERSHIP AGREEMENT DOES NOT STATE THAT WE
HAVE ANY OWNERSHIP IN YOUR CONTENT. I would like
to help clarify it further.

In the Member Agreement, 6.1, it states:
"CafePress.com will solely and exclusively own all intellectual property
and other rights, title and interest in and to the CafePress.com Service,
and CafePress.com will have the sole and exclusive right to obtain
trademark and copyright registrations, patents and other protection
therefore, and you will not acquire any right, title or interest therein,
under this Agreement or otherwise."

What this means is:
Cafepress.com has exclusive rights to CafePress.com's intellectual
property, NOT CafePress.com member's intellectual property. Section 6.1
simply states that CafePress.com the company owns the Web site
whatcounts.com/t?ctl=3DB62A:1C177E4

Section 6.2 states:
"You hereby grant to CafePress.com a royalty-free, worldwide, nonexclusive,
right and license to use the trademarks, trade names, designs, logos and
other images that you upload to your image basket in connection with your
use of the CafePress.com Service ("Party Marks"). If you or CafePress.com
terminate your account, CafePress.com will cease its use of the Party Marks
within 90 days of the termination."

What this means is:
As a CafePress.com member, you are granting CafePress.com non-exclusive
permission to use, royalty free, all of your designs, images, logos, etc.
in your media/image basket for the purpose of promotion, production and
sale of products that the CafePress.com member decides to sell in their
shop. It does not give CafePress.com ownership of the your trademarks.
Once a CafePress.com terminates their contract, CafePress.com will cease
the use of the designs, etc.

Just to sum up sections regarding "Intellectual Property Rights",
CafePress.com DOES NOT OWN the images you upload to your media/image basket.
It is only a provision that allows us to use your images to promote your
products on CafePress.com, our newsletter, etc. as well as produce the
products once a sale has been made.

I hope this clears up the misunderstanding. If you would like to reopen
your shop without having to recreate your products and images, please send
me your Shop ID(s) and I'll get them back up for you.

If you have any questions or need more answers, feel free to email me.

Best regards,

Angela Low
Member Services Manger
CafePress.com
angela@cafepress.com

Discuss. Is CafePress trying to pull a fast one? Is this just another case of how easily one can misunderstand legal-speak? Or something more? Could this affect RealLife in a negative way, more than profit-wise, but in ownership of image?

Post by **Mae Dean** » Mon Jun 09, 2003 4:58 pm

Doesn't really matter to me. I'm going to be moving to ThinkGeek relatively soon.

However, if you read over the user agreement, you'll notice that it gives CafePress the copyright on a NON-EXCLUSIVE basis. It states that it is only so they can use your images for promotional purposes, but it does not grant them ownership of your images over you. It also states that if you leave, they can only use your stuff for another 90 days, then their ownership of them ends. It's not as bad as people make it out to be...someone just didn't read them all the way through and got a bug in their butt.

Salvation122 · Post by **Salvation122** » Mon Jun 09, 2003 9:08 pm

[quote="Greg Dean";p="93847"]Doesn't really matter to me. I'm going to be moving to ThinkGeek relatively soon.[/quote]
Bad. Ass.

Mandor · Post by **Mandor** » Mon Jun 09, 2003 9:17 pm

ThinkGeek kicks ass. I have a couple of their Unix T-Shirts.

Mr.Shroom · Post by **Mr.Shroom** » Tue Jun 10, 2003 12:28 am

[quote="Greg Dean";p="93847"]...someone just didn't read them all the way through and got a bug in their butt.

[/quote]

I came to the same conclusion. But the profit gouging is pretty extreme, and I've had some credit card errors and heard of others having the same with CafePress. Hope the switch helps, ThinkGeek is pretty nice.

WannaBeTonyClone · Post by **WannaBeTonyClone** » Tue Jun 10, 2003 2:04 am

i just got my girlfriend the Geek is Sexy shirt off of think geek it came in today with my case of bawls

Eihger · Post by **Eihger** » Tue Jun 10, 2003 2:07 am

Wait wait wait, whats going on here

Mr.Shroom · Post by **Mr.Shroom** » Wed Jun 11, 2003 3:25 am

A conversation. Once you level up your conversational skills, you'll be able to make and create your very own!

SothThe69th · Post by **SothThe69th** » Wed Jun 11, 2003 3:42 am

Mr.Shroom, not so foolish mortal, wrote:A conversation. Once you level up your conversational skills, you'll be able to make and create your very own!

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