Laughing Squid squirts ink at Best Buy

Chain backs down in T-shirt/First Amendment spat

By Kelly Fiveash • Get more from this author

Posted in IT Channel, 13th December 2007 15:26 GMT

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Best Buy has sent a snivelling apology to bloggers at Laughing Squid after it wrongly accused the website of promoting t-shirts that parody the firm.

The electronics retail giant had issued Cease and Desist (C&D) letters to Improv Everywhere and Neighboorhoodies demanding that the websites stop promoting and selling the t-shirts.

Improv Everywhere kicked off the debacle with Best Buy last year when it carried out a very funny prank in which it filled one of the firm's US stores with around 80 people who were dressed to resemble shop floor staff.

Rather oddly, Laughing Squid – which bills itself as an "art, culture and technology from San Francisco and beyond" blog – was also slapped with a C&D letter from Best Buy earlier this week following its coverage of the parodied t-shirts.

The firm claimed that Laughing Squid was also infringing copyright of its yellow and black Best Buy t-shirt tag logo, despite the fact it had merely written a harmless blog post about Improv Anywhere's playful use of the brand.

However, Best Buy backed down yesterday and told Laughing Squid that it regretted having fired off the letter.

It said: "We do not object to fair and accurate reporting of facts, and respect the First Amendment rights of Laughing Squid and other bloggers to provide articles or commentary on current events.

"Now that we have a better understanding of your website, we regret sending you the demand letter."®

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