Toyota Admits Wrongdoing in Wallpaper Case
Written by Ben Jones on November 20, 2008Overreaching corporate claims are nothing new, certainly when it comes to copyright. Toyota vastly over-reached recently, requesting all images containing their products be removed from a wallpaper site, citing copyright issues. Finally, Toyota responds.
Civil litigation and especially copyright disputes, are often a David and Goliath battle. With lobbyists pressing hard to increase punitive damages well beyond any potential damage imaginable, or even a sane multiplier of that damage, being taken to court can be an expensive prospect.
That’s where many lawyers, such as Davenport Lyons can make a tidy profit. As has happened in some of the cases they are involved with, many will admit wrongdoing, and even pay ‘damages’ where no actions (wrong or otherwise) have occurred. It has led to a general feeling that a claim of copyright infringement by a large powerful company will get the actions they desire, irrespective of facts, through fear of litigation. This was the situation last week, when Toyota ordered wallpaper site Desktop Nexus to remove all images featuring Toyota vehicles, even those with copyright belonging to others.
However, sometimes a company can be pressured into accepting mistakes, and this is the case here. With a large amount of negative publicity (a selection of which can be found on DesktopNexus’ blog) Toyota today contacted TorrentFreak and DesktopNexus, expressing their apologies for the incident.
From: Scott DeYager
Date: Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 12:52 AM
Subject: Desktopnexus Toyota Wallpapers
To: tips@torrentfreak.comDear Torrentfreak.com,
The recent request Toyota made to have certain photos of Toyota vehicles removed from the public wallpaper site, DesktopNexus, was the result of an internal miscommunication.
To protect the legal rights and agreements we have with the photographers we hire, we ask that the photographs not be used for direct consumer advertising, sales brochures and the like.
If people wish to post their own photos of one of their own vehicles, that’s their right. In fact, we’re pleased that people would want to show their Toyota vehicles to the world. So have at it. Consider the wallpapers on DesktopNexus to be fair game for personal use.
Please let your readers know that we offer a sincere apology to the DesktopNexus site and its users for any inconvenience or disruption this miscommunication may have caused.
Thanks for your understanding,
Scott DeYager
Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.
Corporate Communications
DesktopNexus told TorrentFreak that they will be releasing a statement on this shortly.
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47 Responses
isn’t that a car company?
Rozy
http://5chan.ru - filesharing discussion
Yes.
win.
Baring in mind that the auto industry is crumbling, they should be happy to take whatever advertising they can get.
@4
You nailed it on the head. Free advertising and yet, they complain.
I tend to squeak a bit when my balls are in a vise as well lol…
I commend his fixing of this situation. That “there is no such thing as bad advertising”, is a myth.
Here is some free advertising for you Mr. DeYager. That Prius Hybrid is a nifty car
http://www.fetchmp3.com/search.php?Term=new+toyota&searchbutton.x=47&searchbutton.y=27&Module=YouTube
J.
Whatever the case, they are doing the right thing here.
HOWEVER — it is still important to consider this fact:
That they are still legally able to continue on this copyright bullying, if they wanted to.
Yes, this particular company many have decided to drop it, but what is stopping it from doing it in the future? What is stopping other companies from doing it? What is more important than what they are doing is what they CAN do.
It is for this reason that the law cannot stay as it is, even if some companies decide to do the right thing.
Roze
http://www.10ch.org/
lol. ‘inernal miscomunication’. sounds like someone is about to get fired.
I often find Roze a bit too militant, and sometimes blatantly stupid, but she (?) makes a good point that Toyota should not have been able to start this BS in the first place.
Still, hats off to you Toyota, glad someone there has some sense.
Love the power of the net and its citizens!
If this was just 15 years ago the protests and complaints wouldnt have been loud enough for Toyota to be concerned at all nor for them to give out an official apology.
And thats the key for movies as well, 15-20years ago if a movie sucked it still did pretty well if it had “A list” celebs… now a movie sucks people sms, blog, chat,email etc and other people listen, no need to just read biased reviews from fuckwit reviewers because they “know” the studio or director… read from friends,family and other “normal” movie goers like yourselves… information wants to be free.
Will big content admit that? nope, “piracy” killed the movie… guess thats easier to say than ” the movie sucked so it didnt do well”.
Anyway, back on topic, good job TF and good luck DesktopNexus!
@6 Jack,
“I tend to squeak a bit when my balls are in a vise as well”
LOL, thanks! Needed that!
Cheers!
http://www.eZee.se
Really? They realized how bad they messed up after the outrage from the car community.
Visit P2P Tech Time
http://www.p2ptechtime.com
scott deyager:
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/scott/deyager
“I’m working with various divisions throughout Toyota to continually develop content and create strategies that engage our online audiences.”
This seems to be his domain. chances are he frequents digg or redit and found this story himself first hand, watching in horror as his efforts to promote toyota were swiftly by undone by some ashole lawyers…
F.A.I.L.
Sounds good :)
haha u know u have leverage when u start getting apologies from fucking toyota XD
@7
“HOWEVER — it is still important to consider this fact:
That they are still legally able to continue on this copyright bullying, if they wanted to.”
No. Copyright law would have been on the side of the people in this case.
Toyota would have lost any attempted litigation because they don’t even own the copyrights to those photos in the first place. The copyrights of the photographs are owned by the people who took the pictures, not Toyota.
If you take a picture of my car, I don’t own the copyright to that picture, you do. Someone at Toyota was confused. And they have admitted as such.
atleast they admitted their wrongdoing unlike some other companies :/…
@4 & 5
Toyota isn’t an American company retards >_>
I knew Toyota would figure out they were making themselves look really bad over something this stupid. Files of movies, and TV shows, I can understand people throwing a fit over, but walllpapers of a car?! That’s crazy!
Somewhere there’s a Japanese lawyer without a job today.
TF ftw.
Toyota has done the right thing with a speedy and apologetic withdrawal of the complaint. you can understand mistakes can happen in large corporations, and it is to Toyota’s credit they can fix their mistakes
i would have thought that copyright law would deem a fan site as fair use even for copies of Toyota’s commercial presentations but that was far from thought in Toyota’s first attack on Desktopnexus. regardless of the fact Desktopnexus is hosting a great amount of fan art, regardless of all the facts, Toyota’s first thought was to attack its fans, to attack its own market
this phenomenon of mega-corporations attacking their over markets is one of the absurdities of modern corporate thinking about copyright in the digital age. you see the games, movie and music industries all doing it
something significant happened here with Toyota. one of the top most progressive and successful global corporations thought twice about the wisdom of attacking its fanatics. maybe there is hope yet
Toyota can go to hell…the lawyers didn’t make the infringement claim without management’s approval. Japanese car manufacturers have tiny penis’s and they can’t hold on to their women. We show your slant-eyed wife what a big dick is like while you are singing karaoke and bowing to each other.
Good job.
Nice to see people fess up to things they have done wrong.
” isn’t that a car company?
Rozy
http://5chan.ru - filesharing discussion”
stop posting 5chan on here its a pedo site not filesharing site
u make me fucking sick Rozy
@7: are you always on? take yourself less seriously please.
at least they admitted their mistakes…
Somebody got fiiiiireeeeed!
Well done Toyota, it’s never too late to admit a mistake and may your sales quadruple in 2009!
Thanks for the apology toyota,
If you dont like my constant spamming of my garbage, then stop visiting this site.
They protect me here, if anyone speaks against me I have them delete your posts.
Roze
What the hell does this have to do with bittorrent?
Carlos, while TorrentFreak is primarily about filesharing news, we occasionally cover other related issues as well. The toyota/desktopNexus case is an example of that, in that it is about over-reaching copyright demands, despite lack of evidence or facts. This article was a follow-up, showing how in this case, we managed to bring this to the attention of the public and the company management in a way that allowed a speedy resolution.
It might also make a nice point to bring up in court at some point, that companies and lawyers can and have overstepped the bounds of law in copyright demands.
Internal miscommunication ?
Why can’t corporations ever admit they were wrong ? All this softening is just BS. Someone in a middle-manager role spoke to the legal department, and everyone involved in that chain of command acted like idiots.
There was no miscommunication, there was a mistake.
Grats to Toyota for realising and admitting their mistake
The numpty from 5chan, ought to take a look at their website
FAQ, Rules
This file has yet to be edited. by the site administrator.
It has a bunch of picture, all black girls, covered in soot at night in a black room
aka a naff site :)
Toyota likes to pay for publicity :)
It is such an unslaught. There was a similar case with this company who had to fend of a case from Munters.
Screw the car industry! Cars kill people. Cars pollute our nature. Cars are a huge waste of money. Nobody with a spine needs a car. Get a bicycle and use trains for long distance travelling!
Exactly.. Twats spam boards..
Yay thats good to hear. I forgive Toyota now. They probably had a heart attack when they realised that someone had not fully communicated or someone had mis-interpreted their instructions and it had resulted in toyota making highly illegal and unpopular legal requests. Yep I guess this just shows that they too are human beings (real ones not like mpaa/riaa dogs) and as such they also read the news (Real news like torrent freak not like BBC, FOX or any other propaganda arm). It also shows that they care.
Hey guys just try to understand how in a giant corporate like toyota how a mixed message to their legal department could go wrong. Now im shure they do not wont to comite suicide as they have had more than enough time to do so allready. Just be a bit more reasonable please. I mean its not like the ANTI-PIRACY pigs that are trying to sue isp’s because they did not take their allegations as if they where a conviction by a judge.
im reluctant to forgive them but there letter is pretty personal.. at least they didnt send some legal mumbo jumbo to cover there ass and act all high and mighty.. nice to get a legit letter that is written in english with what seems to be heart felt apolagie.
My family has always favored Toyota vehicles. I myself will be purchasing a vehicle in the next year or two. If Toyota not retracted their statement with a sincere apology, this would have grossly affected my perception of the automobile company.
Would it affect my decision of whether or not I would purchase one of their vehicles? It’s hard to say. Maybe, maybe not. At the moment I am weighing my options between Honda and Toyota vehicles.
Reliability is one thing. Customer service is another. making legal threats to their own fan vbase is just rediculous.
Outstanding! Win for the little guys!
http://www.anonymity.cz.tc
FYI, Only american cars are going down. Toyota and Honda are not, The stock is lower then want they want, but its not at Ford GMC or Chevy index. Imports are better then American cars. That’s why you see more and more people buying imports. American cars are about 13 years behind imports. Bye Bye Detroit, Say hello to the “2″ penis” as you guys put it.
i work for toyota and the one think toyota hates is bad plibasity, even when they jerks to customers or workers. then they try to sugar coat it and try to come off all sincere. trust me they couldn’t care less. toyota management is very arrogent. and if you see the way some of the vehicles were made it would changes your mind on how well built they are.
Hey, Was this really a mistake, or just crafty free publicity on Toyota’s part??
“internal miscommunication” lol, I like that.
I would never buy a Toyota anyway.
Me too Toyota sucka
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