Furnished by FedEx
Permalink | August 11th, 2005
Get creative with FedEx boxes, and get sued. That seems to be the theme in Jose Avila’s case, who furnished his entire apartment using FedEx boxes and then documented it on the Interwebnet.
On a tight budget due to a move and being locked into two rents, Avila decided to design and build all of his furniture using FedEx boxes and packing material. The pieces include a bed, a dining table and two chairs, a desk, wall shelves, and a couch measuring 9-1/2′ in length.
A friend convinced Avila to create a site showcasing his acheivements, and no sooner than it was up and running Avila was slapped with a cease and desist letter from FedEx ordering him to take down the site. Among other things, FedEx claimed trademark and copyright infringement and invoked the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Lawyers at the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society, who are representing Avila, argued the company’s claims don’t relate to copyright and therefore the DMCA doesn’t apply. Rather, the claims refer to trademark infringement and conversion. After talking with his lawyers, Avila put the site back up.
“DMCA only applies to copyrighted works, and they were basically making trademark-related claims, so it was completely outrageous,” said Lauren Gelman, associate director of the Stanford center. “This is just an example of how lawyers take advantage of copyright laws to use protecting provisions like those in the DMCA to take down stuff they just don’t like.”
Jennifer Granick, of Cisco fame is said to be representing Avila.
If I were FedEx, I would be more interested to know whether or not he paid for all those boxes or simply acquired them by walking into his neighborhood FedEx? If it’s the latter, just how many trips did he have to make? It’s not as though one could stroll in and walk out with a few hundred boxes!
[via Wired]
