A staffer at popular alterna-porn site Suicide Girls shared the news yesterday that he'd received a cease and desist letter from Nintendo's lawyers that's sure to make it into Chilling Effects for sheer ludicrousness.
The terrifying crimes outlined in this C & D? Apparently an SG site member listed in his profile that he likes the Nintendo video games Zelda and Metroid. And if that weren't bad enough, the word "Nintendo" subsequently appeared in the meta tags of his page -- presumably because a script trawls each page for relevant words and sticks them in the meta tags.
Hopped up on DMCA juice, the Nintendo attorneys explain that SG's "unauthorized use of the Nintendo trademark(s)/works will tarnish Nintendo's reputation." Then they promise "sanctions" under relevant law. Ah, there's nothing like a threat handed out so quickly and automatically that the accusers can't be bothered to pinpoint whether the "unauthorized use" is of a trademark, trademarks, or works.
If a mere public profession of pleasure in "trademark(s)/works" is infringement, then perhaps Creative Commons should make a new "enjoy freely" license.
