- Obviously,
Amazon.com has changed in the past 11 years, but that
is EXACTLY what it looked like in 2004.
I killed myself one weekend to change my
"projects" section of the site into this. It was a
therapy to me. At the time I was just spinning
and felt like such an extreme failure because none of
these projects truly got me anywhere...
-
- ...and then
I looked at that parody site I just made and
realized: "Holy shit, Adam - you're kind of a
freak. A production freak." In less than a decade of
being an adult, I had made a lifetime's worth of
material and each piece was clearly painfully detailed
and intense. From the cover art to liner notes to... I
create like every second is my last. It's continued to
this day and I do often look back and think "What the
serious shit, man. Why do you produce so
much?!?!"
-
- Within 6 months,
Amazon saw it and issued me a cease and desist. They
wanted Adamazon.com to point to Amazon.com (my
innocent "hey can it point to my own page on
Amazon?!?!" didn't fly) and I changed it over for
them. They thankfully didn't have an issue with me
keeping it as a section on my site, but felt because
of the fact that my version was identical, and that
Adamazon.com is easily confused with Amazon.com if
you're not paying attention... that it looked like it
was sanctioned. I get it. They have to maintain
control or else if I decided to make an
inappropriate section on Adamazon (who, me?) suddenly
they're part of it. It's funny, when it comes to these
legal situations, I almost always side with the
corporations. It's that logic part of my brain. Sorry
to the populace that believes
"DOWN WITH ALL CORPORATIONS"... there's
certainly some evil ones out there, but what
I did does indeed go beyond fair use, and they
were very fair in how they dealt with it. Cut to
Wednesday...
-
- BOOM:
-
-
-
- My first reaction?
Which thing did it... Bob Gale reading my shirt about
300 times backstage at the Hollywood Bowl? My video on
the Universal Backlot with my "modified" logo freaking
EVERYWHERE including my shirt? Or finally, taking Lea
Thompson into Dodger Stadium and getting press all
over the world with, yes, my RentTheDelorean.com logo
shirt on. Probably all 3. Heh. I was also
relieved it had nothing to do with my business, just
my logo. The renting of the car has already gone to
court and the bottom line is, because they used a real
car and not their own? They can't do much. For
example, Warner Bros. bitch-slapped a guy renting a
batmobile because, well, it's a batmobile - they own
that. Modifying your own Delorean is very different
case. Sure, they could lawyer you into the poor house
if they wanted, but since we all do so much charity
stuff and it keeps the movie relevant, they've wisely
chosen to just let it be.
-
- I spoke to other
owners who use it and they were stunned, because
truthfully? EVERYONE uses it. I mean
everyone. Hell, some of the builders have the ACTUAL
"Back to the Future" logo on their site! So why target
me? Here's some of the other logos:
-
-
-
- ...and
then there's mine:
-
-
- Yeah, it's not
even close. That's the exact, fucking, logo.
I really took my time to make it perfect. The
issue is the curve when introducing the letters that
were never in the original...
-
-
- It's fucking hard.
However, the fact that the other logos look "off" a
bit? Will probably keep them from getting a letter -
so hat's off to them. It is funny how I picked up my
car from a place that has the logo
PAINTED ON THE SIDE OF THE BUILDING for
crying out loud...
-
-
- ...and I get
the letter. But again, it's somewhat flattering.
I actually gave Bob shit last year when we were
still talking about how bad his logo was and had
actually started redoing it for him so it was perfect
when it became pretty apparent our fighting wasn't
going to cease. Ironically his lack of attention to
detail probably keeps him safe.
-
- All of this is
just me rambling for The Journey because I like
to talk. In reality, I replied to the attorney's
letter within HOURS and said I would change it
immediately. And I did. I only made it a spoof on the
original because it seemed obvious and I knew
I could make it look better than others who were
using it. Other than 50,000 business cards (that I
always forget to hand out anyway) there's no real cost
to me and honestly? It allowed me to make a new
animated logo with smoke for all of our
videos:
-
-
- And on the
RentTheDelorean.com
it actually looks better...
-
-
- It really is a
win-win when it's all said and done. It certainly
brands me over the other cars and, well, I guess
I get to give my OWN cease & desist if
someone copies my logo. LMAO.
-
- The craziest is
thing is the amount of shit I have to accomplish by
Universal's 9/7 deadline. That's the Labor Day
Tournament which I was barely going to make
anyway with all the building (yes, I decided to
do the fucking trellace NOW - pretty much done
though). Somehow I'm making it all happen. Very tired.
Very ready for November.
-
- Adam
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