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Is SPIN Magazine's Bullying All For A Better Twitter URL?
By
Jen Carlson
Published May 26, 2011
Modified May 26, 2011
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By
Jen Carlson
Published May 26, 2011
Modified May 26, 2011
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Yesterday we reported that SPIN magazine had sent a cease and desist letter to a young man in Oregon whose Twitter handle is @Spin, claiming copyright infringement and confusion. The magazine hasn't gotten back to us with a comment, but @Spin (aka Eric Rice) has. He told us this afternoon:
"I can only speculate that a company that wants a better URL for their social media presence might resort to a cease and desist approach against an individual, since the specter of facing a legal situation could be too foreboding. I'm actually curious if they've pursued all the other similarly named people or companies—and there's a lot of them.
As far as hearing from them before? Nope, not in all the years I've been yammering on Twitter or any other services with my nickname—which is why this whole thing is so surreal to me—it feels like an attack on my personal identity. All because some people dialed a wrong number, essentially."
Meanwhile, a rep for a band named SPiN also got in touch with us, alerting us that the magazine has bullied before. He told us, "I wanted to let you know that the magazine sent a nearly identical cease and desist to the band SPiN. The band thought the claims were ridiculous and decided to ignore the letter, against the advice of their attorney at the time. The magazine followed up with the letter a few more times, the band continued to ignore it, and nothing has come of it since."
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cease and desist
eric rice
spin
spin magazine
Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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