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Yamaha & FZ-1 Site Fued

15K views 58 replies 23 participants last post by  wheat 
#1 ·
Re: Yamaha shuts down FZ1 sites

Wake up Yamaha.

This is a really stupid move!

You're upsetting your biggest advocates.
 
#4 ·
Re: Yamaha shuts down FZ1 sites

I was gonna say pretty much the same thing. The link does not give us enough (actually almost no) information to have any understanding of what is the issue. Did seem that most other posters on that board were not too worked up.

Before piling on and demanding a boycott of Yamaha products, I'd have to know a lot more about all sides of the issue.

Not to mention, if I boycotted every product for which there were p!ssed off owners, I would be living a stone-age lifestyle!

Cheers

Bob
 
#7 ·
Re: Yamaha shuts down FZ1 sites

Yup, there is a differance between an enthusist site and copyright infringement.

I wonder if maybe this isn't an error on many sides.

FZ1 Site owner LOVES FZ1's. Post Mucho info on the site.....

FZ1 Site owner scans in his copy of the maintenance manual. and posts on site.

Yamaha Lawers see Copyrighted material on site. Instead of asking owner to remove copyrighted material, they tell the ISP to pull down the site or be sued!

ISP asks no questions and pulls the plug.

Errors...

1. Posting Copyrighted content

2. Not contacting owern and telling them to remove copyrighted material.

3. Isp folding like a cheap suit and not asking the lawyers what the deal is and communicating with the site owner.

If the Site Owner did ignore a request form Yamaha to remove copyrighted material, then the owner is in the wrong.

If Yamaha never contacted the owner they were wrong.

If the ISP never contacted the owner, they were wrong.

It's not clear cut because we don't have the facts, but those items above are what happens 9 times out of ten. People don't talk and end up having instances like this.
 
#8 ·
Re: Yamaha shuts down FZ1 sites

I started to read about the big drama unfolding with Yamaha asking sites to remove trademarked content but I couldn't get through all the mindless blather. Get to the point! What happened (without four paragraphs of "I'm never going to buy another Yamaha EVER again...")?

On the other hand, could some of these sites invest and run spell/grammar checking software? *wink*
 
#9 ·
Thanks for the Additional Information

This really puts a different spin on things, doesn't it.

Unfortunately, it seems that a lot of people seem to think that the internet invalidates all preexisting concepts of ownership of intellectial property of any kind.

Seems like Yamaha's aproach was pretty reasonable. Don't wanna alienate your customer base, but you sure as hell can't let someone pirate your copyrighted information, especially if they then sell it at a profit.

Regards

Bob
 
#10 ·
Re: Yamaha Shuts Down, Then Licenses To, FZ-1 Site

The Internet BMW Riders and The Chain Gang website's both have lots of maintance and how-to's posted. The difference is that they didn't steal them from BMW copywritten material. The member's of their organizations spent their own time and effort to write them. In many cases, the author's wrote better instructions for Joe Average then the manufacturer's instructions. The reason is BMW assumes you are already a certified motorcycle mechanic. Their maintence material is written to this level. I have not read the Yamaha stuff but I would be willing to guess that it was written similarly.

I agree that the motorcycle manufacturers change an incredible amount of money for their copywritten materials. They can charge whatever they think the market will pay. The reason is because they wrote it. Theft is theft, and they were committing theft by putting copywritten materials on the internet without paying the author for this.

Just my two cents worth,

Dave
 
#11 ·
Re: Yamaha Shuts Down, Then Licenses To, FZ-1 Site

Funny how the ranter never mentioned that he was selling copyrighted material. Sort of reminds me of the old Internet "Free Speech" crusade. There was far too much of intellectual properties being stolen and then the thieves tried to cover up their thefts as some sort of free speech issue.

Unfortunately for many of them the courts weren't buying it.
 
#12 ·
Re: Thanks for the Additional Information

Perhaps Yamaha relented and granted license to the web site because the law wasn't completely on their side. Take a look at this Fair Use FAQ [www.eff.org]

Fair use, which is a limitation of exclusive copyrights, is held up by courts in cases where the reproduction of the work falls into the following categories:

[*]The work is more factual than creative
[*]The copyright holder is denied their commercial opportunity to profit from the work
[*]The reproduction is not for commercial purposes

Certainly a user manual is a factual document. I'd hate to think it was a work of fiction, but after owning a few Italian motorcycles, I can see why a manual author might claim creative ownership.

Next, I think it's pretty clear that Yamaha is in the motor vehicle business much more so than the publishing business. The audience for a FZ-1 manual is pretty much limited to consumers from whom Yamaha has already exacted their profit - in the form of a motorcycle sale. Also, I'd like to point out that each and every original owner of a Yamaha FZ-1 should have been furnished with a FZ-1 user manual at the time of purchase. If fair use guarantees that it's legal for them to make a backup copy of a work that they have already licensed, then what's the difference if someone else makes that backup copy for them?

Finally, I have a hard time believing that the enthusiast web site had any grand design of making their fortune selling user manual re-prints. I could believe that the enthusiast might ask for the cost of shipping and printing from the receiver to defreay the expenses incurred. I bet the user manual re-print was a friendly service provided almost exclusively to people who already held a license to the work, and that there was very little profit motive involved in the reproductions.

You sound like you're just itching to give your rights away to the first bully who will take them. Fortunately, there are patriots among us who won't roll over so easily. Don't take claims of "piracy" at face value. The framers of the United States constitution were very specific in not allowing any person or entity to "own" information.
 
#14 ·
Re: Yamaha Shuts Down, Then Licenses To, FZ-1 Site

"Anyway, shame on them for stealing stuff, shame on longride and MO for posting this without first following up, and this leaves the question: If someone was stealing your work product and re-selling it, would you let them license it after-the-fact or sue them back to the stone ages?"

How about just having them take it down instead of going the C&D route? This was a site promoting their products and informing their owners, not pirating for profit. A simple letter to remove the offending material would have sufficed, I am sure. This site never got a letter, but got a C&D order to shut down the site or transfer ownership to Yamaha. Anything that was posted here at MO was not untrue. Yamaha lawyers just went to shut them down, period, with no warning. Yamaha claimed to have no knowledge of what was done. The site currently is still not posting any Yamaha logo, pictures, and even the site URL is in question at this point. Even though the sued ranter was going off on Yamaha, I think he certainly objected to the heavy-handed treatment more than anything. Both sides of every story are not always posted here. That's why follow-ups can be posted. When Harley had a class action suit filed against them, nobody ever went to Harley to ask their side of the case. We only posted the plaintiffs case, which certainly could have been a complete lie and fabrication. I checked the site in question and they are still shut down by a C & D order from Yamaha. So let me answer the question of what I would do if somebody is "stealing my stuff". So, I have someone that is stealing my stuff and making practically nothing because of it, yet is promoting my products heavily and has certainly increased the marketing, loyality, and sales of my product without me paying a dime. Hmmmm. Anyone could figure a phone call or letter explaining the copyright infringement, and why it needs to be removed, with an offer of licensing, would have solved the problem easily. That's my take.
 
#15 ·
Re: Thanks for the Additional Information

Well, now the update says Yamaha has NOT granted license to the entusiast site.

I say "so what?". I don't believe the enthusiast site needs license from Yamaha to reproduce the user manual. Fair use should be enough to allow people to assist each other with the back up and recovery of legitimately licensed works.

Unfortunately, the enthusiast site probably doesn't have the resources to make their case. Just proves that bullies will get their way in today's legal climate.

If you disagree, think about this for a minute: If you and I both own FZ-1s, and you lost your user manual, should it be illegal for me to tell you how many quarts of oil it takes? Or how many miles between valve adjustments? Should that information really be protected so vigorously that you and I can't discuss it? Is that what we all want?
 
#18 ·
Re: STRANGE THAT MT POST GOT DELETED, M.O.

Someone just moderated it down, that's all. You can get it back up by moderating it the other way. Or set your threshold to -1 and it'll never happen to you or anyone elses post.

Still, I can't stand it when people are too lazy and cowardly to post an intelligent response, rather than just moderating someone else's post. Hope this helps.
 
#19 ·
Defending Yamaha

1. If you have ever hired a tech writer like I have, you know that manuals cost money. Good manuals don't come on trees.

2. I am sure Yamaha was directed by its lawyer this course because there are good legal reasons behind doing a C&D rather than asking please. Reading the rant and see this guys attitude, I think Yamaha did the right thing. This guy is way off.

3. Stealing is wrong and don't expect the person stolen from, Yamaha, to bend over backwards to the thief.
 
#20 ·
Re: Yamaha Shuts Down, Then Licenses To, FZ-1 Site

As someone who frequents the site linked to your article, let me put a few of the facts before you, as I understand them.

Noone at the site in question copied anything. (One of the posters to the board posted a link to another site to a full .pdf file of the Yamaha service manual, not a copy, and whatever site that was on, the download was free)

Other sites that had nothing to do with the service manual were shut down, too. Sites that had people posting techniques for mods and basic maintenence.

Most of the people on that board understand and respect ownership and property. I think it's a bit unfair to categorize them as plagiarists and poachers.

It looks like Yamaha is simply trying to rightfully protect it's 60 dollar a copy manual, and that they have just taken too broad a stroke.

BTW, I too think it's funny when people say they'll never buy another Yamaha, but hey, sometimes people get touchy about these things.

Thanks.
 
#22 ·
Re: Yamaha Shuts Down, Then Licenses To, FZ-1 Site

That's all well and good longride but it seems to me you're missing something. The problem was with copyrighted material.

As a photographer who posts copyright protected images, if I were to find someone stealing my images and reselling them then I might first send a cease-and-desist letter and follow it up with the same action Yamaha took. As many in my field have found out the cease-and-desist rarely gets any attention however so often the first letter that goes out is not from the owner of the property but from the attorney representing the owner. It seems to get more action.

I had a model I used for a shoot take the images I provided her for her portfolio and started selling them on her site. In that case all I had to do was remind her that I had retained ownership per the model release and she took them down.

Knowing the rest of the story certainly provides a better understanding as to the action by Yamaha.
 
#24 ·
Re: Yamaha Shuts Down, Then Licenses To, FZ-1 Site

First, the question of this site selling anything is in question. Second, you somehow managed to remind a person that made you money. The FZ1 site makes Yamaha money. They went for the throat and I believe got caught in the blowback. I'm sure they got plenty of love letters over their little power play. The only people interested in their $60.00 manual already bought an $8,500.00 motorcycle. I'm not sure they did the smartest thing in the world here. KPaul is 100% in Yamaha's corner, so that should give you an indication they screwed up.
 
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