IMAGES & COMMENTS REGARDING R.C.F………Eh?

by Alistair

You may remember a while ago I posted about forums and being banned from them, essentially I was banned from a forum that was allegedly set up by guys that had been banned from all the popular forums  –  it is called the River Clyde Forum. While I was a member there I witnessed people being bullied and one fishing shop retailer being victimized so much that his shop was closed.

Anyway, the story of my banning is here.

I posted my story and then forgot all about it – I thought it was a funny story to post that happened to me and I moved on. However things took a sinister turn.

I received an email a few weeks ago entitled:

IMAGES & COMMENTS REGARDING R.C.F

The email reads:

Good day Alistair, just had a look at a part of your blog.
http://urbanflyfisher.com/urban-fly-fisher-banned-from-the-river-clyde-forum/

Please remove the 2 banner images immediately from it, these images are copyright of R.C.F

If we find any slanderous or false comments regarding River Clyde Fishing Forum you will not be long in hearing  from our lawyers & also we will be in contact with ‘wordpress’.

We will give you 24hrs to remove these images.

Regards

River Clyde Admin

Good grief – I was quivering in my boots, my cornflakes spluttering from my mouth. “Lock the doors”  I instructed the wife – the heavy mob will be around in a minute. In actual fact I ignored it for a couple of hours however then decided to point out that they were talking pish considering copyright is totally different from trademark – I still have no idea why they would contact wordpress.

So I said:

Dear  River Clyde Admin , 

I am aware that your banners were found after a competition seeking an appropriate logo for your site. 

Logos are protected by trademark law, not copyright, and fair use of a trademark is not the same as fair use of copyrighted work. The reasoning behind fair use in either instance, however, is similar as it protects a fundamental right of free expression. Fair use allows the use of a logo without seeking permission from the trademark owner.

Urbanflyfisher.com is a personal news and opinion blog which has been recognised internationally – I have no idea why you would wish to contact WordPress however if it is because I use that software then you may wish to contact Scottish Power as they supply my electricity. 
I must add that I find your accusatory tone regarding slander offensive –  If the offending material is published in some fleeting form, as by spoken words or sounds, sign language, gestures and the like, then this is slander. Writing an opinion on facts on a personal blog is not. 
Regards 
Alistair – Urbanflyfisher.com
Like it? Graham is from Australia so I get to say we are internationally recognised – love it!
I then received a reply:
Thanks Alistair, 
your comments have been noted, we will be in touch.

Regards

River Clyde Admin

Eh what? Literally two minutes later this arrived:

Good evening Urbanflyfisher (Alistair),One of our admin team has passed on the email with regards to the use of the River Clyde Fishing logo’s and screen shots of the forum.

We are happy for you to continue to use our banner on your blog, as you have said, you are recognised ‘internationally’ so we will be glad of the exposure.

As for contacting Scottish Power, we also think that would be a bit harsh on our part so we will not take that avenue.

Have a good evening

 River Clyde Fishing

 

Oh – thanks for stating the obvious “River Clyde Fishing” , the only thing I missed in the final email was an apology for wasting my time. You see, The River Clyde Forum is trying to make itself sound a lot more “official” than it actually is – we are talking about a few guys that strung a site together here, not a company with a team of lawyers behind them. I get annoyed these days about folk that are unable or unwilling to write their actual name at the end of something they have wrote – what it means to me is that what they have just wrote means not a jot.

Anyway, it is Friday thank goodness and we have a mere 48 days until a trout can be caught on the Kelvin. In 48 days I should be able to tie up (going by my tying rate over the last 4 months) absolutely no flies.

Yikes!

14 thoughts on “IMAGES & COMMENTS REGARDING R.C.F………Eh?”

  1. Graham:

    I has come to my attention that your blog is in heavy use of words and trademarked symbols found on the Trout Underground, including (but not limited to) the words “the,” “fly fishing,” and “sinister.”

    Please remove them and return them immediately whenceworth they came as they are the only copies of those words we have.

    If you fail to comply within 24 hours, we will see fit to crush our enemies, see them driven before us, and hear the lamentation of your women (note the last is *not* something we stole from Conan the Barbarian, so don’t bother contacting WordPress about our use of the quote).

  2. Loving the fact it obviously took someone six months of plotting to come up with that email! Only to hoist the Italian battle ensign after one reply from you!!!!

    You must be grateful and relieved by their magnanimous gesture not to cut off your leccy though. As he says, it would have been a bit harsh if their lawyers had instructed Scottish Power to terminate your power supply.

  3. At the height of the nonsense on the ‘other’ forum (don’t want to use the name or I might get emailed), several decent contributers decided enough was enough and left. Weeks later some were contacted to be told that everything was now under control and the baddies had been chased away. They were invited to return. As far as I’m aware very few of them did. In light of this recent communication it would seem to have been a wise decision.
    The last nameless emailer would appear to believe that there is no such thing as bad publicity. When it comes to forums, I disagree.
    Bunch of passive agressive idiots who seem to think they are important.

  4. Ahhhh yes. Internationally famous at last. In years to come our grandchildren shall gather round their campfires and speak of the legend “Graham from the mighty land of Oz” and his pivotal role in the worldwide battle of the fishing blogs.lol. Glad to be of service.

  5. ..about spit cookie crumbs all over the laptop; the More Famous,Less Better Looking TU bestrites the river Kelvin,wielding his mighty Phillipson 8 1/2 ft. 5wt. in defence of his….whatever.
    Internationally Known,indeed,Alistair!!!

  7. This is awesome lol. I am actually going through reasonably similar issue in work just now, bought some goods which are basically not good quality so i told them to remove them. they bombard me with emails saying things that the email before totally disagrees with. Do these people think before the send these emails. You could actually just ignore this and let them get on with it but sometimes its fun to reply. good work

  8. the guys who run that forum sound like horrible people, I can’t believe that poor guy had to close his business down, that’s terrible. bullying on or off line should never be accepted by anyone.

  10. I was less than impressed with that forum too Alistair. Fair play to you for sticking to your guns.

    My account appears to have been deleted from there, but I’ll not lose any sleep.

  11. Alex – if quite possibly one of the most productive fishers can have his account deleted (you not me) than the question is just who the heck actually posts there?

  12. In fairness to the Clyde forum guys, I only ever posted once or maybe twice on there, so I can see their point in deleting what amounted to an inactive account.

  13. The Clyde forum is full of idiots who think they can fish for salmon but give them a trout rod and they will struggle to get a stockie never mind a wildie.These guys all fish together so aint that hard to find the fish when you have about 30 forum members fishing the same stretch for days on end!

    You guys are right the forum is crap and the content is dwindling bigtime heck they even changed their slogan to “river clyde forum its what you make of it”<<<<<thats because its the same drivvel posted day in day out!

    Keep up the good work Alistair!!!!!!!!

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