Quote:
Originally Posted by Steven Lake
I think darkpoet hit it on the nail. You're best to start with the fair use guidelines and then spin out from there. And remember that, what you can typically get away with online isn't always something you can get away with in print. They're like two different animals. Case in point. Whenever I'm doing web reviews of products, I rarely, if ever, use the TM trademark symbol. But if I'm doing something in a print publication, it is required. I've seen articles rejected before in print magazines because someone didn't include one. And that's mostly for legal protections for the publisher. But it's still something to consider.
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Ah, that's what I was afraid of. The Fair Use article wasn't very informative on that front. I'm complaining about things like Hagen ice cream shrinking the size of the containers from 1.75 quart to 1.5qt while the price stays the same, the stupid way that Best Buy groups the TV show DVDs by studio instead of just putting the damn things all in alphabetical order like they should be. The complete atrocity that is Microsoft's Xbox 360 hardware and it's insane failure rate. Design flaws in PS3s, that "Games For Windows" nonsense. You name the company, I probably complain about their products or their business practices. Don't misunderstand though, the book isn't solely about attacking companies. To describe it is difficult, but I guess you could say it's my life story, and my opinions on life in general--attacking society and social norms as a whole.
Anyway, I was part of a website years ago called Gameshark Central. Late in the life of the site, Interact (who sold the Gameshark at the time) threatened legal action if we didn't take the word gameshark off the site. So the site name changed and every mention of "Gameshark" on the site had to be accompanied by a registered trademark symbol. That's the kind of thing I'm concerned with. I've seen other random sites with those bs disclaimers like "GameShark, Game Genie by Galoob, Code Breaker, Fire International, Interact, and any aforementioned game or product are trademarks of each respective company and product of respective companies as cited in this document."
So are companies (Best Buy, Walmart) in need of any special consideration or just specific products like Playstation? Is a general disclaimer like the one I quoted good/needed, or do I have to catch every mention of every specific item?