Taylor Forum Shutdown , JCF in Danger?

[mm2002]

Re: Taylor Forum Shutdown , JCF in Danger?

All joking aside (yeah I know that's off key for me!) even though the JCF isn't officially endorsed by Jackson/FMIC I think there's enough political ties that we don't have anything to worry about. Taylor is a very small company compared to Fender and they are probably more anal about their namesake and copyrights. Fuck them.

[~K~]

Re: Taylor Forum Shutdown , JCF in Danger?

While this is always a possibilty I can honestly say we have a decent relationship with FMIC. They have treated the forum well over the last few years and I'd be surprised to see that change .. Even if it does I doubt it would kill the forum...

[dd3keegs]

Re: Taylor Forum Shutdown , JCF in Danger?

It seems to me FMIC and Jackson would want an independent fan base like the JCF. Even if the lawyers get involved. After all...we are the people who love everything about their guitars...Why would they want to piss off loyal customers???? [img]graemlins/brow.gif[/img]

[YetAnotherOne]

Re: Taylor Forum Shutdown , JCF in Danger?

Originally posted by wulfe13:
I'm sure I understand this. If I wanted to start a forum to talk about Taylor guitars, I would have to ask permission?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Probably not. This is a very well-settled area of the law: you're always free to use another's trademark for the purpose of commenting on and/or criticizing their goods and the mark owner is never allowed to assert their rights in the mark to squelch comment/criticism (though they try to do this all the time; see e.g., paypalsucks.com). It's not a huge stretch to assert that you'd be well within your fair use rights to use the mark(s) in question in connection with a place specifically designed to facilitate comment/criticism of the marked goods (e.g., an online forum). Of course, nothing prevents the mark owner from firing off a string of C&D letters and threatening (or even initiating) legal action. If the latter happens it's up the person(s) using the mark to get proper legal counsel and respond but that's an expen$ive proposition the most likely outcome of which is preservation of the prior status quo at a cost of a few hundred thousand dollars. Bleah.

As always, this isn't legal advice and you'd all be morons to take legal advice from an anonymous bonehead on the 'net.

[bibz]

Re: Taylor Forum Shutdown , JCF in Danger?

I have to add that I think its total bs that a company would close down any forum that wasnt setup and designed specifically to badmouth or sabotage the company. Even then its borderline on freedom of speech. Isnt that what we're fighting for? We buy the guitars, we play them, collect them, nuture them, hack them up, shred them senseless in public, and talk about it all on the internet. If the company for some reason doesnt like it, tough titties. JCF can be hosted outside of the us and be invincible. Extreme case I admit but extreme is where its at [img]graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]

[Tekky]

Re: Taylor Forum Shutdown , JCF in Danger?

To add to Kevin's statement, we are hoping to improve relations with FMIC or more specifically with Jackson/Charvel daily. While we may face some challenges in the future all of the admins are confident that we can come through any of them with the JCF fully in tact.

[sully]

Re: Taylor Forum Shutdown , JCF in Danger?

in order to suppress my inner punk, i'll be breaking my own fingers in a few minutes.

ain't gonna happen. that's all i'll say.

sully

[JDA]

Re: Taylor Forum Shutdown , JCF in Danger?

That sucks that Taylor is doing that. I've posted over there before and there's a lot of good folks there helping people out.

Oh well, maybe Taylor will lose some sales over it.

Later....

[lerxstcat]

Re: Taylor Forum Shutdown , JCF in Danger?

Worst-case scenario: JCFF (Jackson Charvel FANS Forum). I don't see how that could be blocked from use; anybody can have a fansite, and that's what this is. Of course, as has been said, the admins have a good relationship with the companies themselves, and there's no reason for that not to continue.

[jackson1]

Re: Taylor Forum Shutdown , JCF in Danger?

Originally posted by bibz:
I have to add that I think its total bs that a company would close down any forum

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Clarification: Taylor is NOT closing down any forums! For the time being, only the name of the forum is changing – not the community.

As for my personal opinion i think it could happen to JCF as well. It only takes a number of misunderstandings and bad references between some big manufactorers and Fender regarding the content of the JCF forum and how it relates to Fender. Just what happenend in the Taylor case.

/Henrik

[hippietim]

Re: Taylor Forum Shutdown , JCF in Danger?

I hate this sort of thing. Taylor, Fender, PRS, Gibson, etc. CLEARLY benefit from these online forums. The disparaging comments on any of these forums are the exception. It seldom even requires a moderator to cool things down.

This is Taylor being jerks. Just like PRS. They got the free publicity and free user support and now they're going the way of the dipshit. Funny thing is I have a Taylor 614ce that I love and I've been thinking of picking up a Taylor 12-string I was going to be headed towards such a forum - before today I'd never even gone to the forum. I know something stupid like this forum thing shouldn't affect my buying decision but now I think I'm going to go explore my alternatives some more.

Crap at this rate I'm going to be stuck with Jay Turser guitars.

[pro-fusion]

Re: Taylor Forum Shutdown , JCF in Danger?

Although the "criticism" exception would probably apply to a forum like this, the use of "taylor" in the URL might not be covered by that. Now, would this same problem apply to "jcfonline"--I have a hard time seeing that.

From a pure PR standpoint, this was a really stupid thing for Taylor to do. They are not a particularly high-volume manufacturer, are they? If so, it's not like they could afford to disrespect a committed group of enthusiasts....

[Tekky]

Re: Taylor Forum Shutdown , JCF in Danger?

Originally posted by jackson1:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by bibz:
I have to add that I think its total bs that a company would close down any forum

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Clarification: Taylor is NOT closing down any forums! For the time being, only the name of the forum is changing – not the community.

As for my personal opinion i think it could happen to JCF as well. It only takes a number of misunderstandings and bad references between some big manufactorers and Fender regarding the content of the JCF forum and how it relates to Fender. Just what happenend in the Taylor case.

/Henrik </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Misunderstandings have happened in the past and all we lost was our official board status.

[VulfgangPfuck]

Re: Taylor Forum Shutdown , JCF in Danger?

I can see where FMIC could possibly make us change something in the future. Remember way back when on the old board, when Jackson/Charvel once stood behind us and supported the board, then negative things started being said, and Jackson decided to pull the plug on us?

Same can happen here...all it takes is a one or two negative things said about Fender/Jackson/Charvel etc...and that can get carried all the way up the chain of management, and thus seen as a threat to the company's good name.

They could come to us out of the blue and tell us to either close down or take any reference to J/C away. Not to say that wouldn't be cutting off their nose to spite their face, but history has a tendency to repeat itself.
We may be in good standing with FMIC now...but that can (and has before) change overnight.
Just my opinion...and may be just negative speculation...but don't say it couldn't happen.

[A. Pulver]

Re: Taylor Forum Shutdown , JCF in Danger?

We are a full time focus group.
Have you noticed that many suggestions made here have made it to production?
I don't think there is much to worry about...