Ralph Lauren admits to shoddy Photoshop job despite its DMCA takedown letter
By Mike Ferro
Recently some sparks have been flying across the fashion and photoshop worlds when a controversial Ralph Lauren ad surfaced on two blogs. The picture depicted a woman with an inhumanly skinny body. Ralph Lauren went as far as to issue a DMCA letter to the sites ordering that the picture be taken down.
About a month ago a blogger posted a picture out of a magazine of Ralph Lauren’s latest ad onto Photoshop Disasters. The picture depicted a model in a Ralph Lauren ad with an abnormally skinny body. The picture caused a bit of controversy as it meant that Ralph Lauren was using bulimic or anorexic models or that its advertisement department has a skewed view of what a woman’s body should look like. The picture was picked up by Boing Boing (see here for picture) by a poster who stated, “Dude, her head’s bigger than her pelvis.”
Ralph Lauren apparently took immediate action by sending Boing Boing and Photoshop Disasters a DMCA takedown letter threatening to sue the ISP provider. It looks like Photoshop Disasters caved and took down the controversial picture, but Boing Boing is refuting the takedown letter of its validity.
Boing Boing then stated that the DMCA rule doesn’t apply to those criticizing or pointing out a problem with a company’s product or offerings. I have to agree with Boing Boing here, that the DMCA can’t be thrown at a site just because its pointing out a controversial issue that needs to get addressed.
Ralph Lauren has formally admitted that the company was indeed at fault for the picture and has publicly stated that this issue will be addressed by ensuring that a similar situation does not happen in the future. Despite Ralph Lauren’s statement, the company has not removed the DMCA that is currently in place against Boing Boing. It seems like Ralph Lauren messed up and should take the criticism instead of trying to shut every site up.
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on Sunday, October 11th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
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October 11th, 2009
You have to wonder, why do we rarely ever hear stories of companies being penalized for their false DMCA takedowns? These are going to continue until companies realize it is just as illegal to send a fraudulent takedown notice as it is to illegal post copyrighted content.
October 12th, 2009
Actually, if you read the law, these guys are permitted by the Fair Use provisions of the US Copyright laws to post these pictures. They are not using the photos for commercial gain, they did not claim ownership of these photos, all well legal under Fair Use.
Also, these guys did not bypass any digital protection schemes, and therefore did not even violate the DCMA. Ralph Lauren is doing nothing less than a mafia-style shakedown, and I’m glad the other company is fighting back.