Author Topic: TI sends DMCA takedown notice to Omnimaga for Key Font usage  (Read 18699 times)

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Offline DJ Omnimaga

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TI sends DMCA takedown notice to Omnimaga for Key Font usage
« on: April 01, 2010, 12:21:55 am »
Some of you have probably noticed that the website banner as well as certain forum images under certain skins went missing (unless your browser doesn't automatically update its cache regulary). This is the result of the following DMCA notice that was sent to us yesterday by Texas Instruments, for usage of their apparently copyrighted text fonts in our logo:

Quote
March 31st, 2010
To Kévin Ouellet

Object: Illegal Usage Of TI Copyrighted Fonts In Omnimaga Website Logo

It has come to our attention that the web site www.omnimaga.org, uses material that violate the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”).  This letter is to notify you, in accordance with the provisions of the DMCA, of these unlawful activities. Pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the DMCA, we request that you remove any whole or partial reproductions of and/or disable links to the following:

The banner image URL http://www.omnimaga.org/Themes/omnimaga4/images/omnimagabanner2010.png
The banner image URL http://www.omnimaga.org/Themes/omnimaga4NoFixedBG/images/omnimagabanner2010.png
The banner image URL http://omnimaga.org/Themes/omnimaga4/images/omnilogo.gif
The banner image URL http://omnimaga.org/Themes/Omnimaga3/images/omnilogo.gif
The image URL http://www.omnimaga.org/Themes/omnimaga4/images/omnimodlogo.gif
The image URL http://www.omnimaga.org/Themes/omnimaga4/images/omniadminlogo.gif
The image URL http://www.omnimaga.org/oldsite/omnimaga_logo.gif

Texas Instruments Incorporated (“TI”) owns the copyright in the TI-83 Plus & TI-84 Plus Key Fonts. Any unauthorized use of these files is strictly prohibited.
www.omnimaga.org is doing illegal usage of Texas Instruments fonts.  By doing usage of these fonts, www.omnimaga.org has violated the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA at 17 U.S.C. §§ 1201(a)(2) and 1201(b)(1).

Please confirm to the undersigned in writing no later than noon on April 1, 2009 that you have complied with these demands. You may reach the undersigned by telephone at (xxx) xxx-xxxx or by email at [email protected]. TI reserves all further rights and remedies with respect to this matter.

I hereby confirm that I have a good faith belief that use of the Illegal Material in the manner complained of in this letter is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law, that the information in this letter is accurate, and that, under penalty of perjury, I am authorized to act on behalf of TI, the owner of the exclusive rights in the TI-83 Plus & TI-84 Plus Key Fonts that are allegedly misappropriated using unlawful methods.

Texas Instruments Incorporated

Herbert W. Foster

Manager, Business Services

Education Technology Group


I personally do not understand this, as we have been using these fonts for 6 years on Omnimaga (the first ever Omnimaga forum was open on March 3rd 2004 and the RPG website on April 9th 2004, both of which used the same logo) and the font design is pretty much the same among other brands of calculators and even video games. However, we were forced to obey to this e-mail by taking down all the images mentionned in the DMCA takedown notice.

We will try to investigate with the EFF to see if we were within our rights and if we can counter this DMCA notice. Last Summer, TI sent DMCA takedown notices to various people in the TI community for hosting copies of the factored TI-OS keys online, but then the EFF fought back, TI didn't respond then people were allowed to put their copy back online.

Otherwise, we will have to go back to one of the two first Omnimaga logos (2001 and 2002) or create a new one. This means the banner will also have to be redone.

Texas Instruments appears to have missed a few images containing the logos on the site (on other skins). For now we will keep these online, in case we would win.

UPDATE: Yes it was an April Fools joke. Don't worry, we're fine (unless TI would decide to send us a takedown notice for real?) :P
« Last Edit: April 01, 2010, 11:13:56 pm by DJ Omnimaga »

Offline Raylin

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Re: TI sends DMCA takedown notice to Omnimaga for Key Font usage
« Reply #1 on: April 01, 2010, 12:25:42 am »
TI is so full of shit, man.
It's like they have nothing better to do except bash the little guys.
Bug me about my book.

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Offline bwang

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Re: TI sends DMCA takedown notice to Omnimaga for Key Font usage
« Reply #2 on: April 01, 2010, 12:28:35 am »
Hmmm... Seems like they're getting revenge for the RSA factoring and Ndless.

Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: TI sends DMCA takedown notice to Omnimaga for Key Font usage
« Reply #3 on: April 01, 2010, 12:33:25 am »
I'm not sure really, it could be that, though. I hope they're not gonna screw with us about Ndless and other Nspire stuff. But now it is even more ridiculous considering Casio fonts are practically the same.

Offline Netham45

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Re: TI sends DMCA takedown notice to Omnimaga for Key Font usage
« Reply #4 on: April 01, 2010, 12:37:08 am »
I'd love to see TI target Casio, it'd be an all-out war!
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Offline Will_W

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Re: TI sends DMCA takedown notice to Omnimaga for Key Font usage
« Reply #5 on: April 01, 2010, 12:41:00 am »
I would imagine that the banners and such constitutes fair use.  Not to mention that's one of only a few practical arrangement of pixels to create a 5x7 font.  Stand up to the Man, and find someone to back you up.
"www.omnimaga.org is doing illegal usage of Texas Instruments fonts."
^Grammar fail
You haven't bypassed any circumvention methods.  I say the whole thing is BS and they should be called on it.
ex de,hl
ld (hl),e
inc hl
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ld a,(hl)

Offline Netham45

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Re: TI sends DMCA takedown notice to Omnimaga for Key Font usage
« Reply #6 on: April 01, 2010, 12:46:52 am »
Hey! The DMCA has no power in Canada! Put the pics back! :P
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Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: TI sends DMCA takedown notice to Omnimaga for Key Font usage
« Reply #7 on: April 01, 2010, 12:51:43 am »
the issue is that the site is hosted in the United States.

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Re: TI sends DMCA takedown notice to Omnimaga for Key Font usage
« Reply #8 on: April 01, 2010, 12:53:50 am »
That's because TI is jealous of Microsoft and therefore wants to take over the world. Canada the first.

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Re: TI sends DMCA takedown notice to Omnimaga for Key Font usage
« Reply #9 on: April 01, 2010, 12:58:26 am »
O.O this is ridiculous, will 1and1 stop hosting the site if you try to put them back up?  I dont recommend we put them back up until we know Omnimaga is safe
« Last Edit: April 02, 2010, 01:31:47 am by Builderboy »

Offline jsj795

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Re: TI sends DMCA takedown notice to Omnimaga for Key Font usage
« Reply #10 on: April 01, 2010, 01:01:01 am »
Quote
Please confirm to the undersigned in writing no later than noon on April 1, 2009 that you have complied with these demands.


I have a feeling that it's a April Fool's Joke, or a mistake???


Spoiler For funny life mathematics:
1. ROMANCE MATHEMATICS
Smart man + smart woman = romance
Smart man + dumb woman = affair
Dumb man + smart woman = marriage
Dumb man + dumb woman = pregnancy
2. OFFICE ARITHMETIC
Smart boss + smart employee = profit
Smart boss + dumb employee = production
Dumb boss + smart employee = promotion
Dumb boss + dumb employee = overtime
3. SHOPPING MATH
A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs.
A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn't need.
4. GENERAL EQUATIONS & STATISTICS
A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.
A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.
A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend.
A successful woman is one who can find such a man.
5. HAPPINESS
To be happy with a man, you must understand him a lot and love him a little.
To be happy with a woman, you must love her a lot and not try to understand her at all.
6. LONGEVITY
Married men live longer than single men do, but married men are a lot more willing to die.
7. PROPENSITY TO CHANGE
A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't.
A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change, and she does.
8. DISCUSSION TECHNIQUE
A woman has the last word in any argument.
Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.

Girls = Time * Money (Girls are a combination of time and money)
Time = Money (Time is money)
Girls = Money squared (So, girls are money squared)
Money = sqrt(Evil) (Money is also the root of all evil)
Girls = sqrt(Evil) squared (So, girls are the root of all evil squared)
Girls = Evil (Thus, girls are evil)
*Girls=Evil credit goes to Compynerd255*

Offline Will_W

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Re: TI sends DMCA takedown notice to Omnimaga for Key Font usage
« Reply #11 on: April 01, 2010, 01:04:21 am »
It's most definitely real.
ex de,hl
ld (hl),e
inc hl
ld (hl),d
ld a,(hl)

Offline jsj795

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Re: TI sends DMCA takedown notice to Omnimaga for Key Font usage
« Reply #12 on: April 01, 2010, 01:11:26 am »
oh okay... just making sure...
I hope we can win. The banner was really cool and I know DJ took a long and hard time working on it


Spoiler For funny life mathematics:
1. ROMANCE MATHEMATICS
Smart man + smart woman = romance
Smart man + dumb woman = affair
Dumb man + smart woman = marriage
Dumb man + dumb woman = pregnancy
2. OFFICE ARITHMETIC
Smart boss + smart employee = profit
Smart boss + dumb employee = production
Dumb boss + smart employee = promotion
Dumb boss + dumb employee = overtime
3. SHOPPING MATH
A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs.
A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn't need.
4. GENERAL EQUATIONS & STATISTICS
A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.
A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.
A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend.
A successful woman is one who can find such a man.
5. HAPPINESS
To be happy with a man, you must understand him a lot and love him a little.
To be happy with a woman, you must love her a lot and not try to understand her at all.
6. LONGEVITY
Married men live longer than single men do, but married men are a lot more willing to die.
7. PROPENSITY TO CHANGE
A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't.
A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change, and she does.
8. DISCUSSION TECHNIQUE
A woman has the last word in any argument.
Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.

Girls = Time * Money (Girls are a combination of time and money)
Time = Money (Time is money)
Girls = Money squared (So, girls are money squared)
Money = sqrt(Evil) (Money is also the root of all evil)
Girls = sqrt(Evil) squared (So, girls are the root of all evil squared)
Girls = Evil (Thus, girls are evil)
*Girls=Evil credit goes to Compynerd255*

Offline DJ Omnimaga

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Re: TI sends DMCA takedown notice to Omnimaga for Key Font usage
« Reply #13 on: April 01, 2010, 01:22:23 am »
This is sure full of fail, especially the grammar and errors. Just how they missed half of the images tells enough. I guess TI had this written by a random employee or something, using the key factoring DMCA notice and modifying it. It reminds me also when TI continued to send DMCA notices despite the EFF countering them. I wonder if we decided to host the keys if TI wouldn't decide to send another notice to us even if the whole thing was solved half a year ago?

At least I am glad they sent the DMCA directly to me instead of my hosting provider, though. Otherwise, I am afraid of what would have happened...

They should maybe spend more effort in making their Nspire OSes more programmable and open to third party dev and try harder to fix the bugs in the 84+ OSes before releasing them
« Last Edit: April 01, 2010, 01:25:23 am by DJ Omnimaga »

Offline miotatsu

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Re: TI sends DMCA takedown notice to Omnimaga for Key Font usage
« Reply #14 on: April 01, 2010, 01:35:19 am »
this has me curious now, if the ti fonts are copyrighted then does that mean i am not allowed to use the font i made for BasiC++? most of the characters are sprited exactly the same as the 84+ font, I know we can't really trust TI when it comes to legal knowledge, but i want all my stuffs to be legal... also i hope the banner and everything can be used in the end, they are epic :{O

edit: nevermind
« Last Edit: April 01, 2010, 01:39:08 am by miotatsu »