p2pnet.net News:- We ran a story, today, on the US Department of Homeland Security’s decision to send two of its finest to a toy store in Oregon.

Was the outlet, Pufferbelly Toys, a secret terrorist cover organization?

Was it hell. It was selling a “an illegal copy of the Rubik’s Cube”.

Well Gosh! So the two steely-eyed DoHS agents watched (well, we guess they had steely eyes ; ) while Pufferbelly’s owner, Stephanie Cox, removed the toys from the shelf in the interests of , “protecting the integrity of the economy and our nation’s financial systems,” said DoHS spokeswoman Virginia Kice.

The Rubik’s Cube patent has expired, by the way.

So, p2pnet reader Chris X decided contact Stephanie.

Read on (very slightly edited ; ) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Chris: I was wondering if i could get a minute and ask you a few questions in regards to your “Magic Cube” scandal that was just reviewed by me.

Chris: What do you think is the Department of Homeland Security’s real objectives and agendas?

Stephanie: I do not know their motives. The agents were following orders, so motive for them would be to not get fired. However, this is indicative of how one complaint filed by a big business (i.e. my assumption that Rubiks were the ones to place the complaint) gets more respect and response than an individual citizen or small business.

Chris: You’ve experianced first hand the reality of this paid-for-by-tax-dollars pseudo-government association
that seeks to take away the rights of innocent shop owners and other citizens, how do you think this situation should have been handled instead?

Stephanie: A phone call to resolve it. Maybe not even wasting the time to begin with?

Chris: Are you planning to file a lawsuit against the DOHS for harrassment? It would be in your best interest and I think that you could establish more credibility towards why the DOHS is in fact, untrained, unprofessional and needs to be reorganized by someone other then George Bush.

Stephanie: I have no plans to file a lawsuit at this time.

Chris: (Unrelated) Are you still selling this toy? If not, can you refer me to where I might be able to get one? Honestly, you have every right to sell this toy legally.

Stephanie: I am selling the toy at www.pufferbellytoys.com

Chris: What do you think got the DOHS’s interest in this case to begin with? Copyright and patent enforcement obviously has nothing to do with DOHS’s priorities and their main objective is, as you quoted, to stop criminals, keep the country safe from mass-terrorism and everything that falls in between. This was just an example of them coming in and doing as they please, and this is what happens when people like them get a liiiitle bit of power. I’m sure they knew that the rubiks’ cube patent expired years ago, heck even I knew that, but i would strongly
suggest a lawsuit against the DOHS.

Your situation was referred to me by www.p2pnet.net, a news site primarily in the interest of the peer-to-peer scene, the file-sharing community, and government associations doing exactly what happened to you. Just say No to media exploitation

Stephanie: Big Business (Rubiks) filed the complaint with Washington DC and as we know, our current administration is all about making big business happy and wealthy. Thanks for your interest. Keep in touch. I will tell more as I find out more.

(Let’s all give the owner a big warm praise of sympathy for her maturity and being reasonable during her unfortunate run-in with these assholes. And buy the toy from her, damnit!! This controversy and their ignorance can only hurt THEM if we all purchase a toy and never buy anything from the makers of Rubiks’ Cube. Down with big companies trying to call all the shots! I personally am going to go to Wal-Mart and steal as many of those damn cubes as possible, and then mail them to the DOHS so they can learn how to move the world, one cube at a time; which seems to be their objective. Heck, those cubes will teach them more then their training ever did. Just imagining 300 DOHS agents trying to match the colors up makes me laugh

I personally that their motive was, as you said, purely by financial gain. Pretty sad the way some companies run things, I guess someone rewrote the book on “How to run a business” and these government lackeys actually picked it up and didnt use it for a coffee coaster.. You would think that even Rubiks’ knew about their patent being null and void. Talk about beating a dead horse though..This is even worse then Microsoft selling the first Halo for 60 bucks 4 years later after its release)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Thanks for making the effort, Chris.

Cheers! And all the best …
Jon

This entry was posted on Friday, October 29th, 2004 at 9:48 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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