FedEx and DMCA vs Jose Avila
p2pnet.net News:- FedEx Furniture is, well, furniture put together from empty FedEx Boxes and held together by, well, FedEx packaging supplies.
Cool! Heh.
Saves flashing out a lot of cash. And that`s precisely what Linux aficionado Jose Avila thought.
He`d moved to Arizona for a new job and, inspired by a friend who`d built himself a piece of furniture from old FedEx stuff, put together a suite made from Yup.
But this isn`t about Avila getting a prize for creative thinking. Rather, it`s about FedEx being extremely silly by going after Avila’s DIY FedEx Furniture site with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
Here`s what Avila has to say on the blog he put up for the purpose >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Back From Vegas – August 8
Well I am finally back from my trip to Las Vegas. I went out there for a big computer security conference held by (Black Hat) I spent the week working hard, trying to get various things done. Knowing that I would see a bunch of people here that have supported me through all the legal confrontations, I thought I would make a few t-shirts and pass them out to people i knew for free. Trying to be a good sport, I went to FedEx Kinkos to get some Iron ons made. Finding a shop that would do this was quite difficult. Most did not have the machine. Finally we found one and placed our order. 
2 days later I got a call and they decided they could not make them after all 
The higher powers intervened. Well having given up that idea i decided to not bother with it and went on my way.
In the mean time i sit here at the desk I made wondering when all the craziness will stop. FedEx continues to send us notices and we continue to respond, when this whole thing will settle, God only knows. Any companies out there want me to remodel?
And stepping back a little:
What happened – July 18th, 2005
I had no car, so with only a few bags of clothes, a lamp and my computers, my friend drove me out to my new apartment. The job change left me with a huge gap in pay and two apartment`s rent (I kept my old place because my of an agreement with my roommates.) In my early days in this new apartment, I spent all my time working on the floor and sleeping on the floor on my sheets.
Since I frequently ship items, I ordered about 300 boxes of various sizes. I figured this would save me time, instead of walking down to the store whenever I needed to ship something, I could do it comfortably from home. Later that month I saw a picture from a friend of a desk that was made of boxes. My friend, Tom, was in a similar situation in Seattle, and it gave me some inspiration. I decided to build some furniture with some of the boxes I had lying around. I figured, if I needed to ship something, I could pull it off a piece of my furniture and mail it off.
With encouragement from several friends, I put up a website with some pictures of my furniture, showing that it was OK to be ghetto and how you can solve a problem creatively when you`re in a bind.
Apparently FedEx did not like the message, as I was sent a cease and desist letter during the first business day after the site was started. It was strange how the letter did not specifically state what laws we violated, so I was suspicious and called around. It seemed like I was being bullied around, without any real legal standing. Jennifer Granick found out about what was going on, and offered to help me.
On my behalf, a counter-notice to the cease and desist has been filed. With any luck, the original site will return soon.
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August 11th, 2005 at 6:40 pm
This whole thing is a prime example of DCMA and other so called intellectual property abuses gone awry. This C&D is just proving the arrogance of the cartels. I would like to know exactly how much money did this desk cost FedEx. If this geek stole the boxes he used for the furniture, I could understand where there would be a case. However, it appears that he ordered the boxes and FedEx sent them.
The only thing that I can think that FedEx might be worried about is if they sent these boxes for free to anyone that asks, then a whole bunch of people might try building furniture with free boxes from FedEx. If that is the case, FedEx should have contacted Mr. Avila and explained the situation and how it might hurt FedEx. If I had a similar website set up and Fed Ex called me to tell me how this is costing them money, I would have taken my site offline. However, the publicity generated from this type of bullying is going to hurt FedEx more than Mr. Avila.
Corporate bullying is becoming so bad that even conservatives are finally becoming aware of all the abuses by the cartels. Today, I was listening to a right-leaning show on Talk Radio101 (WYOO) called, the “Attack Machine”. He said that he did not buy music but rather downloads it from the Internet. Only when the big corporations manage to get most of the population of the P.S.A. to hate them will things change, and right now, they are sure working on it.
August 11th, 2005 at 9:05 pm
I never thought anyone would be so anal… LOL
I’ll take my business to UPS now… =P
Why the fck would they be mad about someone using their boxes to make furnature??? >_> sheeesh
August 11th, 2005 at 9:20 pm
AND WTF DOES THIS MEAN?:
“…Avila clearly intended to operate a business from his website because he used the .com domain suffix, the “commercial level domain,” rather than .net.”
Are you retarted… or just stupid??? WTF does the .com thing prove???? >_> MORONs!
I hope you fail totally fedex, and I hope Avila switches to UPS.
August 11th, 2005 at 10:15 pm
It is FedEx’s choice not to charge for shipping. FedEx also has a bit with the boxes in recieving them that says you agree not to use the shipping for other purposes than intended.
Do I agree with FedEx’s choice to use DMCA as a method? No. I long ago stated the DMCA wasn’t just for the RIAA’s use when they promised at the time to only use it for its intended purpose when the bill was being legislated. Please! It is a national law, how in the world can it be limited to just the RIAA? In the DMCA is also no penalities for false claims. No reason for any corporation, business, nor individual to consider that false claims could backfire. Here is the standard ploy of using law to overwhelm anyone else without disposable income into submission. While FedEx has legal ground to stand on and make this case one in which it has merit on the side of FedEx, is it right? Again we see the laws being used to prevent any sort of business oppurtunity that might come up. FedEx sees themselves as funding the private business through the free boxes. I see the kid as working with what he has to do something. If FedEx is willing to just give boxes away then that isn’t the kids problem.
August 13th, 2005 at 8:03 am
Hey! I love your creativity! THe most that they can nab you for is misuse of a packing material. I hope their lawyers get the message to %&#$ OFF! I hope you keep building your stuff and your site.
August 13th, 2005 at 8:04 am
Didnt see the place to put my name. Jeff Davis
August 15th, 2005 at 11:19 am
To ship by FedEx (or UPS, DHL etc) you have to purchase the shipping package, be that a box, padded packs, express envelopes or tubes (it generally goes on your account). If you are shipping something that is in its own box already, you don’t need to pay – but then I don’t see that Mr Avila is making his furniture out of any other boxes – he would have paid for the boxes he has made his furniture out of.
If FedEx had been less reactionary and more imaginative they could have got some great publicity out of Mr Avila and his site, unfortunatley, they have tried bullying him and it has back fired on them. They may well find that a lot of people stop shipping with them – I certainly won’t be shipping anything for myself or my company via FedEx again (and my boss – the CEO – has approved that decision). >:-}
August 16th, 2005 at 3:32 pm
just an FYI, FedEx packaging are FREE and not charged to your account… whoever commented that you pay for it and it generally charges to your account, pls get your facts straight!
September 1st, 2005 at 4:40 pm
As an agent for DHL , let me explain that you do not pay for the packaging.
Express envelopes, boxes, padded packs are free from DHL, as well as those other guys.
I would love to have the positive press that could have been generated by
Mr.Avila.
I would be happy to give Mr.Avila, and anyone else, free supplies, if you sign up with my company and use DHL
gary.gallo@freightsavers.com