14 DAY TRIAL // Subaru's legal department has just managed to embarrass the company with one of the most stupid DMCA takedowns ever observed, being the most recent entry in WordPress' Hall of Shame.
WordPress.com allows people to create their own blog and publish it online for free. Because some people have the tendency to upload images and content that they don't own, WordPress allows companies to send DMCA takedown notices and have content from the infringing blog, or the blog itself, taken offline.
Because WordPress receives tens of thousands of this kind of DMCAs each month, it has started to observe companies that abuse this right and send outrageous requests.
For this, the company has created the DMCA Hall of Shame, where various entities are listed, along with a small case study about how they abused their DMCA system.
The most recent entry in WordPress' Hall of Shame is none other than Subaru, the Japanese automaker.
Subaru's legal department is not aware of its own social media campaigns
According to WordPress, Subaru's legal department has issued a request to have the blog "samandjennasubaruleavenotracetravelingtrainerapplication.com" taken down because it used the trademarked Subaru name in its domain, saying that "this use is clearly designed to cause confusion, deception, and mistake on the part of individuals visiting the site."
The irony was that the blog was set up to participate in a Subaru social media campaign, in which Subaru asked users to create social media buzz about the Leave No Trace Traveling Trainer Program, in which the company was participating together with The Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics.
The blog in question contained articles detailing the road trip of two educators who traveled across the US in Subaru Hybrids teaching people how to protect and enjoy the outdoors.
Since WordPress admins have quite an experience with absurd takedown requests, they refused to take any action, but passed the DMCA to the site's owners.
The site was eventually taken offline by its creators, but this only comes to show what happens when you don't understand what copyright infringement really means. Especially after you've spent tens of thousands of dollars along with four or five years of your life in the halls of a law university. That's what we call "money/time well spent."