FORD TAKES 2600 TO COURT for the fuckgeneralmotors.com site

Posted 28 Apr 2001 00:00:37 UTC

You may have read some stories in the media recently about us
getting sued by yet another major corporation - this time the Ford
Motor Company. We wanted to wait until we actually heard something
official before saying anything about it. Incredibly, we didn't get
anything official until late Friday.

You may recall that last year we received a threat from General
Motors concerning the fuckgeneralmotors.com site we had registered.
They demanded that we turn it over to them. We declined, citing
such things as freedom of speech. At the time, we had the site
pointing to General Motors while we waited for a better one to be
developed. In subsequent months we pointed the site to all kinds of
other places: consumer information sites, auto safety sites, even
sites of their competitors.

Imagine our surprise when we found out that the Ford Motor Company
was actually taking us to court to get us to stop pointing
http://www.fuckgeneralmotors.com at ford.com. Ordinarily, we applaud when
huge companies look out for each other. But this was a bit extreme.

Had Ford come to us and asked us not to point to them, in all
likelihood we would have pointed it someplace else out of courtesy.
But when demands and accusations are made without any attempt at
communication, we have to object. After all, these tactics are
designed to intimidate, and in most cases they work because people
don't have the energy or resources to counter them. The fact that
Ford has chosen to waste a huge amount of money and a whole lot of
court time is something we find repulsive.

In addition, Ford has always had the ability to simply block any
requests that are forwarded from http://www.fuckgeneralmotors.com. This is
a fact they certainly don't want known, since it would show how
they are clearly wasting resources with this frivolous suit and
attempting to establish a precedent that would forever affect the
net community in a very bad way.

It's very important to realize what such a precedent would mean.
It's easy to see a four letter word and see it as a bad thing. But
it's not the four letter word that's the issue in this lawsuit but
rather the criticism of the corporate entities involved. Once the
precedent is set, any site that is critical of such entities -
regardless of how they say it - will be affected. If you point to
someone without their specific permission, you could find yourself
being sued. That's why we intend to fight this and that's why we
will continue to register sites dedicated to preserving the right
of free speech.

We're told that a hearing will take place in federal court at 231
West Lafayette Boulevard, Room 707 in Detroit on Wednesday, May 2,
2001 at 2:30 pm. It's unlikely we'll be able to be ready for this
due to the incredibly short amount of time we've been given as well
as the fact that we're going to be in court the day before with our
DeCSS appeal. Perhaps that explains the timing of this latest
threat.