I just wanted to relieve my anger and frustration here. I'm a member of three forums: live for speed, FordClub.be and FiestaClub.be.

Today I receive an e-mail from a moderater of FordClub.be that Ford will sue them if they don't remove "Ford" from the link. They have 10 days. The most frustrating thing is, this forum is about people who drive a Ford, and we help each other with our Fords, tuning or regular cars.

The point of this thread is to pressurise Ford Europe, and we can use all the help we can. At this point a lot of newspapers and channels received information about it, in Belgium, but why not have people from the UK or Germany or whatever contact their local newspapers/channels to put some pressure on Ford Europe. This affects all of Europe, because FordClub.be isn't probably the only Ford related website that will get this letter.

Please help save one of my and a lot of other people's, favourite forums!

Edit: apparantly Ford wants to sue the forum, because it containt information about certain dealers that don't do their job right, and they went to complain to Ford. But this is freedom of speech, anyone is allowed to say a dealer isn't doing his job, before anyone else gets problems with it, especially with something like a car.

One club can't fight Ford, but if all the clubs unite, it's possible.

Quote from sgt.flippy :

I just wanted to relieve my anger and frustration here. I'm a member of three forums: live for speed, FordClub.be and FiestaClub.be.

Today I receive an e-mail from a moderater of FordClub.be that Ford will sue them if they don't remove "Ford" from the link. They have 10 days. The most frustrating thing is, this forum is about people who drive a Ford, and we help each other with our Fords, tuning or regular cars.

The point of this thread is to pressurise Ford Europe, and we can use all the help we can. At this point a lot of newspapers and channels received information about it, in Belgium, but why not have people from the UK or Germany or whatever contact their local newspapers/channels to put some pressure on Ford Europe. This affects all of Europe, because FordClub.be isn't probably the only Ford related website that will get this letter.

Please help save one of my and a lot of other people's, favourite forums!

What's next? Installing DRM in cars?

Stupid ****ers.:x

I wouldn't pay any attention to the threat, it sounds like they're grasping at straws if you ask me.

Remind them that lots of people have the surname Ford and tell them that it is also a geological occurance as well. So they need to get over themselves.

They might be able to force the removal of any official Ford emblems or brand images, but they can't force you to remove the name from a domain.

We already have the idea to bring all members together with their Ford's, and some said they will remove the badges from their car.

We know it legally isn't all that correct, but Ford is a big company... The website doesn't contain ford emblems or whatever. It only has a ford focus in the banner

Ford like doing stuff like this. There's the old story about the 2600 group's obscene domain name that they pointed at Ford's website which Ford tried to sue to get removed. Not sure what your case in Europe would be like but I doubt Ford will have any luck getting you to budge.

Maybe suggest to them that they take it to a domain dispute arbitration with ICANN (although I've heard horror stories about this procedure before) - at least it will be a lot cheaper than a court battle.

I'm not reading all of that

But the difference is, that website had a bad name for GM, FordClub.be is a club for people that love and enjoy their Ford very much. So it's weird that they would start a procedure against them.

I harely pledge not to buy a Fix Or Repair Daily.

Nothing new there then.

Quote from Becky Rose :

I harely pledge not to buy a Fix Or Repair Daily.

Nothing new there then.

I knew people would come up with this, but I wasn't searching for people with bad cars. I haven't heard really much about really bad fords on that website, most people are happy with their car. There are always a few bad ones and some typical "illness", but every brand has it. I even know about typical stuff not from a brand, but from the country it came from :tilt:

There's no legal justification for this. A while back Mopar did something similar, but they were after money making sites using the Mopar M symbol etc, but thats different since its trademake infringement etc.

Sounds like Ford's legal department needs to be taught that you can't censor people's thoughts!

let me preface this with, i am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice (being married to a lawyer has gotten me in the habit of saying this)

not being well versed in international law, i'm going to say that they most likely don't have a leg to stand on and are grandstanding, hoping that you (the forum admins) won't call their bluff. like Dajmin said, they can't make you change the site's name, as i'm almost positive the word "ford" is not eligable for copywrite/trademark protection, but they could make you remove any of Ford's logos, as those are protected. but since there aren't any, that's not an issue.

see if you can find some legal help that will be willing to take the case for free, or on contingency (they get paid from the winning settlement). maybe even file a countersuit.

short of that, at least talk to some legal counsel to find out what rights Ford actually has in your country, and what reprecussions they could face if they overstepped their rights.

going off of US laws, i'd say that Ford is throwing a huge bluff.

Quote :

I knew people would come up with this

That's the last time I lend my moral support !

No really, i'm not keen on Ford but it's nothing to do with their reliability, I just like better built cars. I guess they're good for what they are meant for but being British no car - including Ford's - are sensibly priced anyway, so the merits of owning a Ford are lost on me.

They should sue this guy:
Pic 1
Pic 2

Quote :

They should sue this guy:
Pic 1
Pic 2

Where's that guy think he is, the moon?

Is that a... Focus? :really:

Quote from hrtburnout :

Is that a... Focus?

It WAS.

German tuning is still the best way to go me thinks. Nice and clean. Most tuning shops (good ones) are located in Germany. So I'm thinking to go shopping in Germany ones I'm allowed to when I have my permanent license

But that car is... yuck, it was doing a U-turn right in front of me, and I was like... Gotta make a picture so I can make fun of it later!

Quote from Eleanor SpeedGT :

It WAS.

LOL still very much a focus of the neighborhood imo. :D

Stuff what Ford has done like in this case is alone enough reason for me not to buy their products. Too bad Volvo is owned by Ford now, but looks like my money won't end up to their pockets still as they have cancelled almost all old car parts so I have no reason to buy anything from them :shrug:

I have a hunch Ford wont actually sue. Even if they do sue, I very very much doubt they will get very much out of the founder.
Either way, it will be very, very, very, very good publicity. You could get the papers and news people in on it.

"Ford sue small time car club for having Ford in name!"

Good news, Ford made a gigantic error apparantly. They told their lawyers they have to fight every domain that uses "ford" and might abuse it. But they didn't think of any club that uses the name. Now they're trying to find a solution to let clubs use the name. So every domain with the name "ford" in it got the same mail...