Is SPIN Magazine's Bullying All For A Better Twitter URL?

Other noted bully: Nelly Olson

Yesterday we reported that SPIN magazine had sent a cease and desist letter to a young man in Oregon whose Twitter handle is @Spin, claiming copyright infringement and confusion. The magazine hasn't gotten back to us with a comment, but @Spin (aka Eric Rice) has. He told us this afternoon:

"I can only speculate that a company that wants a better URL for their social media presence might resort to a cease and desist approach against an individual, since the specter of facing a legal situation could be too foreboding. I'm actually curious if they've pursued all the other similarly named people or companies—and there's a lot of them.
As far as hearing from them before? Nope, not in all the years I've been yammering on Twitter or any other services with my nickname—which is why this whole thing is so surreal to me—it feels like an attack on my personal identity. All because some people dialed a wrong number, essentially."

Meanwhile, a rep for a band named SPiN also got in touch with us, alerting us that the magazine has bullied before. He told us, "I wanted to let you know that the magazine sent a nearly identical cease and desist to the band SPiN. The band thought the claims were ridiculous and decided to ignore the letter, against the advice of their attorney at the time. The magazine followed up with the letter a few more times, the band continued to ignore it, and nothing has come of it since."

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Carlson in Arts & Entertainment on May 26, 2011 2:17 PM

Comments [rss]

nsputnik

Imagine if Rolling Stone Magazine send a S&D to The Rolling Stones band.

whitneyhoffman

Moreover, If they want the URL, make them pay for it. Drew Olanoff traded with Drew Carey and raised tons of money for cancer research. There's a precedent. BTW make sure you take screen shots of the "When did I Join Twitter" page, showing how long you have been using the service without nary a complaint.

TheDiva

If your readers are too twitter-ignorant to know who they are tweeting that's you own damn fault spin magazine! Maybe you should reconsider your social media strategist and marketing team.... They obviously Fail.

LynetteRadio

SPIN Magazine is what gives SPIN Magazine a bad name, not @spin:twitter - flippin' hacks

Samuel Clemons

Courts issue Cease and Desist Orders. Cease and Desist letters are amateure hack jobs from Vegas Law School Grads, or worse, from Legal Zoom templates at best. Companies flap their wings and beat their chests, and sound like bullying windbag losers when they do it. I know of a gal who caved in to some American Photographer who told her "i can go to twitter and get the name from you, but i thought i'd ask you first to see if you'd willingly give up your name...." HA! she shoulda charged him. this Spin kid should sell the name to them. Which is what this is all about MONEY!!! if some freakin celeb wants their name, and wants to pay a PR Firm money which in turn is willing to bribe Twitter, than Twitter will cave in to the celeb. but if the celeb doesn't wanna pay? no soup!!

So Eric Rice, hang in there, Kid. This is all smoke and mirrors, and unless you see a Court Order, ignore Spin. Who reads that rag anyway. And Spin? Your PR people are crude, and blew this one. hire a ferret.

Sarcastic Sam Tweets at @Samuel_Clemons