Mafia Wars Exposed No Longer For Sale! Affiliates Please Read!

Hi Guys,

Can you please stop all promotions of Mafia Wars Exposed I have had to stop sales of the guide!

Today I received an email from a law firm reading:

** NAME REMOVED **


VIA ELECTRONIC MAIL


October 6, 2009


Domains by Proxy, Inc.

15111 N. Hayden Rd., Suite 150, PMB 353

Scottsdale, AZ 85260



;



Re: Unauthorized Use of Zynga Game Network Inc. Properties

http://www.mafiawarsexposed.com/



Dear Sir or Madam:



We are writing to you on behalf of our client, Zynga Game Network Inc. (“Zynga”). Zynga is the owner of copyright, trademark rights and/or other intellectual property rights in the Zynga word mark, the Zynga logo design and Zynga’s Mafia Wars game (the “Zynga Properties”). Zynga uses the Zynga Properties in connection with its promotion of various goods and services, including software for games and entertainment on wireless devices and computers. Through this use and the popularity of Zynga’s products and services, the Zynga Properties have become firmly associated with Zynga in the minds of the public.



Zynga has recently learned that you are advertising and promoting your business by using Zynga Properties in an unauthorized manner, which use constitutes an infringement of Zynga’s above-mentioned rights. You are hereby put on notice that the reproduction, transmission and/or distribution by you of Zynga Properties constitute copyright and trademark infringement. The specific URL from which these unauthorized copies are being distributed, displayed and reproduced is:



http://www.mafiawarsexposed.com/



Zynga hereby demands that you and all those who have acted in concert with you immediately cease any unauthorized copying, transmission, distribution, sale and/or other utilization of any of its protected intellectual property, including any use of the Zynga Properties.



We demand that you immediately provide us with written confirmation that you have complied with Zynga’s demands. Should you not do so, Zynga expressly reserves all of its rights to file a lawsuit against you to obtain damages for all past acts of infringement and an injunction to prevent any future infringement.



Nothing contained in this letter constitutes an express or implied waiver of any rights, remedies, or defenses of Zynga, all of which are expressly reserved.



Very truly yours,



** REMOVED **


I have no doubt that the other Mafia Wars sites will follow suit!

So if you are promoting as an affiliate I am sorry please stop your promotions.


Sorry for the inconvenience but there is nothing more I can do regarding this matter.
All the best

Chris

 

I understand that you have to stop the promotions now. I am also promoting a mafia wars guide (not this one).
There are guides for various other games but i havn't seen any such problem before. I know that you don't want to take any risk.
But do you guys think that they really have a strong case?

 

Couldn't you just change the name to something not related to mafia wars, and remove the logo of mafia wars, so that you're not infringing anything?

 

That line stuck out. Wouldn't be surprised if it was a competitor that passed your url to them. Watching to see if any other mafia wars guides go offline... And who stays up.

Tough break, looks like you had a good product going.

 

Omg you carnt do this when i just made a sale today of your product !!! damnation just setup £70 worth in google ads lol thats a killer...

You should email them back and ask for 7 full days in order to remove all content and contact affiliates. You should also ask if you can do any changes to your wesbite in order for them to no longer be annoyed.... ermm you should also make sure they are legit lol, i know ive had some convincing princes that needed my bank account details for a transfer.

Also when is this getting taken down cus im damn sure going to be googly promoting it until the site is actually down... not wasting my moneys till i hit break even lol.

 

That is strange - Maybe you could email them and ask them for specifics.

I recently received a similar email from microsoft for the xbox 360 repair site (received a certified letter as well). But they just wanted me to remove some trademarked symbols and fonts I was using. They pointed out specifically the changes they wanted me to make. I'm sure that if Microsoft's lawyers had a legal right to shut my site down, they would have found it. So it makes me wonder if they have any legal standing, if you remove all trademarked symbols, etc. Because there are unauthorized guides for almost every game on the market.

Has clickbank mentioned anything about it? Just wondering because I've had a mafia wars website on the backburner for a couple of months. I was going to submit it to Clickbank for the holidays, but may keep it to myself if clicbank is not allowing it.

 

Holy crap, kikker's posts are infecting other members!

 

Did you get the lawyErs phone #? if so - ring them. I did this with an old webkinz website and it startled the lawyer so much that i was able to get him to tell me what to change and thrn verify it was okay

i personally think its to do with ur domain name and the way it cud be confused for an official mafia wars site.

Contact the lawyer. It shouldnt be too vbad

 

As others said, contact the attorneys. They will tell you what you specifically need to remove. They don't really care, they just need their billable hours. As a rule of thumb, just altogether avoid ANYTHING that may infringe on copyrights or trademarks. Best of luck!

P.S. Are you from the U.S? If not, I wonder their jurisdiction on this matter. . .

 

What on earth is that supposed to mean? That now people can't even use a phrase that contains "mafia wars" anymore without asking explicit permission from Zynga?

As long as you are not using their "content" (which there is none) and/or their art work (including but not limited to, logo, character pictures, etc..) there is not much they can actually do to you.

If they just want to pinch you because you are selling a "guide" that is related to one of their "games" then just release that whole guide for free, the bugs and everything.

Zynga is becoming really annoying thing...

p.s. I am not a lawyer, maybe you should consult one to get a better idea (if this business is worth to hire a lawyer specifically for this).

 

Since there is third party guides to every game in existence, I doubt that is a problem, probably too much use of their logos and name.

 

OMFG the sites been taken down already ffs man did you not even try to sort this out!! Im not one to judge but your not half a failure as a vendor to not even investigate and to just dump the site. Always nice to pay for traffic on google when ther pitch page says - closed..... -.-

 

well dont know, if i was lucky enough...
Coz I stopped the adwords campaign worth $15 a couple of days back !!

 

It's completely up to you what to do, but to me it seems that your domain name is a clear case of Fair use of trademarks. These guys go around and try to scare everyone into submission when in fact they might not have a good case.

Nowhere on your side to you try to mislead users into thinking that you represent owners of the game or anything like that.

I'd try to get a legal advice and if your lawyer sais that you have a good case just tell these bastards to f... off and they actually will because in all likelyhood they too would know that they don't have a case.

http://www.audioholics.com/news/industry-news/blue-jeans-strikes-back

 

You are a silly billy. To not even fight.....

 

What a stupid thing to say............It's not your ass who could get taken to the courts and sued

 

It's always better to be safe than sorry. But I would at least contact this lawyer and get some specifics. You have nothing to lose by at least probing a few questions. I would do some homework on these type of laws, and then hit him w/ some very specific questions. Sometimes a well educated question will prevent a lawyer from trying to bully you w/ a lot of unecessary and unlawful BS.

 

I do have one question though .. How do you know that the email you received is from an attorney and not from your competitor trying to freak you out (which he may have succeeded so far) ?

 

As it stands, you ARE using their trademark in your domain name. So they got you on that one.

 

It seems odd to me that they would send an e-mail. If it's legit, I would expect it to be followed up immediately by a certified letter.


e-mails don't frighten me too much. But a certified letter will scare the beejeezers out of me.