Quote:
Originally Posted by DewannaI had a membership with cartridgerentals.com but I got an e-mail that my account was deactivated. Anyone else get this? |
Provocraft probably threatened to sue them and they went out of business. The other site chripexpress did.
hirp Express Update
I thought our readers should be aware of this letter:
Dear Chirp Express members,
It saddens us greatly to report that Provo Craft has threatened our company, alleging copyright infringement. Their position is that you (and we) don�t purchase cartridges, we purchase a personal software license to use the content on a cartridge. Their position is that you are licensing software, like an installable computer program, and not that you are buying a product like a book, DVD, or video game. We disagree with the position that they are representing and believe our business practices to be 100% within copyright law. We believe our business operates under the legal principle of �First Sale Doctrine� and believe also that the Computer Software Rental Amendments Act of 1990 supports our position by excluding �computer program[s] which [are] embodied in a machine or product� from being considered software that is not permissible to rent, lease, or lend. Netflix operates entirely under this same legal principle and there are numerous case law precedents in various state and federal courts that uphold this same position. No case has ever been recorded in relation to Cricut� Cartridge rental, thus we only have similar cases to refer to.
Unfortunately, since Chirp Express is a small business, we do not have legal representation on staff. We will be pursuing various legal options, but in the meantime, we�ve decided the best course of action is to suspend service. We realize that this is inconvenient for you, but ask for your patience with the situation. We will be cancelling all of the PayPal subscriptions today, and ask that you return the Chirp Express rental cartridges immediately. Upon receipt of the returned cartridges we will issue a partial-month refund for the portion of your rental month remaining after October 27th, 2009.
We plan to obtain some expert legal advice on this matter and hope to resume service again at a future date. If you know of anyone who works with Intellectual Property law and would like to help address some of the anti-consumer policies that Provo Craft represents, please e-mail us at
[email protected].
Thank you for your patronage; it has been a pleasure serving you.
- The Chirp Express Team