EDITOR’S NOTE: This post is in response to an email FAIL Blog received from an attorney representing Guinness World Records Limited.
Dear Sir/Madam,
Thanks for writing us an email regarding the “Record Breaking Fail”. Unfortunately, douchebaggy cyber-bullying emails will only bring upon you more shame on your house. I am also resisting the urge to write this email in ALL CAPS.
I believe it is the duty of FAIL Blog(TM) to call out organizations when they encourage the public to do such things as “Break the record” for the “Most Individuals Killed In A Terrorist Act”. We firmly believe that our publication of your fail is protected under the concepts of fair use, commentary and non-trademark use. Please RTFM and we welcome you to teh interwebs.
Since we at FAIL Blog(TM) don’t have a legal defense department, we have complied with your request to remove the trademarked term and logo from the original image. We have used the “naughty bits filter” on the image to secure your naughty, naughty, trademark assertions. However, we have posted your email so that our audience can see why we had to remove the name of the failer from the image. I hope that this is the outcome you have expected as now NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW THAT GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS LIMITED HAS FAILED.
The full legal response can be read here: icanhaz.com/legalresponse
Cheers,
FAIL Blog
P.S.: This is what we think of your letter.
Picture by: dunno source. Submitted by: Frankie via Fail Uploader
This record has been removed from the Guinness site.
-
-
Copy & paste this:
Ouch!
I thought it was already set by Columbus.
Damn the scottish people!
Scottish?
Irish
Wow, Columbus’s men were Spanish…
Hey, Culumbus (Cristoforo Colombo) WAS ITALIAN. The ships and crew was spanish.
He was Portuguese, wasn’t he?
You’re not Portuguese!
Fear and Loathing Reference??
win?
I’m Portuguese!
Colombo was chosen by a Portuguese King to go explore the unknown parts of the Seas….
Definitely NOT Portuguese
OMG!!! Columbus was Portuguese, born and raised.
In the playground was where he spent most of his days…
LMAO ! your mom must’ve told you a great bedtime story … now for the real history …
cristovão colombo was portuguese, working under the queen of spain’s influence …
Italian … kids these days will belive anything …
Up to this point I thought everyone was arguing about that detective guy lol
But the “Cristovao” bit made me realize that it`s more likely the descoverer guy in the boat that found America
Columbus himself was Italian…
Nah…. Portugese. Christobal de Colombine
So much retard…so little patience… *takes out shotgun*
*grabs the muzzle*
Lower your weapon good sir. Him/her living on through life alone and unnoticed is punishment enough.
Actually, it has been the issue of some contention with historians. Most agree he came from Genoa (now part of Italy).
He was actually chinese. Clistopher Columbus
I tought he was from Lower Manhattan
You’re all stupid! He was obviously an Australian who was delivered by a stork so intoxicated that he ended up in France by mistake.
you mean Clistophel Corumbus
he’s a nazi you dumbass!!!!
No way! He was Polish!
Krzysztofsz Kolumbszowski!
he was actually slovenian – krištof kolumb
What if the gun was meant for Malicite themself?
Hellz naw! He wuz Suthern! Cristoferrr Cowlumbos!
How can this be Portuguese?
You Completely FAILED on this…
he was Romanian. Cristofor Columb
wow, they were japanese
Cristofor Corumbus
Maybe he is thinking of Caledonia (auld name for Scotland).
Christopher Columbus was:
-born in Italy
-had Jewish parents (why he left the day of the Inquisition)
-worked for the Spanish rulers.
Learn your geography and history, please.
Love,
An former AP Euro student
You studied so much Euro you forgot to give AN thought to not butchering English. Fail.
It’s just a tiny typo. Anyone can make a simple mistake like that. There’s no need to jump onto her for it.
Sure there is! We need obsessive compulsives, otherwise what will happen to our cleaning product industry?
Yeah sure, guys find any excuse to jump on a gal.. especially a sassy history-clever AP Euro studentette!
ANNNN former AP student??? lol FAIL, not enough time learning English.
At least he isn’t a former AP English student (A former AP English student is kind of like a new remedial English student).
Marie isn’t a boy’s name.
Also your date is wrong, or are you from the future?
So, you took an honors course in European history in high school and you think this makes you particularly well-informed or somehow elite? That’s absurd.
Christopher Columbus was NOT Jewish. For some reason this is a popular claim on the Internet, but there is no evidence to support this save for his having some Jewish friends.
i didnt know they had jews back then
Jews are the third oldest religion wich still exists and is known in the “civilised” world.
a screen shot of this comment should be on failblog lulz
Jesus was Jewish. religionfail?
LOL @ “the day of the Inquisition”!!
You mean the day the Alhambra decree took effect. The Inquisition lasted for ~400 years.
- He lived in Portugal for almost all of his life…
A former not An former!
Learn your english, please.
Scottish people? thats a bit harsh ain’t it!
Lol!
Sue me!
I LOVE YOU!
Old…
flush more often, we’ve been through this already
*hands over plunger*
*takes the plunge*
*makes toilet*
that’s nothing!
Bad Guinness, naughty Guinness- never thought I would ever say that!
*drinks bad Guinness*
*drinks naughty Guinness*
*feels good*
*feels bad*
*passes out*
Wait a sec’. What happened to *naughty*?
*sigh* … story of my quiet life …
Here Foop drink this it is for my science project!
.
.
.
.
*feeds foop specifically naughty drinks, to check out what effects this may have*
*observes foop’s reactions through one way mirror and takes notes*
Hey BF, she can’t see you through that mirror, you can safely take all your clothes off!
*holds hand on light switch of observation room*
Hehehe
(o)(o) *uh oh*
soooo, do you feel any naughtier, please answer on a 1 to 10 scale, where 1 is school nerd, and 10 is GCF?
errrrrrrrrrrrr… is !!!!1111elev!1en!! valid rating? O.o
uh oh- shes gonna blow!
*czuhc’s drool is leaking under the door*
I think the cheeky vimtos’ were a step too far.
*steps in drool*
*fooooooop*
*headfloor*
*out cold*
Hey, it’s not me this time! Awesome!
Does anybody here have some smelling salts?
I just set fire to the bukkit- that should work!
*giggles*
*pitiful attempt to look ominous*
*low mysterious voiceover*
… It’s only a matter of time, dear Brewski, only a matter of time …
they did it! they made a new record! I assume that was their only purpose; being noticed in the Guinness book.
Damn Osama! He could have juggled with five lobsters for 24 hours or something.
See if you click on that link it sends your IP and MAC address directly to the FBI.
federal bureau of infidels?
Freshly Bigotted Idiots?
filth bowel intestine
First bodily injections?
fooked by igloo
Fancy Balloon Inflator
LOL!
Free-Ballers International
I found a fail on their website (clickie)
Have you seen this balaclava?
Thats not a balaclava- that’s an angry squid.
that angry squid seems to be controlling that man’s brain and making him rob banks!
well what a bad bad squid, on unknown suspect, 5′ 1”.
Do you think the squid holds onto the ears and headbutts him with it’s beak as a threat?
He is *this tall*. It all depends on which 7-11 he is walking out of …
Fail Blog Immeritus
You ment emeritus, amirite?
(yup, I did) …bukkit, please…
*passes the bukkit*
It’s been a while since we used it and-
*turns green*
No-one’s cleaned it out since it was last used…
Fail Bukkit Imminent
*Flabbergasted by ick-factor*
*faints*
*passes fresh clean Bukkit*
*incinerates offending article*
Nooo!!!! They be burning my bukkit!!!
I have got you a new shiny bukkit!
Your mum…
died 20 years ago- hardly fresh!
LOL. Impossible to get the MAC address. FAIL
I wonder, has anyone ever contacted them and said ‘I think I beat it!’?
OMG I’m like the 10th!!!
and your life must be so fulfilling.
Who was 10th and why is it good to be like him/her?
…or was OMG an expression of horror?
I think OMG was an expression of stupidity.
Order More Gussett?
it is possible they work in the underwear industry, and are just trying to keep up with our moods.
If you are tenth, perhapth you thould take a thedative.
Well some records are meant to be beat but…….. this is
not one of them.
some are meant to be beaten, others blown up
LOL! *facepalms multiple times*
I had a cat called Dave..
you’re my wife now DAVE!
I can’t do that dave!
Dave’s not here.
ok I’ll come back later then DAAAAAAAVVVVVE
BTW old Dave was waaaaaaayyyy better, new Dave sucks a bit
Ooooooh, so THAT’s the oh-so-shallow reason they replaced the old Dave. *tsktsk* I’ve always wondered about that…
now if he sucked AND bit, it would be a different story
I gotta check out this brochure
*eats a hamburger*
Good morning Halifax and grannnycatflap,Jules,K@tcf,
sammycorgi,sebasdtian,bob
And a good morning to you, 5 eagles
Yo good day 5eagle!
Morning duckie!
morning!
You forgot me
Im going to take that owl I gave you to replace your missing eagle back.
Good morning Tech law you where not here on time,
where is my shiny apple?
Um no apples here. Only a banana but thats mine
This smells like a hoax.
* The guinness world record site does not currently have the design listed.
* The URL returns a 404. OK, that’s known (the “Fail” notes the record is removed). However, the URL pattern isn’t good for the site (index.asp?ID=xxxx is not valid for any ID).
* The OTHER records listed in the screenshot don’t exist on Guinness’ site either. Some of these (e.g. largest civilian evacuation) don’t seem like they’d have been removed even if a hypothetical “clean up” of offensive and/or war related records was performed.
Is this ancient? Or is it photoshop? I vote photoshop.
I guess you haven’t considered that the GWR people may have changed their website design.
Yes, they definatly did. here is a link from the waybackmachine in 2006.
http://web.archive.org/web/20060101031017/http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/
Layout looks the same to me.
More than that
http://web.archive.org/web/20050910234412/www.guinnessworldrecords.com/content_pages/record.asp?recordid=53241
albeit without the ‘break this record’ button, although it’s entirely likely this was removed removed after this became public.
No, it was never there. I remember when this first appeared. The record had been there for yonks before.
i vote kill joy
Who’s Joy? Why do we need him/her rubbed out?
he is questioning the fail! this can not be! lol
Ya I would jump for Joy?
i have a reflex where instead of laughing a just jump when something is funny… ~.~
*takes Nick up to the top of a building*
*tells him the joke about why you can’t hear granny on the toilet*
*offers bukkit and returns him safely to the ground*
Poor Joy she has a worse deal than Will, who people are always shooting at, least he has a chance.
Yes K@tcf it reminds me of the joke….. meanwhile back at he ranch
the boys are feeling merry she got tired got up and left… the boys
jumped for Joy she got tired and up she left too.
so long since I’ve felt any Joy
awww, do you want me to call her for you?
only god can bring Joy back
*worships K@*
IM BAAAAAAAACCCCK
♫ HappyHappy JoyJoy ♫
*chants*
OOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHMMMMMMMMMM
OOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHMMMMMMMMMM
nope, still nothing
*jumps on GCF & fondles*
ok its back!
I agree with 27b/6
It was a hoax designed to start a war for cheaper oil
(this is a designed comment)
I am a hoax designer and I approved this comment.
sssshhhhhhhhh!! its a secret!!!
*wears underpants on the outside to save on laundry bills*
*whispers* pssst…(‘nother secret) If you turn ‘em inside out once they start looking smudgy, they’ll last a few more days… *stops whispering*
LOL!
….and if you wear them back to front after that, even longer!
Also if its a G-string on back to front, most people won’t even look at you and they last even longer!
and with a thong you can get 6 days!
sunday bloody sunday
only 1 week in 4…
Good morning/afternoon! Glad I wasn’t trying to eat breakfast when I read that…
Men always have it easier, don’t they? I finally understand why they wash their underwear so much less often than women.
Hallo you *bear hugs*
yup- ‘cept my man- twice a day he changes- it’s ridiculous the amount of washing he generates!
I trust you don’t have to o his washing?!
*do
Erm, yes I do….and the housework, and the cooking, and the working full time!
NO!
Does he stay home and play playstation?
No, he is a tattooist, and spends every moment of his time drawing! I do not resent the housework-I get shiny things……and free tattoos!
Sounds like a fairly nice exchange, although I’d prefer shinies to tattoos. I just think I’d probably be the person always wanting to change it because it doesn’t match my outfit!
There’s a way round that….buy all your clothes to match your tattoos!
Black, like the corners of my mind!
and your cold heart
*squeeze!*
I do have warm fingers though.
*squeeze*
Arse, I forgot!
Johnny Nice Painter – well, I got two out of three.
Did I tell you that I now write everything down? It’s saved me looking foolish twice this week already.
*squeeze*
You can SMELL it ??!!?? Wow! Technology.
he bought MJ’s
nose I mean
*heehee*
Believe it or not, darlin’ granny, I already nosed what you meant.
*squeeze*
Thanks, I thought it would get an immediate response, so I explained further
Did anyone notice the words under the picture?
“This record has been removed from the Guinness site.”
OMG, using Internet Explorer 6 is certainly a MAJOR failure!
How about the record for most terrorists killed in an individual act???
Final act in the Duchess of Malfi
what happened on September 11?
So you must be the guy who’s been living in a cave for all his life everyone’s been talking about.
I really hope you are just kidding around Rizzo. If not, do you live in North Korea or something?
he’s just kidding, thinking making a Korea out of it
Perhaps he’s Il?
Rizzo420 seems to some reference to marijuana, maybe he just forgot.
I’m surprised I remember
He is worse then I am. Reference to rizzo420
what are we talking about again?
Dunno, man.
*face turns a little purple*
‘ere.
*puff puff pass*
Eagles! Get down from there!
just trying to forget, i’m tired of seeing references to that date in time. 8 years not enough time to start joking about it?
People, this is FAKE! Check the URL from the screenshot. It does not exist. And when you search for “killed” or “terrorist”, you do not find any record like this.
bloody infidels always ruining it for the rest of us
Wow!
Choice of web browser fail.
browsers!
Bowsers! Go go gadget Firefox!
fire in the hole!
*jumps under the desk*
Does it have to be a terrorist attack?
I am not sure terriers would cut the mustard there.
And a terry cloth attack would just wipe everything clean!
And Terrence Trent D’arby doesn’t scare me one bit.
His little sister does.
It’s just the way she dances.
I like the way her head turns 360°
I developed that syndrome back in the day when I traveled with the circus, working as a Gypsy Fortune Teller. Doc said it was the worst case of tarot wrist he ever saw.
EEEK! a Carney!
Hey! We called it Art!
You clutter our land and drop rubbish everywhere! Urgh! Shoo!
*makes shooing signs with hand*
Completely fake. Guinness has no such record on file.
are you sure its not partially fake? The logo looks about right.
Let’s break that record!!!
*Runs to Black Mesa Facility*
Not so fast!
*yikes*
WHO ARE YOU????
He’s 21st century jesus, coming to bring a smack down upon thee.
North Korea to beat the record?
Great encouragement… :eyeroll: :avis:
It’s not a fake. The page existed till 2006 and is accessible via archive.org:
http://web.archive.org/web/20060905065201/http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/index.asp?ID=53241
the real fail is that he’s using internet explorer
Ah form website fail.
Yep FAIL. But remember, terrorists, or at least islamic ones were not involved. It was the US government. Asshats.
but we all know that by now right?
Internet Explorer Fail.
It’s… SHOWTIME!
…
I reckon achmed must’ve tried to break that record…
haha achmed
What a meaningless statistic. It all depends on what you consider a “terrorist act”. Why is it that when the military cruise missiles a building to get at one or two guys holed up in it, we don’t call it “terrorism”, but when guerrillas strategically bomb a cafe to get at one or two guys they know are in there, it gets the dreaded T-word. Guess what everybody, most terrorism ever committed in history has been at the hands of some government. “Terrorism” is simply a label that that governments give to their enemies’ unconventional/asymmetric tactics. But Delta Force and the Navy SEALs are highly trained in professional terrorism. America’s revolutionary war was fought by terrorists. So was the French Revolution.
I agree and approve.
Does that mean that 9/11 record has been broken not once then?
HA
I’m off to break some records!!!
can you say “REPEAT”!!!!!
Yeah this is a repeat. That’s the real fail here.
That’s on the guiness world records? Were there official adjudicators on the scene watching to make sure the terrorist didn’t cheat? did the Taliban get a certificate? that’s just plain crazy.
cristopher columbus was a marsian, right?
absolutely.
I just realized what the record is.
hm…this looks like a win to me…lol
Now that is a fail if i ever had seen one
I wonder how many people clicked that button….. the one that says break the record….. lol
Lets break it! ;D
In response to this world record, the U.S. tried to break the “most costly war” record displayed on the right side of the page…
GUINESS, YOU FAIL SO HARD! its FAILblog! not some place to advertise, LIKE TEENS GIVE A SHIT ABOUT IF ITS GUINESS! GUINESS SUCKS ASS EVEN IF THIS WASNT HERE!
and you failed on not be able to correctly write GUINNESS
damn guiness world recaords they censored it
THEY JUST GOT PWNED! YEAH!
High Quality here : http://guinnessmessup.ytmnd.com/
Enjoy your failure!
Winwinwinwinwinwin
Hi,
Unfortunately, I haven’t read your original entry, but even judging by the screen grab, you were highlighting the wrong point. I would question why 9/11 and such like had to be entered into the Guinness Record Book in the first place.
Secondly, there is the semantics of language. An entry is entered for the record, it can be broken for the record, and any record entered can be eventually broken. This might sound like nonsense, but it is important that we don’t get too obsessed with what appears on the surface. Sadly, we live in a very dangerous world, the 9/11 “record” may get broken, whether we like it or not. I am sure that Guinness is not suggesting that someone should willingly do so.
You are correct in highlighting the phraseology issue. But similarly, if there is an individual who lived up to 152 years, would it not be a mockery to suggest to “break that record”?
Get a life Julia. …get a life.
Oh, sorry for raining on your parade
The fail is the encouragement to “Break this Record!”, as if someone were to TRY to break it just for the sake of breaking it. GWRL is really its own worst enemy, here. If they don’t take down the “Break this Record!” link, I think they will only do themselves more harm than good.
The encouragement to “Break this Record” for something like lifespan could get people to eat better and exercise more, at least…
I personally don’t see this as an encouragement in any way. “Break this record” is a default phrase, and, as I said, the 9/11 record may one day be broken, whether we or GWRL want it or not. GWRL may try and rephrase the message, to avoid upsetting people… but people can perhaps not take everything at face value. To me, this is one of those oxymorons out there, you can’t criticise everyone enough for linguistic mishaps.
@livewire – just for the record (sic!), eating better and exercising is not all. There’re so many sportsmen out there who died young, despite being fit.
I think what FailBlog is best doing is holding a readers’ competition to help the GWRL rephrase “Break the Record”. Or better else, to find and list all the pages that have an “inappropriate” “break the record” link. I suspect it’d go viral in nanosecond
Hello Julia ….. u r banned from our site MuhaHAHJAHAHDHahdsfhahahahaha
That’s OK, not that it’s among my bookmarks anyway
What complete failing azzholes!
Wow… I can’t figure which part was funnier… some of the comments or the actual FAIL.
O SNAP!
Since I don’t have a legal department also, I would like to hire the guns at ICHCL (I Can Has Cheezburger Legal).
Their references to interwebs and RTFM are 2g for “traditional” legal firms.
And the legal team’s response is 133754uc3. \o/
Unfortunately, they have to legally defend their copyright, trademark, etc etc otherwise (under some laws) they lose it.
Doesn’t excuse them for being douches about it.
ICHCL – 1 v Others 0 \o/
I could still see the original at http://failblog.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/128903807809599463.jpg !
shh
i would like to consider the comments below a staying on topic fail
above
In regards to the trademark infringement… They are so WRONG. There is no copyright or trademark infringement what so ever. In order for there to be a trademark infringement, you would need to use a logo that was either their or something REALLY close for a product or service of a comparable nature. Your site could fall under reporting and news and the “press” has every right to use whatever logo (tm or not) they want in the reporting of any news worthy event…. fail or not. Tell em to F off!
I for one don’t have a problem with people breaking records for killing people.
It’s just another way of turning themselves in.
You know, in order to break a record a Guinness Official must be present at the time of the record breaking or something like that. I guess if you have more corpses. Wouldn’t that make the official an accomplice? Well I guess an official count of the corpses would suffice for the rep to not have to be present during the actual execution of the record breaking. I guess if a person were to launch a WMD in an act of terror, they could easily decimate the Record. Wouldn’t Hitler’s Third Reich and their actions of fascism before and during WW2 constitute terrorism? I mean any kind of act of force or violence against a person or people who don’t agree with you could be considered an act of terrorism. The US law code defines terrorism as such:
United States Law Code – the law that governs the entire country – contains a definition of terrorism embedded in its requirement that Annual Country reports on Terrorism be submitted by the Secretary of State to Congress every year. (From U.S. Code Title 22, Ch.38, Para. 2656f(d)
(d) Definitions
As used in this section—
(1) the term “international terrorism” means terrorism involving citizens or the territory of more than 1 country;
(2) the term “terrorism” means premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents;
(3) the term “terrorist group” means any group, or which has significant subgroups which practice, international terrorism;
(4) the terms “territory” and “territory of the country” mean the land, waters, and airspace of the country; and
(5) the terms “terrorist sanctuary” and “sanctuary” mean an area in the territory of the country—
(A) that is used by a terrorist or terrorist organization—
(i) to carry out terrorist activities, including training, fundraising, financing, and recruitment; or
(ii) as a transit point; and
(B) the government of which expressly consents to, or with knowledge, allows, tolerates, or disregards such use of its territory and is not subject to a determination under—
(i) section 2405(j)(1)(A) of the Appendix to title 50;
(ii) section 2371 (a) of this title; or
(iii) section 2780 (d) of this title.
I’m gonna break that record…How funny I made an observation that broke a record.
I applied to break this record! I submitted the following to bring to their attention a previous historical event has exceeded their current record’s number:
The Third Reich of Germany was well known for it’s premeditated murder of over 5 million Jews. Adolf Hitler stands prominently amongst the leaders of this terrorist organization as its figurehead. They accomplished this act of terrorism by a wide range of murder tactics(labor camps, execution, starvation, exposure, human experimentation, decapitation, target practice, weapons testing, burning alive, etc.) over the time period of year 1939 to the end of World War Two in 1945. This record is based on number of human lives extinguished in this single campaign of Jewish persecution. It was the Hatred of Jews by Adolf Hitler which was the primary motivation for these murders totaling approximately 5,752,400 Jewish peoples.
I recently saw a record on your website regarding the events of September 11, 2001 and the deaths of this terrorist act being the largest on record. After studying the definition of terrorism according to US law, which I quote, “(2) the term “terrorism” means premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents;”(From U.S. Code Title 22, Ch.38, Para. 2656f(d)(2)). The actions of The Third Reich fulfill these requirements and their record far exceeds the record set by the events of September 11, 2009.
I feel kind of sick after submitting this letter.
Heh, I might go for this record. >:)
Aren’t you guys protected under the “Fair use” doctrine? I don’t think you even have to censor this.
hmm this seems cool xDD and btw ppl stressed about columbus he was italian and went to the spanish king for money and the king said no and the queen of spain paid for his trips and men
I think you ALL FAIL!
we welcome you to teh webs too. lolz innocent ichc spelling!
i think im gay can any 1 help me find out if i really am?
dont worrie you are
2nd paragraph, towards the end. . . you spelled ‘the’ wrong.
fail.
sorry.
I think that was intentional. I do that sometimes as a joke myself.
classic!
Your site was very nice