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OMG U FAIL SO HARD


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.

Guinness Legal Notice on FAIL Blog

Incorrect source or offensive?

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» 1,231 Failures in Communication

  1. meep says:

    First!

  2. meep says:

    Sorry…

    • Not_you says:

      there is nothing to be sorry about. FB is indeed protected by fair use: this is parody. they should not have removed the logo. don’t cave in to those douchebaggy cyber-bullies.

      • Avis says:

        I believe Larry Flynt (sp?) set the precedent for pointing out that parody is legal.

        • Nick says:

          That’s not entirely accurate.

          Fallwell v. Hustler resulted in the judgement that celebrities cannot sue for “intentional infliction of emotional distress” when the material in question is clearly and obviously a parody.

      • Mark Hall says:

        Actually, it is not parody, since the image presented wasn’t modified in any way (prior to the “naughty bits filter”). However, it is still fair use, as it is a brief, editorial usage, leaving all rights and responsibilities with the trademark holder.

        • RS says:

          Actually if you check the archives on w3b.archive.org (change the 3 to an e), you can find archives of this page that have essentially the same layout, but none with the “Break this record” link. If you look at more vanilla records on the site from around the same time, most of them have the “Break this record” link, so I’m going to guess this is a parody being passed off as a real screen grab, which is bordering on libel if you ask me.

          • Someone Nicer than Jenny says:

            I was wondering about failblog being a 3rd party in this matter anyway. The image was submitted by someone who either did a straight up screen grab or altered it.

            • LawGeek says:

              Section 230 isn’t going to apply here, since FB is an active content editor. They’re too selective about what they post for the Drudge/AOL defense :P

          • senrath says:

            Not necessarily. Judging by the fact that the archive doesn’t have anything newer than a 2006 copy, it’s entirely possible that during a site update or whatnot, the “Break This Record” option was added to the page, either on purpose or, more likely, accidentally.

          • Rohvannyn says:

            Good point, but since the attorney didn’t say that, it would make sense that this was a real image. I don’t think they would have passed up such an obvious chance.

          • Stever says:

            I wrote a similar comment wayyyyyy down below, but it’s stuck in moderations due to including links, so here goes again.

            If you do a backlink check on the old page using Yahoo you can find a number of forum and blog posts from 2003 linking to it, and they were back then commenting on the “break this record link”. So seems the link was actually there at some point.

            Wayback machine copies of the page for 2003 and 2004 are partial framed versions missing all navigation links so you cant tell if the bad link was there or not back then. 2005 and 2006 copies of the page don’t have the bad link there. 2007, 08 and 09 have nothing for that page. Either way the link was removed ages ago. Looks like the page itself was removed more recently, but it’s not stuck in Google’s cache so was likely not removed just within past few days or so since the FailBlog exposure.

            Maybe failblog can stumble across the United Airlines Breaks Guitars video on Youtube, in like 3 years for now, and resurrect another old forgotten public relations ‘faux pas’ from the dead again. lol

        • Someone Nicer than Jenny says:

          I was wondering about failblog being a 3rd party in this matter anyway. The !mage was submitted by someone who either did a straight up screen grab or altered it.
          *please excuse my !mage mistake*

  3. bearssmoke says:

    troll! ima piss mah self!! gtfo

  4. Larwick says:

    OooooooOOOOoooOOOooooOOOh.

    • Someone Nicer than Jenny says:

      That sounds painful – you should have a doctor look at that.

      • Larwick says:

        No one can help me.

        • Brewski says:

          What you need is an ohectomy.
          SNTJ, got a scalpel?

          • Qwaz says:

            Are you in here talking to yourself, Dr. Brewski?

            • Yeah, there’s No One Nicer than Jenny

              (poor fellow going senile; thinks he’s a Doctor & talking to thin air)

              • Qwaz says:

                This may become wierder than the finale of St. Elsewhere.

                • Someone Nicer than Jenny says:

                  Scalpel
                  *hands*
                  I added the Jenny part back in the name for you, and now you call me SNTJ?????

                  • Qwaz says:

                    I’m just assuming that was aimed at me so…
                    To make up for it I won’t volunteer you for the train track.

                    • Someone Nicer than Jenny says:

                      Hmmmm I think we are moving at the speed of a real E.R.
                      *I feel a little overwhelmed from the amount of stuff I missed today.*

                      • Qwaz says:

                        Today was a bit hectic, wasn’t it?
                        I think it must have been the lurk convention that threw everyone off their game.
                        I also need those X-rays, STAT!

                        • Someone Nicer than Jenny says:

                          Dragon said there would be days like this.
                          *takes break*
                          *drinks 8 Pepsis*
                          *ponders the plural of Pepsi*
                          *Sets X-rays on the counter*
                          My hubby took the extra pizza to his fellow workers last night. They thought I bought it for them :)

                        • Qwaz says:

                          *prefers Dr. Pepper*
                          *figures it would be Pepsii (pronounced Peps-Eye)*
                          *Examines X-rays, not lookin to good.*
                          I wonder what kind of favor you can call in off that one.

                        • Someone Nicer than Jenny says:

                          Larwick passed away just after 6:00pm this evening during a routine ohectomy. There was no doctor available to comment on the situation.
                          *goodnight*

                        • Dearly Beloved, we gather here today to celebrate the tragic death of our dear friend Larwick. He/She/It enjoyed life even to the very end.

                          He/She/It contributed greatly to the FailBlog Community blissfully inserting odd comments with a well meaning generosity. I shall always remember Larwick saying, “OooooooOOOOoooOOOooooOOOh,” and always wonder what it meant.

                        • Qwaz says:

                          *Sniff*
                          I remember once when Larwick said
                          “OooooooOOOOoooOOOooooOOOh.”
                          I laughed so hard that day, but I was making fun of him and now I feel like a terrible friend.
                          He/she/it will be missed dearly by all that knew him.

    • GAF DROL says:

      Jawsus is it your birthday again?

  5. Ms B ♥ says:

    Ok, they have no legal department. How many law firm employees do we have around here that can help them out?!

  6. ZombieApocalypse says:

    Sweet, bonus fail! Isn’t it funny how some entities have to cut off their own noses to spite their faces?

    • Brewski says:

      I just hope they don’t get pissed off. It doesn’t require a case with merit to make life hellish for a small company.

      • Brewski says:

        PS: I worked for a company that got sued out of existence by a much much larger douchebaggy company. The case had no merit, but as a startup we didn’t have the financial resources to pay the lawyers to contest it. And the litigation scared away all our investors and vencap firms. So the company folded. They actually had funding lined up until these assholes sued, to prevent their competitors from getting our technology.

        • Chris says:

          I am really sorry to hear that. More proof that lawsuits hurt everyone.

          • Starfish says:

            Just playing devil’s advocate here, but there have been quite a few beneficial lawsuits throughout history. Don’t you think?

            • Brewski says:

              Of course. Litigation is quite necessary. But unfortunately, the rich and powerful can abuse it.

              • Starfish says:

                I know Brewski, I was just playing with Chris and hopefully starting a litigation themed pun run with my devil’s advocate line. My mom owns a company that was just sued by a much larger competitor. The case was eventually dropped but she still owes her lawyer 150K. Yikes.

            • Sadukat says:

              Yes, lawsuits CAN be good, but, like most good things, can be taken to excess. Hence another stereotype: The person who sues everything, and when someone says something bad to them, like “I think you should stop sueing people” they scream “I’LL SEE YOU IN COURT BIATCH!”

              • yourprecious says:

                Personal favorite: former boss who bitched about how much she hated students threatening legal action against her and saying they’d see her in court. When I quit and was contemplating filing a complaint against the institution (with the labor board…among other boards), she sent me a LAWSUIT THREATENING EMAIL for staying in contact with any of my coworkers, among other things.

                O NOES MAYBE SHE WILL REED TIHS AN TRIE 2 SUE MEH!

        • Michelle says:

          I’d venture in the age of teh interwebs, that kind of douchebaggery would undoubtedly backfire in the face of any “much much larger” company.

  7. skwirrlgrrl says:

    Last!

  8. Hello says:

    could have been fir…

  9. Blantant says:

    Posting in an epic WIN

  10. John_n says:

    damn it why did i click the link ¬_¬

  11. nightmistresskittie says:

    my new favorite FAIL!

  12. Rae says:

    Well played, Failblog. *salutes*

  13. chief says:

    well link win?

  14. Meowmy Cat says:

    LOLOLOLZ Sick burn WIN

  15. Dick says:

    Is it still on the site? I can’t find it.

  16. Riel says:

    This website has some good arguments about why what Failblog did was in fact legal.

    http://www.eff.org/issues/bloggers/legal/liability/IP

  17. Lee says:

    Damn, you gave ‘em hell. Even a Rickroll, that’s pretty much “IN THA FACE, BITCH!” :)

  18. Blog Ninja (Blog Monster) says:

    Malicite needed in aisle four. Malicite, aisle four.

  19. TheFirst says:

    LOL!

    Almost as funny as the responses from Teh PirateBay!

  20. Craphter says:

    Hey… I didnt want to read alll that text… where’s the fail?

  21. Chris says:

    Way to go, FAILBlog. Throwing their trash right back in their faces. Too bad these lawyers don’t know enough US copyright law to understand “fair use”.

    And Rickroll=win.

  22. Ray says:

    GWRL Fail!

  23. Bob says:

    All that and a RickRoll too… gotta love it.

  24. John says:

    Understanding the point FAIL.

    They asked for you to remove their logo. They never asked for you to whine about why you deserved to publish the FAIL to begin with.

  25. set square says:

    Understanding the internet FAIL

  26. Rhyle says:

    Y’know…I’m pretty sure if I worked for the GWoR I’d feel the same way about your website trolling all over my hard worked, expensive copyrighted logo.

    Yeah…it seems like a sense of humour FAIL is required to work within those four walls in London…and I certainly qualify there.

    Excellent response and I look forward to their next missive!

  27. Craphter says:

    Ok, so now i read it ALL and Im confused…

  28. Lindse says:

    I LOVE IT! TAKE THAT GWRL!!!

  29. TimmyP says:

    Rickrolled=*EPIC WIN!*

  30. Aja says:

    My Goodness My Guiness.

  31. Mr. Spock says:

    Can we set a world record for spamming their message boards with U FAIL?

  32. Zé pixas says:

    Did he die?

  33. Mistletoe says:

    At the risk of further infringing on trademarks… BRILLIANT!!!

  34. champz says:

    LOL

  35. Jonathan says:

    well done!

    What a bunch of sanctimonious losers.

  36. sdgsanöbnoe says:

    good job, failblog. keep it up.

  37. Qwaz says:

    That darn unknown world record site.
    They know the rules and so does FB.

  38. Allison says:

    I can’t believe you just rickrolld the guinness book of world records
    aha

  39. niki says:

    evree1 already nos its guiness

  40. SgtPepper says:

    I’d say: World record fail!

  41. Makes me wonder if they’ll then ask you to remove the mention of their name period.

  42. filip00 says:

    this is effin fantastic!! reminds me of the responses left by piratebay

  43. Tricksy Hobbit says:

    Awesome! Trust theirs lawyer to turn a simple Fail into an epic douchebag lawyer FAIL!

    • Starfish says:

      Lawyers are false! We cants trust them now can we precious?

    • Great Scott! - Working the FB evening shift says:

      It’s a huge lawyer fail IMHO, as it looks very much like a form email. I doubt whoever sent it realized the context at all. They’ll learn the hard way to spend a few minutes doing research before firing off something like this. Or they may be so big nobody will give a damn.

  44. Tylatz says:

    It’s a FAIL WIN! I think my head just imploded. How is it possible for FAIL to WIN?

  45. LessBias says:

    I’ll have to say, I fully approve of your method of Rick Roll.
    I bet the poor sap is required to go click that =p.
    Pwnt.

  46. Dylan says:

    Failblog= EPIC WIN!!!

  47. Lilith says:

    IN! YOUR! FACE! (link included, may contain traces of Obama!)

  48. Nastybedazzler says:

    That was pretty funny.

  49. Princess Platypus says:

    Oh, look! You can follow these FAILers on Twitter:

    http://twitter.com/craigglenday

    http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/editor/

  50. Sean Connery says:

    How do I write to Guinness World Records to harass them? I also dare someone to use the right disguising materials and send their lawyers a computer hack like in Jurassic Park.

  51. Jesse says:

    Speaking of being “douchebaggy”, what an unbelievably childish response to a valid complaint.

    • Grrr Power says:

      You see a valid complaint?
      FAIL.

    • Rosie says:

      Where?

      Surely you can’t be referring to anything that occurred here? Guiness World Records self-pwnd and got called on it, got their knickers in a twist and got laughed at for trying to suppress the fact that they invited people to TRY TO BREAK THE RECORD FOR MOST PEOPLE KILLED IN A TERRORIST ATTACK.

      Were you planning to try? Is that your issue, here? Because any self-respecting company would have said, “Thanks for drawing our attention to that record breaking fail – we’ve fixed the website.”

      • Ms B ♥ says:

        Well said, Rosie!

      • KatzVonD (Now with Snidely Whiplash handlebar mustache) says:

        *Applauds*

      • Busted! says:

        Actually, they didn’t. The image was altered, if the wayback machine is any indication. Thus, the company was understandably miffed that they appeared insensitive.

        Can’t really blame them, if the internet archives are to be believed.

        • Rosie says:

          Bless you – you believe it was faked? That’s adorable.

          • Busted! says:

            I linked the evidence here from the Wayback machine but it was eaten by this site. You can check it out for yourself.

            I had no idea the GBWR had enough power to change the history of the internet itself! It’s a CONSPIRACY!!!!elebenty!!!

  52. Sd says:

    Well, you guys should be smart enough to blur logos to begin with.

  53. Dogneck says:

    I can’t believe I just got rickrolled by failblog.

  54. Mr. Spock says:

    Their terms of service say that users must be at least 13 yrs old to access the site, but they have a section called “kids” with games designed for 5 year olds to play. FAIL!

  55. Stacy says:

    Good for you. What a bunch of jerks to have a record like that in the first place.

  56. JW says:

    totally just checked their website… they removed the record from their site… I even tried to manually go to the link listed in the screenshot and got a 404: File Not Found error.

  57. Brian says:

    Maybe Guinees (Misspelled on purpose!) needs to get thier heads outta thier @$$es and realize the real issue here: THE FACT THAT THERE IS A “BREAK THIS RECORD” LINK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111

  58. Ticked off not-so-emo says:

    LOL! (I’m all outta intelligent responses)

  59. Victory Is Yours! says:

    WIN!!!

  60. Tofu Mogu says:

    hi everyone! did you miss me!!! :D i was on vacation. ;)

  61. Christopher says:

    I would have blurred their logo to look like a penis lol

  62. Me says:

    Stupid douches. It’s their own damn fault they put that up to begin with. Guess we should start being a little more careful with what we post up on the internet, huh dumbasses?

  63. Fiat Knox says:

    Score one for WIN Blog.

  64. Oh this made me laff.
    This made my whole day.
    Tnx cheezpeeps!

  65. dave jones says:

    Well then, that’s it. I’m off to kill as many employees of the GWRL in a massive terrorist attack….. oh hang on… no i’m not that’s a really naughty thing to do.

  66. OMG says:

    Holy crap FailBlog rickroll’d us!

  67. jared says:

    It appears they removed the record. Looking for it in google cache…

  68. FallenAngel says:

    LOL The Guinness team don’t know about the fail.

  69. Chamberino says:

    I like the fact that they didn’t blur out the GWRL guys address…

  70. testing says:

    testing

  71. Ricky Maveety says:

    Well, rats, now I’ll never know that the folks at Guinness World Records are capable of a monumentally tasteless fail. I’ll simply have to guess that it was them and assume that they are a bunch of complete idiots who thought it was best to slap someone else (FB) for pointing that out to them rather than just own up to it.

  72. Janet says:

    Fail Blog win!

  73. Tracie says:

    This was so full of WIN! I lolz.. right down to the rick-roll. Gotta love it.

  74. Chanidividus says:

    Wow. Brewski, I found the lurkers! FB lured them out! Only a troll or two in the bunch! They are a mite repetitive, but look at them all…

  75. Elkku says:

    WOA WOA WOA! The questions is.. Why would a lawyer from guiness world records be doing on failblog? I mean– in order to see it they should come to the website… Businessmen have 2 much time on their hands nowadays :P

    • BAReFOOt says:

      Maybe to *infringe* the *copyright* from FAILblog, by *downloading* site content and *storing* it in his browser’s cache, thereby *INFRINGING COPYRIGHT* himself.

      LOL

    • Matt says:

      Many large companies pay for services that search on their names for Reputation Management or infringement issues. They get notified whenever something with their name in it starts to rank in the search engines or social sites. That could be what happened.

  76. m4rk says:

    is this what you call a Fail Win ?

  77. BAReFOOt says:

    GUINNESS should put themselves is their own book. As the biggest FAILers EVER. ^^

    Also I’m never going to talk about Guinness ever again, I’m not drinking their beer anymore (after all, I might infringe some “right”), recommending everyone to not drink it (because that would infringe their “rights”), because of some shit they put in, and because it tastes like shit too. And will burn every book of them that I’ll notice, before even really seeing it. (Because it might get copied into my brain, which would infringe their “copyright”)

    I also will block all their websites in my domain name servers and all their IPs and phone numbers in my firewalls and phone blacklists. (To prevent someone copying it to their computers, infringing “copyright” TO BE ABLE TO SEE IT IN THE FIRST PLACE.)

    Yeah, It’s ON Guinness! It’s fu(kin ON! ^^

  78. Blockhed13 says:

    For goodness sake, its their own fault. They should take that button off if they want to keep whatever “reputation” they have. Besides, if it the logo was gone, everyone would still know who it was and they would still lose whatever “reputation” they had left anyways.

  79. BAReFOOt says:

    Someone please mail them the PAIN SERIES. :D

  80. Luanne says:

    KICK. ASS.

  81. failblog wins! says:

    LOVE it. just passed this around the office… thinking that Guinness World Records should be charged for encouraging terrorist activity.

  82. b says:

    GWRL should probably learn when not to take itself so srsly. it just makes the rest of us laugh harder!

  83. m4rk says:

    we could now set the record for most comments on GWRL Fail

  84. Cyrus says:

    can trolls become lawyers or lawyers become trolls?
    i’m (almost) scared D: mom never told me about this.

  85. joiex says:

    Some people just don’t know Internet.

  86. Matt says:

    Man, Failblog is WAY too nice. Could have left his name, phone number, and fax number un-obscured and could have told them to get lost and see if Guinness wanted to fight the EFF over it.
    Could have issued a press release on it as well.
    GWRL is very VERY lucky.

  87. agaerg says:

    lol

  88. Gilbert says:

    It might be helpful to you to look at the requirements of the Lanham Act. This is what Guiness must prove to establish trademark infringement.

    15 USC 1114

    (1) Any person who shall, without the consent of the registrant–

    (a) use in commerce any reproduction, counterfeit, copy, or colorable imitation of a registered mark in connection with the sale, offering for sale, distribution, or advertising of any goods or services on or in connection with which such use is likely to cause confusion, or to cause mistake, or to deceive ; or

    (b) reproduce, counterfeit, copy, or colorably imitate a registered mark and apply such reproduction, counterfeit, copy, or colorable imitation to labels, signs, prints, packages, wrappers, receptacles or advertisements intended to be used in commerce upon or in connection with the sale, offering for sale, distribution, or advertising of goods or services on or in connection with which such use is likely to cause confusion, or to cause mistake, or to deceive,

    shall be liable in a civil action by the registrant for the remedies hereinafter provided.

    • KZT says:

      Why didn’t you try and and apply to break the record? Would have been more lulzy, hm? Not that seeing you get served then throwing a hissy fit isn’t amusing mind you…just…a little lacking in sophistication. Ah well. You can only use the tools you have, eh?

      Oh and Gilbert, this is an English company whose work is protected by English Copyright Law but thanks for the irrelevant and unattributed cut n’paste- don’t see nearly enough of that lately.

  89. speedkermit says:

    I’m might have just chuckled if this hadn’t gone any further, now I fully intend to send the link to every one of my friends (all 4 of them). Well done Guinness – defamation fail cubed.

  90. Paulo Velho says:

    Guiness World using Internet Explorer???

    Triple Fail!

  91. Noreen Litchfield says:

    Just another example of why I need my Failblog fix every day…Just to keep the ba$tards on their toes!
    THANKS!!!

  92. rapljwop says:

    Fail Blog WIN

  93. dotcom says:

    they’re just pissed because you pointed out a fatal flaw! NICE JOB!! KEEP ‘EM COMING! i love you guys – this site makes my whole day!!!!

  94. MooseFan says:

    FB – thank you so much for standing up to those ‘record keepers’. What a ridiculous record for them to track and publish.

    I wonder if they threatened the recent news media when it was re-announced that Michael Jackson was awarded various world records. Oh, sorry, that would have been something that GW.. would have liked, so it’s ok to use their logo. Pla-ease

  95. Guy Fawkes says:

    Two words: Ion Cannon.

    If you know what that means, give GWRL what-for. If you don’t, ignore this.

    It starts at 17:00 July 14 EDT.

  96. 543-u9jsgfd. says:

    FARK has been notified. I hope failblog is OK with this. And I don’t give a FARK if Guinees has a problem wit it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111111111

  97. Hardsell says:

    Hardly surprising that Geniuss removed it. The police over here regard incitement to commit terrorist acts as EXTREMELY naughty. They have been known to get rather upset about talk of terrorism in ‘private’ emails. So lets hope that nobody complains to THEM about Geniuss commissioning acts of violence on a public website eh?

  98. Pyro says:

    Apparently some people at the GWR legal department visit failblog.. That is unless their legal department simply spends all day, every day, searching the web for anyone and anything that uses their logo without permission. If there were no consequences, I’d say that failblog should post that GWR picture 10 times consecutively and put flashing arrows pointing to the logo and the fail just to piss of the legal department.

    • sim says:

      they have no lives

    • slupine says:

      It’s also possible they use a tool called TinyEye which crawls the internet for you looking for image theft.

      But still, they have no case. And are apparently paranoid if they’ve freaking out over a screenshot of their site. It’s not like FB is trying to steal the image. Mind you, I say this as an artist and a photographer who takes image theft seriously.

      My guess is they’re freaking out because they’re afraid it’s going to give them a bad image. But remember, kids, it’s only libel if it isn’t true. ;)

    • LawGeek says:

      If they were with a firm, I would say they were trolling for billables. C&Ds are a great way to do that.

  99. marymert says:

    Zoikes, I just rickrolled myself LMAO! I love your response, and this part made me giggle like a little girl:
    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.

  100. Andrew says:

    I think that you should have never complied with their demands. Other websites have received such e-mails and they have never given in. Furthermore they drew others to their cause. A famous example is that of t-mobile requesting from engadget to remove the trademarked magenta from their website. next day about 60 (sixty) other websites turned all magenta. what happened? nothing.
    Although I am myself a lawyer, I would never encourage such C&D letters from people just trying to justify their huge paychecks. So I say show the freakin’ logo all you want

  101. Onion says:

    kinda weak that you guys folded.

  102. Not that you’re expecting any serious notes on this thread, but the EFF is actively looking for cases just like these to establish *good* caselaw in obvious parody cases, and will provide ample legal support for that. Contact eff.org if you want to take this one up.

  103. Cleonnis says:

    hmm…If I were to create a world record company like Guinnes and it got to be bigger than them that be a world record for largest world record company thing. Would they have to put that as a world record on their site?

  104. Maz says:

    GWR gotowned gotowned gotowned gotowned by Failblog

  105. Someone says:

    This encouraged me to post this fail everywhere I can. Anyone else wanna join me into posting the original picture wherever possible?

    Unfortunately, I don’t have access to the original anymore, and the link doesn’t work (not a single ID works, and searching for “terrorist” or “killed” doesn’t produce results).

  106. Invader Kendall says:

    I think George Lucas and Fox (tv) have proved that allowing yourself to be the butt of jokes, to even make fun of yourself is good for business. GOOD for BUSINESS!

  107. Gatonejo™ says:

    did the stupid logo died?

  108. Leeza says:

    This is a complete WIN!

  109. Pedobear says:

    Undoubtedly, that was the best rickroll, ever.

  110. jamiembrown says:

    Nice one Failblog. And a brilliant rickrolling too.

  111. Someone says:

    By the way, keep us updated if they respond to this new picture, I’m sure they’re going to defend their reputation now, which is gonna be funny.

  112. Brandon Abell says:

    You should not have blurred their trademark. Using another’s trademark as a means of identifying their product or service is very much in the realm of fair use.

  113. Andy - Weber says:

    OMG They FAILED SOOOOOOO-HARD!!!!!
    Lawyers = MORONS

  114. NO says:

    Didn’t they commit a crime by encouraging terrorist acts?

    • Mr.Spock says:

      Most likely, yes, which is probably why they sent the bullying email. They wanted to erase it from the web. Now, they’ll most likely have to publicly apologize for encouraging terrorist attacks.

      What agency/gov in Britain is in charge of these types of crimes? Who do we report it to?

      Who’s with me? Let’s take down GWRL for encouraging violence and terrorism.

  115. Blogomotive says:

    In TPB style. Lesson lernt, guys. Well done! ;)

  116. Wrecks says:

    Guiness was within their rights to ask that the logo be removed and they did so in a professional and polite manner. The link to “Break the Record” is obviously on every page and was not intentionally placed there to get someone to try it.

    I think the operator(s) of failblog have overreacted and taken this thing way too personally. Not to mention responding in a very immature way.

    Failblog Fail.

    • LessBias says:

      I’m afraid it is you who are overreacting – Failblog’s operator(s) replied in an appropriate manner – with humor, but also acknowledging and responding to the request to remove the logo.

      It was obviously for our entertainment benefit =p and I liked the rickroll thrown in.

  117. Gwingy says:

    Genius! Totally styled it :)
    with a rick rolling to boot – utter class

  118. Galu says:

    I love you failblog

  119. 0xC0FF33 says:

    I’m sorry, but this is an absolutely rediculous reaction of the Guinness Book of Records… But on the other hand it’s a good example how stupid this company is and we should thank them for bringing us another epic fail and something to laugh!!

  120. Charles Brobst says:

    Gentlemen,
    I enjoy your website daily.
    Perhaps this web page should be forwarded to the Department of Homeland Security.
    It does appear that Guinness World Records Limited is encouraging, aiding and abetting terrorism and other felonies.
    Keep up the good work, Failblog.

  121. Shay says:

    A clear WIN for Failblog!

  122. rickrolled says:

    i think failblog’s on its way of setting a new guinnes-world-record…rick it baby!

  123. Deatzo Seol says:

    Lol, this ought to be the all-time number one fail of all time!

  124. Cakeiscoolio says:

    EPIC WIN!

  125. joe says:

    obviously buried, but…

    you are a better person than I…I would have explained to the ignorant lawyer that they FAIL. Your site is protected under copyright law since it is a PARODY. Dear lawyer, go back to your community college law school and learn about the fair use clause.

  126. GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ says:

    Rick Rolled!!

    • ZombieApocalypse says:

      *holds back the vomit just long enough to sing …*

      never gonna give you up
      Never gonna let you down
      Never gonna run around and desert you
      Never gonna make you cry
      Never gonna say goodbye
      Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you

      .
      *begins epic puking, rivaling Team America-World Police*

  127. Leila ♀ - MOANday striken and still at the spa with Patrica the calf ♀v4.0 says:

    So ludicrous!! It didn’t even take them time to send the nasty-gram. Guess their lawyers do not have much else to do.

    • Chanidividus says:

      There are too many douchey people in the world with too little to do in a day, obviously. (Present company not included in the generalization, of course.)

  128. Artemis says:

    Epic Win for Failblog!

  129. Chris says:

    Perhaps we should notify the families of the victims of that attack. I bet they would be quite upset to see that they even had it POSTED. One of those casting stones a glass houses moments to me.

  130. Magitek says:

    Just can’t get enough failing

  131. Mr. Spock says:

    I just sent CNN a news tip that GWR is encouraging a terrorist attack to break the world record for the number of people killed by a car bomb.

  132. Kristingq says:

    OMFG I just poo-d from laughing so hard. I think I love you and we should get married forthwith!

  133. internet person #7 says:

    This is awesome.

    Also, I did a quick search for the Guinness terrorist record to see it for myself, but they’ve erased it from their page. Tons of sites have picked up on this and they are showing the screen-cap WITH the logo. I wonder if Guinness has contacted them…

  134. helligusvart says:

    rickroll’d O.o

  135. Annie says:

    Stupidly enough, on wikipedia (although obviously not the most reliable of sources) it has a whole section explaining previous records being removed due to the danger that it might influence people to try and beat them and causing damage to themselves or others. Maybe they should have learned from their own mistakes.

    Also it’s doubly ridiculous as it isn’t like everyone genuinely believed they wanted you to try and beat the “Terrorism” record. So by trying to protect their wonderful trademark, they’ve just made themselves look exactly like FB’s “douchebaggy cyber bullies”

  136. mez says:

    Whohooo. Someone is trying to pull a “Streisand”.

  137. Rob says:

    I think the only thing that could make this more fail is if they had a link to suggestions on the best way to go about breaking this record.

  138. Michelle says:

    My favorite EPIC WIN failblog evar!

  139. doublevrb says:

    Well done Failblog.org…..hat’s off to you. Best response to a threatening legal letter I have ever seen.

    • Cloral says:

      What’s a “hat’s off”?

      • Michelle says:

        “Hat’s off” (yes, with the apostrophe) comes from an expression of admiration: “My hat is off to you” is a display of admiration/respect. Comes from an age where people commonly wore hats and used them to gesture.

  140. Cloral says:

    I was just thinking, does the UK have the same parody laws as the US?

  141. Bodi says:

    Any way to give 6 failstars to this one??

  142. eidolon says:

    Failblog.org’s content could legally be construed as parody and/or satire, and is protected from copyright infringement lawsuits under the “fair use” clause of U.S. & international copyright law.

    Therefore, I submit that you have the legal right to use GWRL’s logo and content for satirical use and should fight GWRL in open court for usage rights.

  143. Ribenalion says:

    Nice link… First one to get me in a long time

  144. TheQuestion says:

    Totally and completely EPIC.

    That’ll show ‘em!

  145. Keith says:

    To the people at guinness who pay these lawyers & to the lawyers themselves: shame on you!

  146. Hannah says:

    You RickRolled ‘em?!?!?!!?!?! That, my friends, is totally awesome!!

  147. Winnegan's Fake says:

    Remember when John Lennon wrote that song about the Guinness heir dying in a car crash (a day in the life) That was wild man.

    Two Irishmen walk out of a bar………………….it *could* happen

  148. Stephen Colbert says:

    I’ll bring this up on my show tonight the Colbert Nation will will be interested in the cause

  149. kz says:

    Seriously, though, GWR failed a long time ago when they started putting “records” like “Smallest Commercially Available Stitched Teddy Bear” and other such BS that was obviously made up just to make a record. Stick with shortest people and tallest buildings, and you’ll have some reputation and intellectual property to protect, GWR.

  150. Coryl says:

    EPIC WIN. :3
    Although, you bastards Rick Roll’d me.
    That part wasn’t cool. xD
    BUT STILL EPIC WIN! :D

  151. Ben Cox says:

    This is the greatest thing ever posted on this website, by a wide margin.

  152. Kevin says:

    LOL. This is just pathetic.
    PS:
    Next time in a business letter, use a colon.

  153. NaughtyBoy says:

    As far as I can tell, FB didn’t “use” the trademark. GWRL placed it on their website, putting this use of it in the public domain. By GWRL’s standards, anyone viewing their website, business cards, letterhead, etc. – and remembering what they look like – are “using” their trademarks without permission.

    Which can be extrapolated to mean that everyone here is probably going to be charged with receiving stolen goods because we’ve seen FB’s “theft” of GWRL’s trademarks.

  154. Dave says:

    Hahaha, how many legal idiots do you think FAIL Blog just RickRoll’d?! This is great; FAIL Blog FTW.

  155. allurements says:

    Yay loopholes. Hilarious.

  156. Porsche says:

    Guinness World Records Limited promotes terrorism!

  157. Rick Ashton says:

    This is not funny!

  158. Da Noid says:

    What a bunch of tools!

    Threats such as this do not get you off the hook for the stupidity of posting the “Break This Record” in the first place!

  159. Amagad says:

    haha imba! Just keep bullying them and make them fail even more :D

  160. Observer says:

    Ah hahah! Owned! Welcome to teh internets! Watch what you put up there. Everyone is looking at that wet dirty smear you left there, and it’s up to failblog and many others to point them out.

  161. Fire says:

    beer > record people

    from left to right: winnar: drunk: fail

  162. davity says:

    Yeahh!! Nice OWNED to GWRL!
    Guiness World Record Limited, YOU FAIL!

  163. Gilbert says:

    KZT – The statute cited in my post is plainly relevant to the issue faced by failblog. The statute I cited, 15 USC 1114, is a provision of the Lanham Act, which controls United States Trademark law.

    First, you alleged that “English Copyright Law” applies, but– per the letter — Guinness was asserting trademark law, not copyright law.

    Also, the letter plainly asserts rights to a US Trademark. Accordingly, United States law plainly applies.

    Third, this was not an “unattributed” cut and paste. The relevant statute — which is available from many (legal) sources — was clearly cited: 35 USC 1114. The “attribution” cannot be any clearer.

    The fact that you didn’t know the difference between a trademark and a copyright indicates to me that you must not be very familiar with intellectual property law, so I’ll cut you some slack and let you know that, yes, as Tricksy Hobbit pointed out, I cited the correct provision. I can assure you this was not an “irrelevant and unattributed” cut and paste. Might want to stop and reflect on whether you know what you are talking about before flaming.

    And yes, I agree with you, sarcastically, we “don’t see nearly enough” of stupid comments these days.

    KZT = FAIL

    • Mr. Spock says:

      WIN

    • Hey Gilbert!
      Here chill out, have some coffee.
      You did good, to little effect, but good non the less.

    • SirMoo says:

      FailBlog is not really liable for Trade Mark infringement as per The Lanham Act.
      U.S. Trademark Act Title 15 §1125 Civil Action (a)(1), and all subsections as well as Cyberpiracy prevention (d)(1), and all subsections would not apply since the object is not used for commercial gain and is used in “Good Faith”. Where there is no-profit there is fair-use! Flash their trademark with pride and add a nice fail through the center.

      • Aero says:

        Unfortunately that only pertains to the USA. It does not cover the restrictions overseas.

        :/

        • Eddie says:

          Except for the fact that you’re wrong.
          1) It’s referencing a US trademark.
          2) To persue FailBlog, GWRL would have to utilize the laws in the country from which FailBlog operates, which just so happens to be the good ol’ US of A.
          3) Compliments of item 2, US trademark law DOES apply. And in this case, US trademark law releases FailBlog of any and all liability.

      • joAY says:

        arent they making a profit off of the banners on the side of the site? one could make the argument that GBWR’s logo is drawing viewers to the site, directly causing an increase from ad revenue. i dont support that argument, buuuut it can be made

        • SirMoo says:

          @joAY – That can easily be countered that since the ad revenue is independent of FailBlog and forced to be used as apart of the CheezBurger and don’t directly fund FailBlog. Now, that’s kind of a long shot, but to push that one they’d have to sue Google as well, and I’m pretty sure they’re not going to try that. Google is the one where the adds are hosted and the content delivery.

          There is not direct profit made by using the logo and the company is being represented in an appropriate, true and honest manner. They themselves created the fail and I’m pretty sure nothing on the screen cap has been altered. -shrug.-

          @Aero – Yes, FailBlog being based in the United States (as far as I know?) are bound by US law and not overseas law. They can sue, but it won’t do anything.

          Silly British and wanting to force their laws on others. Almost as bad as US companies wanting to sue TPB for being a legal business.

      • I’m late to this, but since FailBlog uses the fails to attract users and said users view the advertisements herein, a skillful attorney could well use the argument that using the aforementioned logo could really be considered commercial use.

    • domorvedar says:

      Gilbert,

      I would be interested in your opinion on the following comment made by another:

      “GWRL placed [the trademarked logo] on their website, putting this use of it in the public domain.”

      My thinking is that FB’s use of the GWR logo was some form of “fair use” but not for the reason cited. The cited reason seems to run close to the idea that “anything on the web is in the public domain,” which as I understand it is false.

      • SirMoo says:

        Domorvdar is right, it’s not fair use in terms of public domain. I’m almost positive that trademarks don’t become public domain that’s copyright. (TM/R can only be “public domain” if it’s use term ends, until it’s renewed thus making is no longer public domain.) – People who think anything on the internetz is public domain don’t know much in terms of U.S. Copyright Law.

        FB is using it in Fair-use, but not as Public Domain. It’s not being used to make profit, not are they claiming to be the said company NOR are they miss-representing the company. Their claims are 100% accurate… Think of Fail Blog as the news… Just fail news. You could say their entitled to the same protection.

        Neener “Neener” Neener III: Said argument would be hard. Google would be the one to sue, they are paid to add the advertisements. FB could simply state while they make profit, they make profit from Google for inserting code on their site and generating page views for Google. Google then uses their site to give related ads, which are not directly controlled by FB. This puts the blame on Google and not FB. Now, ad’s not done by Google are another story.

  164. UALLSUCK says:

    You all suck and fail!

  165. J K says:

    anyone else try looking at GBWR’s website for this page? It don’t exist :(

    • Floof of Doom says:

      Same here. Guys, you mind checking your sources and questioning them before we jump to conclusions?

  166. David. says:

    FailBlog just won my heart.

  167. DrewTheJew says:

    Congrats GWRL, you double fail.

    Trademark != Copyright

  168. Hal9000 says:

    I think all Failblog followers should now write to GBWR and tell them what they think of this act of bullying. Also, point out that you’re going to boycott their products and services.

    They suck.

  169. DEGÚ says:

    AWWWWWWSOME WIN!!!
    xD

  170. Dave says:

    “Dear Heartless Spineless Corporate Lawyers
    Hey, leave FAILBLOG alone! Just because you screwed up,
    and FAIL pointed it out, doesn’t mean you can use copyright
    laws to violate free speech and fair commentary principles.

    Apologise to FAIL BLOG for your rude form letter, or the
    entire internet will hate you (FYI, that’s about 5/8ths of
    the entire world).

    Kindly get stuffed,
    Dave.”

    sent via
    http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/corporate/contact_us.aspx

  171. hulby says:

    Heh heh. rickroll was the icing on the cake.
    but am i the only one who think FB got a bit dickish with the worthy stuff about their ‘duty’? We’re here for the lolz, not a righteous war against Fails. ah well, still a FB WIN to remember.

  172. Mogma says:

    So they have left the starred comment on all the items in the ‘related records’ list, have they? Must go and check..

  173. EMUAlgaeGirl says:

    ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  174. Conradin says:

    Who wants to Ping the BS out of GWRL? I gots over 50 Computers I can use.

  175. cest says:

    Failblog.org peeps are masters of the universe and rulers of teh interwebs!!!

    Y’all rock and GWRL has shown that they s*ck b@lls!

  176. Fragman says:

    rofl…

    most epic failblog-team win ever!

  177. HooterSampzn13 says:

    OOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!! They got burned so bad. I feel embarrassed for them.

  178. BOLDz0r says:

    BOLD?

  179. BOLDz0r says:

    LOl

  180. Rayna says:

    RICK ROLLED

  181. thewinchester says:

    Any lawyers with some spare time care to help out the Cheezburger crew? Someone needs to stick it to GWRL very very hard.

  182. Rafael França says:

    FAILblog wins!

  183. brikabrak says:

    Instead of blurring someone should have made an MS Paint version which would be even more fail

  184. Kaitlyn says:

    omg. ftw!!!

  185. Nightrun says:

    Lol, world record FAIL! xD guinness pwned!!

  186. Athanar says:

    Oh man… Fail Blog win!

  187. Charlie Hayes says:

    That original image no doubt falls under fair use due to the satirical nature. Stupid lawyers.

  188. Sir Cat the Second says:

    Eh, Guinness was acting like a douche, but so did FAILblog.

    Double fail indeed. :(

  189. coolguy31337 says:

    Whoa. icanhaz.com shows legal response as the top 10 this week with 45481 visitors, about 16 times the runner up

  190. Puddi says:

    I love Failblog, but Failblog’s response to this issue was both childish and unprofessional.

    This time, the fail’s on Failblog itself.

    • gmc360 says:

      ^that ought to go over well

    • LibrarianJessica says:

      Glad you’re in the minority here, or else we’d have no right to freedom of speech left.

      • Puddi says:

        I did not say Failblog was not supposed to respond to that at all or to express their opinion.

        But if I were in the position of the Guiness guy I would laugh my butt off because of that childish response. Would make me think “Ok, another website run by kiddies.”

        Scary also, how many visitors here seem to support that. Maybe most of the failblog visitors aren’t as intelligent as I considered them to be.

    • *burp* says:

      The GBOWR letter was childish and professional, where “professional” is defined as “hollow, lacking in humanity or humility, steeped in bureaucracy and fail from the git-go.”

      I think failblog wins this.

    • Sir Cat the Second says:

      Already mentioned. Two comments up above yours.

  191. MD says:

    I can’t find this record on the Guinness website. Does anybody have the link?

  192. soccer9451 says:

    Fail, Guiness.

    Epic Win, Failblog.

  193. Nacoran says:

    There should be a fine for sending cease and desist orders that are contrary to fair use. I mean a fine that doesn’t involve all the hassle of a counter suit. You should include the email for they who shall not be named so we can easily send them shameful letters to shame them.

  194. Bloody says:

    Hey! You rickrolled me!!!

    We love u! Bravo, bravísimo!!!

  195. ~A! says:

    That was my first rickroll. I love you.

  196. Fernando Correia says:

    Rickrolled and I JUST LOST THE FRAKKING GAME… Sweet.

  197. pfff GWR says:

    cmon, that excuse for an attorney is nothing but a petty shyster.

    Failblog always wins!!

  198. Jay says:

    I love how I would’ve never seen this if they hadn’t have responded, but since they did, it got linked to and now I think Guinness is a big fail fail.

  199. htmlpro says:

    I HOPE THIS WERKS

  200. Jody says:

    OMG – “douchebaggy cyber-bullying”. I have a new favorite phrase. ROFLMAO.

    See, this is why I come back here every day. This is exactly the response they deserve. More folks should not have a legal department. The world would be a far more honest place.

  201. Seriously says:

    Oops, America has a loophole.

  202. KZT says:

    Gilbert, you have me beat sir, *except for one small thing*- where exactly in that email would I find that assertion of a “*US* Trademark”? I ask simply so that you haven’t gone and spent good, useful time tear-assing through the well-attributed “many (legal) sources” to which you apparently referred, and based your entire rebuttal upon an incorrect assertion- garbage in; garbage out eh? ;)

    • Eddie says:

      Wrong, my friend. Read the e-mail a bit more closely. To quote, word-for-word:

      “The GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS(tm) “star and pedestal” logo is a registered trademark in the United States, the United Kingdom and many other countries around the world.”

      Bring special attention to the fact that the “star and pedestal” logo is a registered trademark in the United States. Ergo, the “star and pedestal” logo is a registered US trademark.

      KZT: Fail within a fail.

  203. Björn says:

    And the best thing is: You idiots forgout about the Mac-OS-fail inside Guinness’s fail.

  204. fpage77 says:

    Since when does failblog moderate posts.

  205. fpage77 says:

    Guinness World Records suck my sack Limited FAIL FAIL FAIL.

  206. pandora0123 says:

    OMG, loving the Rick Roll!!!

  207. Jennybean says:

    They ought to be excited that somebody brought some attention to them. I haven’t looked at any of those record things since those two hefty fellas rode motorcycles. Guinness has been failing for quite some time now but this is the first time they’ve been called out on it. GJ Failblog

  208. Resized says:

    ^b^WIN!^/b^

  209. failblogfailed says:

    /facepalm
    .
    failblog just failed so hard…
    .
    hell, they even showed us their limp gumi’s

  210. jjjackie says:

    Super fantastico, Failblog! Call upon your followers if this progresses. We shall come with arms. Two, in most cases.

  211. Freman says:

    Lol, you know the traditional internet response to this is for everyone visiting this website to start posting copies of the original un-censored version across every page they can on the interweb ;)

  212. Phil says:

    How about GWRL attempt the record of kissing my ass and the ass of every FAIL Blogger in the world? Have their lawyers no idea of the actual law? Organizations like the ACLU exists solely to protect people from what can only be called retards with a chip on their shoulder.

    D.I.A.F, GWRL, and welcome to the Internets.

  213. Mr. Spock says:

    Where can I get a copy of the uncensored version?

  214. Amethyst says:

    Failblog Epic WIN!

  215. solum says:

    legaldouchebag shortsightedmoron WIN!

  216. Karen says:

    Blah

  217. Goowin says:

    879rt8yf76d6tf68tf

  218. eat me says:

    noooooooooo!!!!!

  219. Futon says:

    Hello Failblog! Keep up the good work! From reddit.

  220. Ted says:

    epic win?

  221. Fritas says:

    A stupid publication with stupid lawyers. Epic win for stupidity.

  222. Darcy says:

    I suggest that someone forward this form to them.

    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v129/sparkz505/butthurt.jpg

  223. Wolvie says:

    They fail.

  224. Slywylob says:

    When Tom Forsythe appropriated Barbie dolls for his photography project “Food Chain Barbie,” Mattel lost its claims of copyright and trademark infringement against him because his work effectively parodies Barbie and the values she represents.[2] But when Jeff Koons tried to justify his appropriation of Art Rogers’ photograph “Puppies” in his sculpture “String of Puppies” with the same parody defense, he lost because his work was not presented as a parody of Rogers’ photograph in particular, but of society at large, which was deemed insufficiently justificatory.[3]

  225. LeBaux says:

    this is triple fail

  226. Garry says:

    Gonna plaster than screenshot in every place that I can now. They just started a war.

  227. aozf05 says:

    I find it funny that the entire section about history and war is now gone and the site layout is completely different

  228. Garry says:

    The original.

  229. aaron says:

    Screw guiness. fail blog is better.

  230. caz-jane says:

    FAIL Blog wins sooo hard. :)

  231. hlaode says:

    Nice work, I especially like how you made an effort to appease them but are completely unwilling to compromise your values. Failblog earns greater respect in my eyes. The law seems to be on your side in this instance, so if they do try to keep pushing (which is fairly unlikely) put up a paypal icon and I’d gladly toss a some money towards hiring a legal department. I’m sure others would also.

  232. Wren says:

    Holy crap I love you people.

  233. Seraph says:

    So who is the scumbag that ratted us out to the GBWR legal/nazi squad?

    • Alex says:

      I did. I think it’s their right to ridicule themselves by trying to hide puny mistakes with pathetic measures.

  234. Heather says:

    OMG! I enjoyed the 646 comments, just as much as the fail.. I laughed, I cried, I spewed coffee..

    Rickroll was genius. TY! :)

  235. Zen says:

    So Guinness can’t ever be WRONG or FAIL.
    If they are WATCH OUT! They will sue your ass.
    I wonder if this is how the “World Record” for “Longest Streak of Never Making a Mistake” is held…

  236. Alex says:

    This is why I love FAIL Blog.

  237. Bob says:

    Failblog WIN!

  238. Patone says:

    EPIC FAIL.

    Put the nazi symbol over the GWR symbol and everything will be okay.

  239. Patone says:

    ^b^OMG THIS WORKS!^/b^

  240. lostvoid says:

    I know I’m late to the party but this is an uber win! And damn you for rickrolling me!

  241. phoenix says:

    well played, Failblog. Well played.

  242. tai457 says:

    Failblog was the second to ever rickroll me, damn them all.

  243. Rick says:

    You guys are awesome. Plus the RickRoll… amazing.

  244. gregf says:

    alert(“Guinness SUX!!”);
    Do script tags work in the comments?

  245. May says:

    Man I love Fail Blog. That was AWESOME… just the kind of thing I would do. You guys rule!

  246. Simon Nolan says:

    Who needs Guiness when we have Universal Records Database. Muuuuuch more fun: http://urdb.org/

    Cameron Diaz and other fun people have held records: http://urdb.org/Content/RecordDetail.aspx?id=666&attempt=932

  247. Scott says:

    New world record for most epic fail.

  248. Pencildragon says:

    :awesome:

  249. JiggaWagga says:

    hahahaha that’s epic!

  250. seansy says:

    that made my day man. i cant believe you guys had the gut to do something like that. i mean come on! douchebaggy cyberbullying? to the guiness world records? its true but you actually pointed that out to them. and you did LOLspeak too! yay FAIL blog!!!!!

  251. Battered Pav says:

    Maybe takedown letters are the new publicity angle. I mean I have never visited their web site before, but I did today to search for “terror” related records (zero results, lol). Not that I’ll ever visit it again – dumb records are excruciatingly dumb. Oh and 3rd time rickrolled, bastards!

  252. Blog Ninja (Blog Monster) says:

    Goodnight world!

  253. kappa in a handbag says:

    Perfect example of a PICKING YOUR BATTLES FAIL.

  254. Arm3Nin7a says:

    As a soldier, thank you failblog. I mean it.

    Also as a soldier…

    Dear GWRL or whateverthe(RUDIES) it is.

    Please don’t exercise our hard earned freedoms by displaying a record of terroist kills.

    Seriously.

    Remove your head from is firmly lodged placement in your collective ASS.

  255. K says:

    How is blurring it going to help?! xD

  256. Anna says:

    So it’s true. Failblog IS run by 12 year old /b/tards.

  257. Michelle says:

    This has to be one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a while. Well played, Fail Blog.

  258. Ken says:

    I got hard reading this! Way to f’n go!

  259. Alex says:

    haha. B*tch got Pwned. nice one Failblog. E-mail was funny

  260. Will says:

    Epic fail x2 on part of failblog. Great job.

    P.S. That includes the rickroll I fell for. =D

  261. Vetz says:

    dang
    freking got rickrolled and lost the game
    double fail!

  262. Brian says:

    Epic win, Fail.

    Very nicely played.

  263. Unknown says:

    Fail some more!!!

  264. Sparky says:

    “GWRL shall take whatever action is necessary to protect the REPUTATION, trade marks and other intellctual property of GWRL”

    Let me just highlight the key word/part again: “…protect the REPUTATION…”

    How hard can you fail?

  265. gimpykat says:

    This is so incredibly awesome on so many many levels.
    Good for you failblog!! Don’t let those tough guys push you around!

  266. chez says:

    Oh wow… I go on vacation and come back to this? Awesome :) Calling them douche bags in a legal response, the “this is what we think” link to the dick lighthouses, and the “our full legal response” link. The legal system needs more of this. I want to hug whoever is irresponsible for this reply. True to form failblog, and thank you.

  267. Sir Puffsalot says:

    Oh failblog. that last part was uncalled for.

  268. Flame Blade says:

    I LOVE YOU FAIL BLOG!!!!

  269. Anna says:

    awesome legal response. lol i feel bad for the attorney – what a sad, sad job =( you guys rule.

  270. Rose says:

    While I think FB is within it’s right and is totally awesome for standing up to a corporate entity to support constitutional rights… could you have been more moronic and childish? Why didn’t you just top it off with the pain series? Jeesh.

  271. Jason says:

    They’re only using the lawyers because it’s a public relations disaster for them. What a bunch of losers!!!! Keep up the good work.

  272. Kneller says:

    TRIPLE FALE for Guinness? Yikes.

  273. Paul says:

    They’re based in the UK, an in the UK there is no “fair use” law protecting you. Dunno if that would technically make a difference on the international information superhighway, but thought I’d raise an interesting point!

  274. Meg says:

    Failblog, you rock my world!!!

  275. Raiden says:

    You guys rock so hard, everything about that letter right down to the rick roll was amazing. I love you guys

  276. BP says:

    In Canada it would be a parody and covered by Fair Dealing, both as a parody and “criticism, review or news reporting”… I’m not sure how American laws have changed recently but I can’t imagine they have done away with fair use.

    Fair Dealing in Canada: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_dealing#Fair_dealing_in_Canada

    Fair Use in the US:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use#Fair_use_and_parody

    Based on what I read, I suspect there is no need to remove it at all. I am not a lawyer however.

    It’s just another clueless company that doesn’t get how much negative publicity they could get from something like that.

    Wait a sec, isn’t inciting people to commit terrorists acts a criminal offense in the US?

    All that said, good one making a second fail out of it…

  277. Antti says:

    Maybe overwrite the logo with a dash or something.

  278. mudrock1000 says:

    HELL YES!!!
    STICKING IT TO THE MAN
    its pretty useless since everyone knows now lol

  279. Go failblog says:

    Roflmao @ GWRL!! Keep it up Failblog!

  280. my7inbox says:

    lmao…

  281. Elizabeth says:

    Most definitely OWNED. Great job Failblog!!! :)

  282. Moose says:

    Wow, “rtfm” is for the lulz.

    GFG, GWR

  283. Waagh! says:

    Fail Blog WIN?

  284. erico says:

    Damn.. I just gor rickrolled.. and I couldn’t even see it coming!! Failblog ftw!!!

  285. Truman says:

    HAH. Is this perhaps the climax of failblog?

  286. trilobitemk7 says:

    You know, they did ask for it.

  287. jj says:

    no guinness within the next 3 weeks for me! :)

  288. Frankie says:

    I’m surprised I started this all by stamping a FAIL and sending in the picture of 9/11 related topic from encyclopediadramatica.org

    Yay me!

  289. smilff says:

    GWRL failed hard. This FAIL wasn’t funny at all, but I am glad it was posted nonetheless.

  290. MegamanX64 says:

    Funny thing is, that Guinness themselves are stealing materials from other sites and using in their book without permission, as can bee seen here (towards the bottom of the discussion):

    http://www.mobygames.com/forums/dga,2/dgb,4/dgm,107692/

  291. liorni says:

    That was so funny! go on failblog! show those bustards what you think about their legal bullshitting.

  292. Ivor says:

    Guinness is a fail stout anyway

  293. Spelling fail…;P

    Second paragraph in the failblog.org response, second to last word…teh

    Next time you send a letter back defending yourself, hit spell check…lol

  294. d34th55ku11 says:

    ummm is it just me or is every single poster on failblog have really short attention spans >.>?

  295. d34th55ku11 says:

    HEY LOOK ^b^ COOKIES ^/b^

  296. Gorgon Medusa says:

    bolditalicunderscore

  297. Kent says:

    I saw this at 4am and lol’d so hard I woke my mom up. Epic win.

  298. Anonymous Coward says:

    The full details of the person at Guinness are:

    James Howell
    Legal and Business Affairs
    Guinness World Records
    184-192 Drummond Street, London, NW1 3HP

    T: +44 (0)20 7084 7364
    F: +44 (0)20 7891 4501

    His email address is james.howell@guinnessworldrecords.com

    A bit of Googling shows he’s been harrassing other people innocently using the Guinness logo, such as this innocent entry: http://milesofchange.blogspot.com/2009/04/southern-california-students-set-new.html

    Perhaps a few good souls need to point out the error of his ways?

    So, if you want to

  299. jess wundering says:

    so…. what’s the guinness world record for threatening letters from the guinness world record lawyer-weenies?

  300. bigbadtron says:

    sweet jesus what a bunch of crying wingers!

    If you put up a record such as “most killed by a terrorist act” and” beat this record!” then you desverve a response like this.

    I’ll quote bill baliey on this and that “…Guiness World records used to be about the fastest, tallest, biggest…now its just about who can fit the most pegs on thier face!”

    I’ve lost all respect for guiness world records and they can go fornicate themselves with a branch from a rotting Hawthorn bush for even threating FailBlog.org with namby-pamby buearucratic BS!

  301. Mig says:

    Bold
    Hmm

  302. give em feedback says:

    You should have left their legal dep’t email address visible so that a brave portion of FailBlog’s angry visitors could have emailed them what they think of their bullying tactics…

    I would’ve been happy to tell them that I am going to boycott them forever.

  303. John Smallberries says:

    Clearly Guinness is in love with terrorism, they are engaging in it with this letter.
    (allegedly)(all rights reserved)(not offered where prohibited)(not an offer to tender securities)(Guinness Sucks)(not an offer by Guinness to be sodomized by the entire readership of this blog)(ok, it might be an offer, it might not)(this is satire you twits)(please send all threatening lawyers emails to me in care of root@127.0.0.1)

  304. OMG!!! says:

    Now this is what i call EPIC FAIL!!!

  305. Eilidh says:

    +7000 internets for rickrolling gwr.

  306. Andrew says:

    Come on! Talk about fair use – in this case republishing for the purpose of commentary or satire.

    GWRL lawyer fail.

  307. JustinCase says:

    DAMN

  308. Edos says:

    oh man these are the most brilliant and the most stupid letters I’ve ever seen in my life, Failblog WIN, GWRL FAIL

  309. Gwarek says:

    That’s a double fail XD

  310. Paco says:

    LOOOL ! Loosers!

  311. Sebastian Redl says:

    The action of Guinness is ridiculous, and your response hilarious. However, please note that Fair Use can only be invoked on issues of copyright violation, whereas the complaint here is a trademark violation. No amount of parody can save you from that. You did the right thing in obscuring the image.

  312. maxon says:

    GWR – you totally deserved that

  313. Mike CR says:

    Now that’s a World Record Fail!

  314. justme says:

    Forwarded to Drudge and Huffington Post.
    Hope the story gets some legs!

  315. Wiianne says:

    They be just a bunch of whining gwrlies. Wit very berry limeteted fonctionings in teh brain!

  316. Beldar says:

    Guiness World Record haz been Rick’nRolled!

  317. eafefaefa says:

    sum moar fat writing 4 yall. thank me l8er.

  318. czuhc says:

    Only just arrived, didn’t read through all the comments. Did someone think of posting this ? :

    www(dot)mamohanraj.com/Amusing/warner.html

  319. Arte says:

    Stupid Lawyers? just let it at stupid people, now I know it’s forbiden to take screenshoots of webpages…

  320. George says:

    Drop dead you stupid lawyers..

  321. Emily says:

    HAHA>

  322. guinness birdbelch says:

    PLEASE READ – Thanks

    First – I HAVE NO AFFILIATION WITH FAILBLOG WHATSOEVER. A family member brought this matter to my attention because they thought (correctly) that I might want to try and do something about it.

    While I recognize that this has a life of its own, and is likely to receive broader attention without any help from anyone, I would like to undertake an effort to help ensure that the public behavior of Guinness becomes part of the larger public dialogue, not just the “net dialogue”. This of course means seeking the interest of the national televised media, print media, talk radio, etc.,. But I need some help to do that. Specifically, I need the following:

    a HIGH QUALITY image of the screen from the Guinness web site. I can’t find it on their site (did they wisely take it down?), and the image above is of too poor quality to be useful. Couldn’t find anything better with Google, although ironically their logo is all over the place on “less embarrassing” web sites. A link to an image of their “record” would be great, or the image file itself if it isn’t too large to email. (Please, no clever “legal responses” – still lmao on that one, failblog)

    It would be very helpful to have contact info for the folks here at failblog beyond just the “contact” form. Names and phone numbers would be ideal, a more direct email address might be an alternative, but the news folks are going to want someone to talk to – preferably by phone at some point.

    I have created a temporary email account to receive this information. It is guinness (at) birdbelch com . It is important that you make your subject line: PASSME, otherwise your email will just get filtered out by the server. Also, emails not in plain text, with scripts of any sort, executeables, etc., are simply deleted before I ever get them.

    So, just to be painfully clear:

    Plain text

    TO: guinness (at) birdbelch com
    SUBJECT: PASSME

    You may also wish to contact the following about this story:

    news (at) sky com

    newsmanager (at) foxnews com

    www cnn com / feedback / tips /

    stu (at) glennbeck com

    oreilly (at) foxnews com

    writemalkin (at) gmail com put “tip” in subject line

    I would (politely) make the following points when contacting these outlets (in other words, if you happen not to like them/disagree with them/etc., this is probably not the time for that discussion):

    Guinness World Records had a record on their web site which seemed to encourage the breaking of the record for the most people killed in a terrorist attack. When failblog pointed this out, Guinness attempted to suppress that listing, or at least identifying aspects thereof.

    It is the nature of the material on the Guinness site – “break this record” i.e. “kill more people” which may make this seem newsworthy to these outlets.

    Thanks, now I’ve got some beer I need to return to the store. I hate it when that happens.

    • firefly13 says:

      Guinness World Records is no longer owned by Guinness who makes the beer. It is owned by Jim Pattison Group who owns the “Ripley’s Believe it or Not” properties. No need to return beer.

  323. mathew says:

    As you probably know, it is ENTIRELY LEGAL to reproduce a trademark in order to comment on the trademarked product, so long as the ownership of the mark is acknowledged. Otherwise you wouldn’t be able to start a “Walmart Sucks” web site, or make a movie about how much they suck that shows their stores.

    IANAL, but really, it’s freakin’ trademark law 101.

  324. Devious says:

    Total fail for then, TOTAL WIN for failblog. I hope he dropped his crumpets and spilled his tea upon receiving your email.

  325. GrubbDawg says:

    This is the best post to fail blog in the history of epic fails. Nice Roll BTW!

  326. conman says:

    Compliance with response to the logo was the best action, regardless of if it was to the letter of the law. It reduces the chances of further legal entanglements (just or not). I’m sure enough legal finances to rebuff the failers could be drummed up through donations, but it is nice to know that failblog isn’t looking for fights – just fails.

    The original fail was “meh” and would eventually be buried under the mountains of other fails… but the C&D letter and Failblog’s response has turned this into gold.

    10/10 – looking forwards to the next fail.

  327. Paulo says:

    Please, please, PLEASE put a “FAIL” over the image of the e-mail the attorney sent you. He failed. He desearves it.

  328. Becca says:

    i notice that Guiness World Record has removed that record from their website.

    • Missbiz says:

      I was seriously considering a strongly worded paper letter to them! But then I checked their website (to get the address) This record is not there anymore.

      Actually the whole section of History and Society or whatever has been changed to something else, the webpage layout has changed too.

      I think this sucker is photoshop.

      Guiness have refused to put self harming records in for years (ie most cigarettes smoked in a minute)

      • conman says:

        I thought that too, but I’ve noticed the letter regards the image as a “screen grab from the website…” and doesn’t further reference to the contentious materials being falsified information. That being said, it could very well be a cut n’ paste job – the real fail is in the letter, and the win in the response.

        BTW – almost 900 comments. Let’s see 1,000+ gogo.

      • Rayna says:

        its their old website, they changed it quite awhile ago

  329. ck says:

    So – you buckled and did exactly what they asked you to do?

    FAIL.

    You think they even read your reply to their mail merge form letter?

    FAIL.

    Do you think you’re being clever?

    FAIL.

  330. James says:

    A) Yes, I too was Rick Roll’d, bravo FAILblog

    B) Bravo again for dominating Guinnnes World Records Ltd.; FAILblog Win!

  331. Jason says:

    WTF!? Are they using IE5 in that screenshot? Those f*ckers should be shot and hung!

  332. claudia says:

    guiness world records just got OWNED.
    failblog FTW! :)

  333. Sussianne says:

    For corporate attorneys they fail with flair in the public spotlight!!!

  334. RR'd says:

    FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUU

  335. Scott W says:

    Failblog FAIL.. Paragraph 2, second to last word.

    teh???? Ohhh you mean “THE”.

    Nice

    • Argenteus says:

      You must be a troll. if not, please google “teh interwebs”, in quotes, to see that this is common lolspeak, you missed the joke, and you FAIL.

  336. Sanchez says:

    FAIR USE FAIL

  337. dj 8up says:

    loves it… loves it so much wanna have suprise buttsecks with it

  338. twodaystogo says:

    when i owned the most viewed cat videos on youtube before i sold them, PETA wrote me a letter saying that the pic of the cats was upsetting and that i should take them down.

    • Argenteus says:

      That’s OK. PETA protested a circus I saw at a local university, complaining of mistreatment of animals. the circus had no animal acts. I admire PETA’s ideals, but their pratical application is usually FAIL.

  339. Tiffany says:

    Fail blog rick rolled me, awesome. and um Fail on GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS, hard

  340. Damn says:

    xD teh failers in communication counter says 911 right now

  341. the3ofme says:

    Totally got Rick Roll’d by Fail Blog! Good job, guys!

  342. niki says:

    i wish i cood add thid to favorites

  343. Awesome says:

    *APPLAUSE*
    **STANDING OVATION**

    I love failblog so much more now!! thank you! thank you! thank you!

  344. Joshua Mears says:

    I read through this whole damned thread, and all I have to say is: Failers, you are absolutely batshitzania crazy. And I love you for it. But I was never Rickrolled until Failblog got me…*tear*

  345. GWRRRRRBBLLL Limited says:

    lol, everyone need to go send comments on the GWR site.

    I sent them this:
    I would just like to say that I was not amused by your “Most People Killed in a Terror Attack” record that I saw on failblog.org. There is nothing amusing about enticing people to break a record like that, let alone the fact that you see that as a record.

    Thankfully we have people like those at Failblog.org to point out such disgusting acts by organizations such as yourselves.

    Good Day,
    John Trent

  346. Chikon says:

    Spitting on the face of the Big Man, reminds me of home. cough *TPB*

  347. MisterManGuyPersonOfInfiniteHumanLikeness says:

    Dumbasses.

  348. honeyelize says:

    hi, I’m from Vietnam. Nice to visit your blog

  349. Bissonomy says:

    Failblog FTW!

  350. Argenteus says:

    The Terrorism Act 2000, section 59, states: “A person commits an offence if he incites another person to commit an act of terrorism wholly or partly outside the United Kingdom…it is immaterial whether or not the person incited is in the United Kingdom at the time of the incitement.” So whoever posted that item on their site, and left the call to “Break this record” enabled, has broken British law. I wonder exactly what reputation their lawyers are defending? It’s not the only murder record they invite us to break on that site.

  351. Super Aardvark says:

    Y’all are overreacting. It was a stupid form letter. They probably pay some intern €5 an hour to search the web for any and all uses of their logo, and they probably send the same form letter regarding all of them. Trademark holders are legally responsible for protecting their own trademarks, and they do it all the time.

    My point is this: this response would have been a lot funnier if GWRL had shown any actual interest in or anger at the original post.

  352. Robbyk says:

    RICK ROLLED!!!

  353. Sean says:

    Lol, GWRL have now removed that record from their website.

    Epic fail

  354. ahah says:

    what is this crap?

  355. goro says:

    Israel newspaper site article
    hxxp://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-3746298,00.html

  356. Olograph says:

    Self-breaking douchebaggery records office….ahah in their face

  357. Lurker says:

    Though “fair use” is primarily a copyright use defense, trademark law recognizes the same concepts, i.e., using a mark in a way that doesn’t create consumer confusion and is in connection with commentary, satire, news, etc. is generally not infringement. I’m guessin’ fail blog has some good lawyers…thus the response. :)

  358. Jimbo says:

    FAIL YOU DOUCHE LAYWER

  359. DCfailer says:

    Douchbaggery, indeed!!

    Failblog WIN!

  360. kmkrou says:

    I googled and there are tons of this fail pictures with the logo still intact.
    Good luck sueing them all GWR! ^^

  361. Liverdamage says:

    Legal response…..LMAO

  362. omg44 says:

    omg can we accually get in the real book for something on here is yes wat

  363. Anonymous says:

    suck on my giant dick failblog.
    lol you removed the rating system so this won’t be rated 1/5. pussies

  364. Seabitchcuit says:

    I love you failblog! Keep up the awesome work!

  365. Erin says:

    Two things:

    1. Ownd
    2. WIN

  366. 7thAce says:

    Win
    Nice work failblog

  367. tahiya says:

    GWRL? Seriously?

  368. Gone2thedogs says:

    pwned

  369. LawGeek says:

    Ummm… no. ATTORNEY FAIL.

    They’re alleging TRADEMARK (not copyright) infringement, but fail to state that (i) the use is causing consumer confusion or is likely to cause consumer confusion or (ii) mention it’s famousness and complain of dilution or tarnishment. So what is the claim here? I don’t see any. You don’t violate a trademark simply by using it; it is not the same as a copyright.

    You violate a Trademark when you cause a consumer to believe that the owner of the TM is the source of the goods or services you are selling, for the most part. That is not at issue here. Even if it were, you would have fair use and nominative defenses (a la New Kids v. News America)

    Check out this guide created by Harvard Law School: http://www.chillingeffects.org/trademark/

    I’m with some other commenters here, I don’t think you should let these bullies intimidate you with a C&D. This is just chest-thumping, and is very unethical.

  370. Freefromdex says:

    FAIL!!!!!

  371. MPR35 says:

    this has got to be the funniest fail ever!

  372. Business says:

    They probably wouldn’t have failed this hard if they didn’t bitch about it, and attract more attention. Double fail.

  373. Jack says:

    Big FAIL

    Great response

  374. rickrollin1992 says:

    All in favor of spamming Mr. Howell via E-mail to show him hes put himself on the wall of shame of teh interwebz?

  375. NoWay says:

    xeed da 1k yippie

  376. Whatev. says:

    this is bolded,
    this is italicized,
    this is subway,
    this is super! ,
    DA DA DA DAAAA

  377. dbag5891 says:

    You mention “douchebaggy”cyber-bullying emails and as an expert (I am the editor of the D Bag Journal or DBJ), I would like to applaud your use of the word in a manner that I had not seen before. I did question if it was spelled correctly but after reading the rest of the post, think that you can get away with it.

  378. Calculate900 says:

    This made my day.

  379. Madiso