Does the NFL own Ford's Theatre?

civilwarincolor

2nd Lieutenant
Joined
Oct 27, 2012
Location
California
First, my apologies. I know it has been a long while since I have posted in this forum.

Thought some of you may appreciate some craziness in the world. I have posted of a similar situation before and here we are again! As many of you know I sell my colorized images on my site, eBay and Amazon. From time to time the ones on eBay and Amazon run into "problems" because someone has flagged a listing as a violation. My latest occurred today, so I thought I would share it here for amusement (and my absolute frustration).

I have a listing of Lincoln's Box at Ford's Theatre that can be found here.

p897101592-6.jpg


This is the message from Amazon:

=====================
Hello from Amazon,

We are writing to let you know that the following detail pages have been removed from our catalog:

Title: President's Box, Ford's Theatre, Washington, District of Columbia; April 1865, Framed 11" x 14" Photo, Civil War

With the announcement from the Washington team and the NFL, we are removing products with the team’s name and logo from our stores.
=======================

There is more to the message, but this is the violation portion. Previously this same image had been removed since I was violating Ford's trademark. Now the NFL (or "the Washington team") has flagged the same image again. I have filed a request for review, but it is clear that whoever is removing the listings is doing so without any understanding of the image, history of the United States, etc.

So much fun!!

I will let you know when I hear back. Last time it took nearly a month to realize that Ford Motor Company is not related to Ford's Theatre. How long will it take to realize that the Washington Football team does not own the name "Washington" I guess Images of George Washington are being pulled down from other sellers as well!!
 
Old Southern saying: You can't fix stupid.
Wish I could. Last time this image was flagged for a trademark with Ford, previously I had listings pulled because they contained the word "Confederate" (I had to change all of the listings to "Southern") i.e. so now instead of it saying General R. E. Lee, Confederate Forces it says General R. E. Lee, Southern Forces! I had the listing of Lincoln and McClellan at Antietam pulled because it featured a Confederate flag on the ground outside the tent as it was felt that it was glorifying the Confederacy!

These are just some of the things that Commercial sales areas like Amazon/eBay do when they have people removing listings by people that do not understand US History.
 
Not to derail the thread but this is a good example of how insidious the whole cancel culture movement can be. Companies are now volunteering to censor themselves in ridiculous ways and are firing people for innocent comments on social media and the like just because they're afraid that if they don't they'll be targeted by a vengeful minority. Censorship on many college campuses is really scary and many of the students probably think it's OK and it's also OK to attack those with whom you disagree, even physically. Violence and destruction of property are seen as valid forms of expression and protest. As I've said before, it's way beyond removing a few statues or re-naming a few buildings.
 
Why don't you take "Washington" out of your listing and try again. I'm sure it's just a routine that searches for keywords and sends out the notice. Your review request then waits in a long line for a human being to get to it.

I did that for the one for Confederates as that was a few years ago when they began pulling down all of the Confederate statues and it was just easier for me to change the listings. In this case I have the same image listed multiple time with frame without, different sizes, etc. They only flagged this one, none of the others. I also have other images from the defenses of Washington that did not get flagged. The logic makes no sense.

I received a message back already and again the logic is very frustrating. In my request to have it reinstated I mentioned Lincoln's assassination, public domain, 1865, US Government location, etc. and they responded back and said:

=========
"We are unable to complete the process as the this product is restricted under Amazon's PCRP restricted product policy and we require additional information concerning this issue. Respond directly to this email with information addressing the following:

With the announcement from the Washington team and the NFL, we are removing products with the team’s name and logo from our stores."
=========

They did not even READ my message!!! I have sent it all to them again!

Frustrating dealing with big business when people managing it do not have a background in US History.
 
Wish I could. Last time this image was flagged for a trademark with Ford, previously I had listings pulled because they contained the word "Confederate" (I had to change all of the listings to "Southern") i.e. so now instead of it saying General R. E. Lee, Confederate Forces it says General R. E. Lee, Southern Forces! I had the listing of Lincoln and McClellan at Antietam pulled because it featured a Confederate flag on the ground outside the tent as it was felt that it was glorifying the Confederacy!

These are just some of the things that Commercial sales areas like Amazon/eBay do when they have people removing listings by people that do not understand US History.
One of eBay's ridiculous proscriptions "lest they offend" was the removal of any images featuring swastikas - EXCEPT stamps and coins! Apparently - and correctly! - purchasers of those particular items are entitled to see the EXACT full conditions of that kind of merchandise. Those interested in medals or militaria - or good luck symbols - are just out of luck I guess.
 
One of eBay's ridiculous proscriptions "lest they offend" was the removal of any images featuring swastikas - EXCEPT stamps and coins! Apparently - and correctly! - purchasers of those particular items are entitled to see the EXACT full conditions of that kind of merchandise. Those interested in medals or militaria - or good luck symbols - are just out of luck I guess.
Swastikas are a great example. They pre-date Hitler by thousands of years and are part of many cultures outside of Germany. There is no way to not offend. If you show a symbol you offend those that feel that it should be removed and if you remove the symbol you offend those that overcame what it stood for.
 
First, my apologies. I know it has been a long while since I have posted in this forum.

Thought some of you may appreciate some craziness in the world. I have posted of a similar situation before and here we are again! As many of you know I sell my colorized images on my site, eBay and Amazon. From time to time the ones on eBay and Amazon run into "problems" because someone has flagged a listing as a violation. My latest occurred today, so I thought I would share it here for amusement (and my absolute frustration).

I have a listing of Lincoln's Box at Ford's Theatre that can be found here.

View attachment 402233

This is the message from Amazon:

=====================
Hello from Amazon,

We are writing to let you know that the following detail pages have been removed from our catalog:

Title: President's Box, Ford's Theatre, Washington, District of Columbia; April 1865, Framed 11" x 14" Photo, Civil War

With the announcement from the Washington team and the NFL, we are removing products with the team’s name and logo from our stores.
=======================

There is more to the message, but this is the violation portion. Previously this same image had been removed since I was violating Ford's trademark. Now the NFL (or "the Washington team") has flagged the same image again. I have filed a request for review, but it is clear that whoever is removing the listings is doing so without any understanding of the image, history of the United States, etc.

So much fun!!

I will let you know when I hear back. Last time it took nearly a month to realize that Ford Motor Company is not related to Ford's Theatre. How long will it take to realize that the Washington Football team does not own the name "Washington" I guess Images of George Washington are being pulled down from other sellers as well!!
Maddening, isn't it, @civilwarincolor? I've had a similar go-round on three occasions with Facebook over this image and related ones. I've been "banned" from FB Marketplace three times because they claimed these violated "community standards." Was it because my description used the words "Civil War" (while I was posting in a FB Civil War group?!) On one occasion, they did reference a policy against selling animals, even though my postings clearly had nothing to do with selling animals. In each of my cases with FB, after repeated requests for appeal and lengthy delays of up to 12 weeks, my access to Marketplace was finally reinstated. But none of the people I dealt with--when I was finally able to actually communicate with humans at FB--was able to guarantee that the same scenario wouldn't be repeated. Now I have to laugh whenever I get messages from FB urging me to advertise. Why would I even consider it after those fiascoes? I hope your experience with Amazon will be more productive and that they will hear you out and decide in your favor.

Close-up-Lincoln and Fido.jpg
 
Maddening, isn't it, @civilwarincolor? I've had a similar go-round on three occasions with Facebook over this image and related ones. I've been "banned" from FB Marketplace three times because they claimed these violated "community standards." Was it because my description used the words "Civil War" (while I was posting in a FB Civil War group?!) On one occasion, they did reference a policy against selling animals, even though my postings clearly had nothing to do with selling animals. In each of my cases with FB, after repeated requests for appeal and lengthy delays of up to 12 weeks, my access to Marketplace was finally reinstated. But none of the people I dealt with--when I was finally able to actually communicate with humans at FB--was able to guarantee that the same scenario wouldn't be repeated. Now I have to laugh whenever I get messages from FB urging me to advertise. Why would I even consider it after those fiascoes? I hope your experience with Amazon will be more productive and that they will hear you out and decide in your favor.

View attachment 402284
That reminds me of a thing I saw a few months back where YouTube blocked the "Battle Bots" organization from posting clips from their robot competition because of "cruelty to animals". I think a lot of this was blocked/banned by an automated tool and not someone that really knows or cares. Stupid is stupid wherever it is found. I remember a group a few years back that had a script run that if you put in the term "gay" that it would automatically change it to "homosexual" and it backfired when something was posted about WWII battle of Midway hero George Gay (wiki page here).

I don't mind being correct, I do mind being politically correct (your politically correct, or mine? Just asking????)
 
Just an update. I have received word that the listing is active again. This was the fastest turn around for them on these types of issues. So annoying to have to deal with this from time to time. Odd that this specific image has been tagged with similar issues on more than one occasion. Other images don't draw this attention or issue.
 
Not to derail the thread but this is a good example of how insidious the whole cancel culture movement can be. Companies are now volunteering to censor themselves in ridiculous ways and are firing people for innocent comments on social media and the like just because they're afraid that if they don't they'll be targeted by a vengeful minority. Censorship on many college campuses is really scary and many of the students probably think it's OK and it's also OK to attack those with whom you disagree, even physically. Violence and destruction of property are seen as valid forms of expression and protest. As I've said before, it's way beyond removing a few statues or re-naming a few buildings.
Your comment is way off base. This has zero to do with censoring and everything to do with copyright. Two completely different things. I'm not saying self censorship doesn't happen. It certainly does. But that has nothing to do with ebay trying to avoid violating copyright law.
 
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