Posted on 10/03/2008 7:13:06 PM PDT by RightFighter
I need some help, Freepers. I have been selling quite a bit of Sarah Palin-inspired merchandise through Cafepress since she was announced as John McCain's running mate. I am fully aware that there are people who do not feel the same way that we do about Sarah Palin, and I have no issue with anti-Palin merchandise being sold through Cafepress. That's a free exchange of ideas and opinions.
However, today, I was looking through the Cafepress marketplace, and I started to notice some of the vicious anti-Palin stuff that's out there. I will not print the whole quote, but there are quite a few designs that say "Sarah Palin is a _ _ _ _" (the "c" word). I guess if Cafepress allows someone to print these designs, that's one thing, but these show up in the listings of the "most relevant" when you're searching for Sarah Palin merchandise.
Take a look at the Cafepress Questionable Material and Prohibited Content Guidelines:
General Guidelines for Prohibited Content
Content that may infringe on the rights of a third a party.
Items that make inappropriate use of Nazi symbols and glamorize the actions of Hitler.
Use of marks that signify hate towards another group of people.
Hate and/or racist terms.
Inappropriate content or nudity that is not artistic in nature.
Content that exploits images or the likeness of minors.
Obscene and vulgar comments and offensive remarks that harass, threaten, defame or abuse others such as F*** (Ethnic Group).
Content that depicts violence, is obscene, abusive, fraudulent or threatening such as an image of a murder victim, morgue shots, promotion of suicide, etc.
Content that glamorize the use of "hard core" illegal substance and drugs such as a person injecting a vial of a substance in their body.
Material that is generally offensive or in bad taste, as determined by CafePress.com.
The list outlined above should NOT be construed as an exhaustive list of offensive material but rather as a general guideline for you to follow.
CafePress.com will determine, in its sole and absolute discretion, whether your content is in compliance with the guidelines outlined on this page and the CafePress.com Content Usage Policy (CUP). Any content that is determined to be in the Gray Zone may be subject to removal, in accordance with CUP, the CafePress.com Terms of Service and Shopkeeper Agreement.
I wrote the following email to the Cafepress customer service team today:
Question:
I sent one email about a particular design, but in looking through the first 10-12 pages of "relevant" items for the Sarah Palin topic, I saw the following items that should ALL be pulled from the marketplace:
30150354
30479106
30472174
30483575
30483314
30207183
30211144
30174895
30173049
Please take your image guidelines seriously and pull these highly offensive items from the marketplace so that people shopping for legitimate Sarah Palin merchandise (positive or negative) don't have to see this filth in their search.
Here is the response that I received this evening:
Thank you for contacting CafePress.com! As you may know, CafePress.com provides an automated service to a rich and vibrant community of individuals across the globe who differ in their views about what is considered offensive. All product images and ideas used in connection with the CafePress.com Service have been provided to CafePress.com by users and do not reflect the opinions of CafePress.com. While we don't endorse any particular position, we respect the right of individuals to express their own opinions. Thank you for bringing this content to our attention.
Your ticket code is LTK419026864119X. Please use this code in any further communication.
Best Regards,
Margene H.
Content Usage Associate
(650) 655-3104 (O)
(650) 240-0260 (F)
www.cafepress.com
I've written a pretty strongly worded reply to the email I received from Margene, but I'm asking for Freeper help to join the effort to eliminate these types of obscene, vulgar, offensive designs from Cafepress. I don't care what candidate the design attacks - this type of design shouldn't be allowed. A racist would not, I would think, be allowed to print a design saying "Barack Obama is a _ _ _ _ _ _" (the "n" word). Why should this Sarah Palin attack be any different?
Please help.
Will you post a link to your CafePress shop here please?
If your example about an Obama t-shirt is racist, then I can assure you the Palin shirts are sexist.
“there are many here on Freerepublic who have spent a lot of money on Cafepress”
That’s true. And any website that sells merchandise featuring Milton Friedman, F.A. Hayke, Murray Rothbard, and Ludwig von Mises is fine with me.
What can you do? We live in a vulgar age.
Whoops, I meant to say F.A. Hayek.
These are indeed disgusting. What was Cafeprees response to your complaint?
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of interest.
Obama Says A Baby Is A Punishment
Obama: “If they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”
There are big battles to be fought. This isn’t one of them. Good luck with your sales, but you obviously knew what CafePress was all about when you started.
Worry about getting recalcitrant conservatives out to vote. That’s what matters.
Their response is in my original post.
In my original post, where it says “Go Palin Go”, that’s a link to my store.
I certainly did not know when I started that Cafepress would allow such vulgar material. Their own guidelines state that such material is prohibited.
Thanks. I will check it out.
I am sure those wearing those T shirts etc will do wonders for getting the undecided to vote for Obama
Here’s my response to their response (I used the actual word in my emails with them, not the c-—):
Margene,
Reading your response to my email, it would seem as if there are NO guidelines as to what is and is not appropriate. However, I note that you do have guidelines.
Your “General Guidelines for Prohibited Content” lists the following types of content that can be removed:
Inappropriate content or nudity that is not artistic in nature.
Obscene and vulgar comments and offensive remarks that harass, threaten, defame or abuse others such as F*** (Ethnic Group).
Content that depicts violence, is obscene, abusive, fraudulent or threatening such as an image of a murder victim, morgue shots, promotion of suicide, etc.
Material that is generally offensive or in bad taste, as determined by CafePress.com.
The list outlined above should NOT be construed as an exhaustive list of offensive material but rather as a general guideline for you to follow.
I would ask you, Margene, how it can be that a design that says “Sarah Palin is a c-—” can POSSIBLY pass even one of the tests above, much less all of them?
Certainly, the use of the word “c-—” is “inappropriate”.
The word “c-—” is both “vulgar” and “offensive”.
The phrase “Sarah Palin is a c-—” is “obscene” and “abusive”.
The use of the word “c-—” and the phrase “Sarah Palin is a c-—” is “generally offensive or in bad taste”.
Please tell me, Margene, how it can be even remotely possible that these designs do not qualify as Prohibited Content?
TF
GoPalinGo
oops
Nice. I wonder what their response to my note to them will be.
Why do the have an obscene policy if it varies around the world from individual to individual what is considered obscene as stated in the letter sent to you? If the c word is okay, why not the n word? Some people don’t consider that to be obscene?
Maybe you should print up a shirt that states Margene of Cafe Press is a c___. You know one man’s obscenity, is another man’s freedom of expression.
I hate to stoop to their level.
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