Guinness World Records v. FAIL Blog [1]

Guinness World Records Limited (GWR) sent a cease-and-desist email [2] to FAIL Blog [3] after it published a posting called "Record Breaking Fail [4]," which showed a screenshot from the Guinness World Records website [5] for the entry "most individuals killed in a terrorist attack."  The "fail" captured by the screenshot was a link on the page -- apparently part of the site's template -- encouraging readers to "break this record." The email claimed that FAIL Blog's posting infringed GWR's trademark rights because its "star and pedestal" logo appeared in the screenshot.

FAIL Blog took down the original screenshot came down and replaced it [2] with a slightly altered version with the GWR logo fuzzed out, a copy of GWR's C&D, and a comic yet biting response [2] warning GWR that "douchebaggy cyber-bullying emails will only bring upon you more shame on your house." The FAIL Blog response elaborated:

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.

Techdirt reports [6] that it has removed the original world record page from its site.