TheBBPS removes blog about "Your Mom's Rated E for Everyone" shirt. Here's why

Written by Dan Zuccarelli

Thursday, 09 November 2006 16:22

[Gamepolitics.com has picked up the story and has a pretty decent breakdown of the events. Check it out for continued coverage]

A story broke on Kotaku about the ESA getting pissed about a blog posting about a tshirt on the website TShirtHell.com that has the classic 'E' rating and the phrase, "Your Mom's Rated 'E' for Everyone". They're demanding they take it down.

I blogged about it and then it was picked up by a few sites, again Kotaku and Destructoid being the big ones. Yesterday I received the same Cease & Desist letter from the ESA and I decided that I would just remove the post. I called to raise some rabbles, but in the end pulled it down. Why would I do that?

Because I am just 1 person running a game blog, typing in postings in between jobs at work. I do it cause I love it. And while I do get help from my friends with it, I'm pretty much riding solo and without a net. I've made about $60 in ad revenue (credited in gift certificates) So I'm not exactly in it for the money.
While I'm quite certain it's protected speech, I don't have the capacity or care to fight it. The post was over a month old and had run it's course.

Now that Kotaku has gotten the same letter I'm hoping like hell they fight it, since parent company Gawker certainly has a lawyer or two on staff.

So yes, I took it down, even though I had every right not to. But while conflicted about it, I think I made the right call considering the circumstances. An lawyers out there want to give out free legal advice and help me out? This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

A few comments on the other sites also mention that I was a seller or the shirt, which is not true. I just blogged it.

Comments (15) Add Comment

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written by Will, November 10, 2006

Wuss. You should have just ingored it, covered your ears and sang "LALALALALA, IIIII CAN'T HEAR YOU ANY MOREEEEEE" and waited for them to deal with it.

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written by greshkov, November 10, 2006

dude, you have to do what you have to do. no one is going to fault you. you broke a story, be happy it ran its course before you were asked to remove it. and with that sixty bucks, you're half way toward this thing paying for itself!

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written by brandan, November 10, 2006

uhh, nobody gives a shit about who 'blogged' this stupid shirt first, and i think the point he was making at destructoid was that he posted about it before kotaku. you're totally gay and your website sucks.

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written by danzuke (NetPhantom), November 10, 2006

oh shit! you're onto me...

thanks for reading!

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written by Kat, November 10, 2006

Brandan, if this site sucks then why are you here? Get lost.

Will - you got the money for a lawyer for BBPS?

Everyone else - I e-mailed T-Shirt Hell to see if the ESA is going after them too, since they're the ones who made the shirt. I'll let you know if I get a reply, if you like. T-Shirt Hell has stood up to a poisoning attempt (yes, an attempt on the webmaster's life) so I really doubt the ESA will faze him.

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written by Harpua Scorpio, November 10, 2006

C'mon now everyone, this was our first C& smilies/grin.gif

letter. Maybe next time we'll band together with the other bloggers and form a free kick blocking line and we'll all stand their cupping our balls in our hands.

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written by bain, November 10, 2006

send me the content of your blog .. I'll post it ;P

They can waste their money on sue'ing me in South Africa. fuckers.

bain

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written by jimmycanuck, November 10, 2006

you got an apology from destructoid! congrats!

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written by Tollwutig, November 10, 2006

Sucks you had to pull it down, man but understand.

Entertainment Software Association

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written by From the Land of “What t, November 10, 2006

[...] You can read a more detailed explanation here and here. [...]

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written by Jade Reporting » Blog Ar, November 10, 2006

[...] TheBBPS removes blog about “Your Mom’s Rated E for Everyone” shirt. Here’s why ESA Threatens Kotaku over “Yo Momma” T-Shirt [digg] ESA Threatens Kotaku ESA threatens Kotaku over t-shirt post; Dtoid legal team on standby [...]

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written by This t-shirt is rate “N&, November 12, 2006

[...] The people over at kotaku.com (and other places) found this [picture to the right] at T-Shirt Hell and made a post about it. Apparently the ESA did not find it funny at all, because they send them a Cease and Desist-letter. [...]

[...] Source [...]

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written by ESRB Sues Kotaku over Link to , November 14, 2006

[...] [Update:] TheBBPS, a one man blog, apparently also received a cease and desist order from the ESRB for a similar blog post and took down the post. Destructoid, still another gaming blog, has seemingly decided to keep its post on the t-shirt up despite also receiving an ESRB cease and desist letter. Sources: Kotaku | GamePolitics.com | Davis & Company | MMORPG Blog [...]

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written by bits bytes pixels & sprite, November 22, 2006

[...] Call it a moral victory for the little guy! After receiving a C & D letter from the ESA about the “Your Mom is Rated E for Everyone shirt” posting on my site, I took down the content. It’s a long story and you can read all the info about it here. [...]