At Arsenal
In an ideal world, I’d be able to do what I want. This page for example, would be the month-by-month diary of Aliaksandr Hleb. However, as I am a full-time student with a (somewhat mildly) active social life, I simply don’t have the time or money to watch the performances of Hleb on a weekly basis, or then create a diary.
On the other hand, Arsenal FC are one of the largest, and probably richest clubs in the world. It wouldn’t surprise me if they employed someone for the sole purpose of writing these month-by-month blogs on their website. Now, here on Owned by Hleb, that diary feature would be a fantastic feature, but I doubt we’re allowed to use it.
In fact, I think we’d be in some serious trouble if we attempted to use it, despite the massive accreditations to Arsenal which we used to display.
Below I have details of the email contact with Arsenal regarding our website.
From: OwnedbyHleb
Sent: 13 September 2007 11:14
To: Arsenal FC General email
Cc: arsenal@videoloungetv.com; Marketing; Communications; website
Subject: RE: Aliaksandr Hleb
Dear Arsenal.
I am wondering if you would be able to help me with a couple of issues.
I am one half of the OwnedbyHleb team, meaning that I help run http://www.ownedbyhleb.co.nr on a day-to-day basis. However, as we gain more recognition, we are becoming moe concerned about potentially breaking any copyright, particularly that of Arsenal. We operate a non-profit website, and are 100% willing to accredit you if you feel it is necessary. If you do believe we are breaking copyright, we would ask that you inform us on how to amend this, and we will do so immediately. If for some unknown reason, you do not wish our simple website to continue at all, then we will take it down on request. If you do not reply to this email, I shall simply assume that we have permission to continue as is.
Secondly, as you may have gathered, we are big fans of Aliaksandr Hleb, and would like to know if you could provide us with a contact email or postal address, either direct, or through yourselves. This is regarding the T-Shirt range we are attempting to produce, and need his permission to use his image. We would appreciate a swift response.
Thank you for reading this email, and I would wish for a reply sooner rather than later.
Tom.
OwnedbyHleb Team.
Fairly straightforward yes? I mean, I had to send it to quite a lot of departments at Arsenal simply because they have so many email addresses, but the message should be clear to them.
Now, reading their reply, bear in mind that at no point on our website did we claim the work of someone else was our own. The video files were simply those which you find on Youtube, and the only possible images that weren’t covered in accreditations were Arsenal logos displayed in the banner.
From: Communications <communications@arsenal.co.uk>
To: OwnedbyHleb
Cc: legal <legal@arsenal.co.uk>
Sent: Monday, 17 September, 2007 10:14:45 AM
Subject: FW: Aliaksandr Hleb
Dear Mr *****,
Thank you for sending us the details of your www.ownedbyhleb.co.nr website. We are afraid to say that we are unable to allow you to continue to maintain it in its current form due to the fact that it uses copyrighted photos and video without the permission of Arsenal Football Club Plc. (“Arsenal”)
Additionally, your website also displays registered trademarks of Arsenal without permission or authorization which you now seek. Your actions described above infringe Arsenal’s rights in numerous ways, including but not limited to copyright infringement in violation of UK Copyright and Trademark law.
Therefore, we request that you cease and desist from any further unauthorized use of any of our copyrights and trademarks and provide us with a written assurance within thirty days of this letter that you will no longer use them.
We realize that this will be disappointing to you. However, our decision is final in this matter.
Yours sincerely,
Katie Baldwin
Arsenal Football Club
Walked into a minefield of redtape there ‘eh? And a final decision? Does that mean we can’t appeal? Thats much unlike a football club which appeals every single decision that goes against it at the Emirates.
And offending videos? I doubt very much that she watched them, because if you do, you simply have to tell someone how amazing they are.
And as for a written assurance? We decided they’d have to make do with an email. Stamps are expensive these days. Oh, and notice how our email was also sent to the legal team? Nothing more than a scare tactic, they never contacted us, nor probably even read it. They’ll have much more important things to do than worry about a non-profit website. Paying off the £300m worth of debt for a start.
Well, we wouldn’t leave it as that. We quickly took the site offline (you don’t fuel a fire when its got a legal team), and responded.
From: OwnedbyHleb
To: Communications <communications@arsenal.co.uk>
Sent: Monday, 17 September, 2007 1:24:53 PM
Subject: Re: Aliaksandr Hleb
Dear Miss Baldwin,
I understand the situation you are in regarding our site, and are happy to co-operate fully. We will take our website offline until we can negotiate a new site which agrees with your requests.
Ideally, we would like to ask your permission to allow us to continue using our current site. I will again make the point that we are a non-profit website, and are not claiming any of your images to be our own work, we are simply trying to produce a suitable tribute to Arsenal playmaker; Aliaksandr Hleb.
However, we are willing to make changes, and will either gladly credit Arsenal via a link or text link, or remove some of the offending images. I am sure you will agree it would be a great shame to have to close our site completely, so we will happily look to find an agreement.
I would appreciate it if you could clarify which images are breaking copyright if possible. We are very happy to remove images which break copyright, but we will need to ask for your help in identifying these images.
Thank you for your reply.
Tom
OwnedbyHleb Team
But did Arsenal care? Not in the slightest. They wouldn’t clarify, they wouldn’t even dignify us with a reply. We wanted to move on as quickly as possible, and so gave them a whole working week before deciding that consistent pestering might work.
Added to the fact that the site was now offline didn’t improve our mood. We were losing the race to dominance against the official Hleb site (which is rubbish by the way), which was also undergoing an overhaul at the time.
From: OwnedbyHleb
To: Communications <communications@arsenal.co.uk>
Sent: Friday, 21 September, 2007 9:05:11 PM
Subject: Re: Aliaksandr Hleb
Dear Miss Baldwin
Since our last email, we have moved our site on, and are now back up and running at www.ownedbyhleb.co.nr
Since you didn’t reply, we have had to hazard a guess at exactly which images broke copyright law, and have removed them accordingly.
There is now a minimal reference to Arsenal on our website.
However, I would like to ask a question.
On www.arsenal.com, you include player profiles, and among these, an individual diary for each player. Would we be able to incorporate this into our site provided you are fully acknowledged?
I hope to hear from you soon
Regards
Tom
OwnedbyHleb Team
Stick it back online, that should provoke a response. Or so we thought. Almost three weeks past before we decided to have another go.
Indeed, lets use their own tricks against them. They tried the scare tactic, we’ll try the same. A word of advice, if you ever want a reply, put in somewhere that if you don’t receive a reply, you’ll be forced to assume that you are right. Works every time.
From: OwnedbyHleb
Sent: 12 October 2007 16:56
To: Communications
Subject: Fw: Aliaksandr Hleb
Three weeks on from the time we sent this email and no reply has led us to assume that our site is now legit.
Since the only way we have ever managed to trigger a response from anyone at Arsenal was to say that if you do not reply to this email, we shall assume that we your have permission to continue as is, we will again make that point. If you do not reply to us, our website will not change.
Again though, I still have unanswered questions, and I would appreciate it if you could either help, or tell me who to contact.
Firstly, on www.arsenal.com, you include player profiles, and among these, an individual diary for each player. Would we be able to incorporate this into our site provided you are fully acknowledged?
Second, would we be allowed to use the Arsenal badge on our site?
And finally, could you provide us with either an email or postal address by which mail could reach Aliaksandr Hleb?
Regards.
Tom
OwnedbyHleb Team
As I said, works every time. A reply arrived within 10 minutes.
From: Communications <communications@arsenal.co.uk>
To: OwnedbyHleb
Sent: Friday, 12 October, 2007 5:05:33 PM
Subject: RE: Aliaksandr Hleb
Dear Tom,
I forwarded your original email onto our commercial department as rights issues are dealt with by them.
Therefore in relation to your questions about using our sites content and logos, that will also need to be addressed to the commercial department but I am assuming you would have to sign a copy right form or credit our website if you were granted permission to use the content. Please resend your queries to marketing@arsenal.co.uk
In terms of reaching Alex can I ask why you would like to speak to him?
Kind Regards,
Claire Harrison
Communications Department
Arsenal Football Club
She obviously didn’t read all our correspondence then. Remember the first email? I’m fairly sure I stated quite clearly why I wanted to contact him regarding a T-shirt range (still currently shelved until all legal and rights issues are cleared). But anyway, at least someone was taking a human, ‘non-red-tape’ look at the whole thing.
And so, since our email had apparently been forwarded to the commercial department, I thought I would leave the T-Shirt talk until then. It was all to do with personal rights that was stopping us unveiling our (fantastic) new T-shirt range.
So, never mind, lets play the role of a ‘Hlebite’ - a true Hleb fan.
From: OwnedbyHleb
Sent: 12 October 2007 19:18
To: Communications
Subject: Re: Aliaksandr Hleb
We only wish to speak to Alex to let him know that we are big fans of his, and maybe to ask for an autograph. And let him know we have a website for him =)
Tom
OwnedbyHleb Team
Now remember what she’s been ending her emails with - ‘Claire Harrison, Communications Department, Arsenal Football Club‘. So imagine my surprise when she replied with this:
From: Communications <communications@arsenal.co.uk>
To: OwnedbyHleb
Sent: Tuesday, 16 October, 2007 1:05:01 PM
Subject: RE: Aliaksandr Hleb
Dear Tom,
We would not disclose his details for this reason, this would be communicated via the Club.
Kind Regards,
Claire Harrison
Communications Department
Arsenal Football Club
And she is STILL perpetrating as a part of Arsenal Football Club! Surely if anyone could help me with contacting Aliaksandr, the COMMUNICATIONS department of Arsenal could? I fear for their infrastructure if the communications department can’t communicate communication details to me.
The legal team, who were briefly involved, have never contacted us. The commercial department are yet to contact me. Alex is (as far as I know) yet to see our website. I have no idea what happened to Katie Baldwin, or the woman posing as an employee at Arsenal Football Club; Claire Harrison.
Oh, and just to try to cover myself a little more… You see, the legality obsessed Arsenal have terms and conditions on their emails.
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please contact the Club’s IT Department immediately.
Any opinions expressed in this email are those of the individual and not necessarily those of Arsenal Football Club PLC.
Although Arsenal FC has taken reasonable precautions to ensure no viruses are present in this email, we cannot accept responsibility for any loss or damage arising from the use of this email or attachments.
Arsenal Football Club PLC
Registered in England and Wales. Registration No 109244
Registered Office: Highbury House, 75 Drayton Park, London N5 1BU
Well, since they are for the sole use of me, I choose to distribute them. They don’t specify what I can and can’t do with their emails, so I shall jump through this loophole with my hands held high. But remember, any opinions expressed in this email might not be the views of Arsenal… but coming from the communications department, I would have hoped they had.
But lets get back at them.
This post is solely for the purpose of the OwnedbyHleb Team, but owing to the fact that we operate a very transparent business, it may become available on the world wide web. If you have not enjoyed reading this, then please send an email of complaint to communications@arsenal.co.uk or send a letter to Highbury House, 75 Drayton Park, London N5 1BU
The contents of this post are in no way representative of anyone at OwnedbyHleb. Indeed, we just pressed random keys for half an hour until something came up.
We are not necessarily referring to Arsenal Football Club of the UK. Remember, Arsenal Kiev (Ukraine), Arsenal de Sarandi (Argentina), Arsenal Club (Guadeloupe) and Detroit Arsenal (USA) are all real clubs.
I hate legal issues.
