White Radish news

I'm currently in the process of creating a line of Pink Lemonade-related merchandise (but not t-shirts or mugs). However, Cafe Press is currently giving me a hard time over the designs that I've uploaded, i.e., they don't believe the art is mine. They were very quick about taking down the items that I designed, and they are now being very slow about addressing the issue. My major problem with this is that their e-mail stated that they took them down because they "may be copyright/trademark protected and require a license prior to the use for merchandise sales." Well, that's true. They are protected. Under my name. I'm the one that controls the copyright, but they're acting in my stead in enforcing it. That, I did not authorise. Actually, I've had this problem before, several times. Kinko's, for instance, has made me sign extra documents when I've made copies of my art books or companions, or in one bizarre case, I had to make an official White Radish permission slip, signed by me, giving myself permission to copy my own work! Similarly, when I sent off the DVD to the replication house, it was delayed by them sending me an additional form to sign to attest that it was mine to duplicate. I'm all for copyright protection, but I had already signed their initial forms that said the same thing! That's the same case with Cafe Press. In signing up, I agreed to their terms and conditions, and with every single image I upload, I have to check a little box that attests that I own the artwork and that it's not infringing on anything. If they're going to require additional proof after the fact, and disable my shops in the meantime, why do I have to check that stupid little box in the first place? What's more, they did this on Saturday, so I can't call them and get some immediate answers, because they're not open on the weekends. I wonder if it's going to be down all weekend. I will be very displeased.