Down with Shutterfly

A friend of mine is very involved with an online Moms with Small Businesses community. One of the ladies in her community owns this business, www.skutterfly.com, a sort of boutique for "alternative" kids' clothing. In the past couple of days, she received this message from Shutterfly.com, the online photo center:

It has come to our attention that you have registered the following domain name(s):skutterfly.comShutterfly name and designs are well known in the online photo service community. Shutterfly has expended considerable resources and time in developing consumer and industry recognition and goodwill in its SHUTTERFLY brand and design trademark, for online photographic services. It is clear that you are trying to capitalize on our very strong trademark rights in the Shutterfly Mark by using a confusingly similar domain name to divert traffic to your site. Your registration and use of this domain name infringes our client's trademark rights because it creates the likelihood of confusion, mistake or deception in that the public will be confused as to the source or sponsorship of the goods and/or services provided by you or affiliation with Shutterfly. This type of misrepresentation is specifically banned by existing federal statutes covered in the AntiCyberSquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA), which also provides for statutory damages specifically directed toward domain names which infringe or dilute existing trademarks of up to $100,000.00 per infringing domain.

We hereby demand that you immediately discontinue use of this domain name and that you assign the domain name registration to Shutterfly, Inc...by December 12, 2007.

Now, how ridiculous is that? Skutterfly could not be anymore different from Shutterfly. They sell kids' clothing, for goodness sakes, not photos. If anyone mistyped and got to Skutterfly on accident, they certainly wouldn't be tricked into buying from the wrong website, nor is there anyway that Skutterfly would be stealing business - if you're looking for photos, I doubt a onesie will satisfy your need.

I feel awful for this poor woman. She's worked so hard to build her business, and now Shutterfly wants to take it from her. And really, steal it from her - they aren't willing to compensate her for the money she's paid for the domain name or hosting. She is expected to just hand it over to them.

So I'm done with Shutterfly. I never used them much anyway, but this just seals the deal. I invite you to join me in my ban on their services.