I love the Times but this is a bit silly. I'm sorry to hear about the tagline. But, like you said, take it as a compliment. You have many, many fans and readers and this tiny pebble on this delicious road will only bring more attention to your site. Cheers to you!

So sorry to hear that. Did they take this opportunity to thank you for the great exposure and link love you've given them over the years?

Also, will you be taking reader submissions for a new slogan? :)

Oh Josh, that stinks. Don't you write for the Times T magazine? Not that that matters to their crackerjack legal staff, I'm sure... How ridiculous.

I love the TIMES, but someone there has just a little bit TOO much of it on their hands. Love your site, great attitude, go forth and create!

blech on you, new york times.

i have a food blog called thursday night smackdown, and i continue to be surprised that the wrestling people haven't tried to come after me. because they are musclebound and humorless. i'd think the times would have a better sense of wit.

Wow, talk about picking on the little guy. I do agree that it's nice that they are paying attention to you, but sheesh!

I'm sorry you were picked-on by the mean old lawyers.

How about a subheading/tagline contest for your readers? I'd be happy to contribute a brand new copy of Bruce Aidells's Complete Book of Pork as a prize for your winner. :)

I say congrats! You're important enough to get noticed by the NY Times :)

Maybe the Times might prefer things if you changed your slogan to "All the Food That's Fit to Charge Too Much For."
That would fit in with their current food section mantra.

I read the NY Times and I say fuhgedaboudit. NY Times has its own financial difficulties to the extent that I doubt they can afford to go after you - especially since you did such a good job researching your defense!

"All the news that fits, we print." Oldest joke in the world. I believe Walt Kelly used it on the cover of a Pogo comic book. Don't think he was sued either . . .

Have you seen the Times financial situation lately? Hold off for a few a year or so and you can put it back up without worrying about it, as there won't be anyone at the NYT left to sue you.

Change it to all the food that's fit to eat - which makes more sense anyway...

You're in good company if that's any comfort. In the 1980s, the Times went after a computer game company called Infocom, which published a fan newsletter called The New Zork Times, Zork being the name of its flagship game. NYT actually sued over that one as if anyone would be confused....More at the URL below.

http://www.resonant.org/games/infocom/Infocom_Homepage/Articles/NZT/nyt.html

As Dave said, the Times & other newspapers are going through rough times. I think they've decided to wage war on online mediums including blogs who are growing in popularity. Just look at the silly shenanigans the AP is up to with regards to Google & bloggers.

The good news is that you probably showed up on the NYT's radar because your readership is growing & they're afraid at some point you'll be a real threat. So in that regard, congratulations!

Wishing you continued success!

wickedmess

Amazing, isn't it, that an enterprise so dependent upon freedom of expression can be so disrespectful of the principle where others are concerned? I understand your desire not to risk a fight, believe me, but I highly doubt they would actually press such an idiotic claim. It's lawyering by threat, and as a lawyer myself, it makes me puke when my colleagues besmirch the profession in this manner.

Geez - even Rolling Stone stole the tagline back in the '60s with their 'All the News That Fits'.

The Grey Lady gets a Black Eye for this.

are they saying Your parody is Their intellectual property? sheesh. I'm no laywer but have a feeling you would NOT lose this "case" if it ever actually went anywhere. I am not trying to push you to fight; just guessing they assumed you would not, that they could easily scare you into backing down. so sorry to hear about it.

It's funny that they think that you're not allowed to use a variation of their tagline ... but you are allowed to use an opinion of them as your tagline. So just change it to "The NYTimes is a bunch of poopyheads who won't let me say that my news is fit to eat."

Well, paper is so yesterday's news.

My dog once had a rubber squeeze toy in the shape of a newspaper. It had the printed words "All the News That's Fit to Chew." The NY Times hasn't been the same ever since.

Yes, well, you're also copying their section headings, fonts and design, besides just the slogan. Indeed, if I said "You tried as hard as possible to make your blog resemble a section of the NY Times newspaper", that would be no less than the truth, would it not?

So it's hard to have any real sympathy for you. You were trying to attract their attention, and you succeeded. Congratulations.

I recognize that this seems like overkill (and it probably is). But trademarks have to be policed and defended or they can be lost (or at least diminished in scope and value). Because the NYT's trademark is famous and therefore can be diluted by use of similar or parodic marks in non-competing fields (as opposed to "infringed", which would require some hint at likely consumer confusion), they kinda have to police the mark. It's an almost automatic function at most large companies -- you just got caught in the crosshairs this time around.

Not that any of that is much consolation, but it's almost certain that it wasn't personal. Someone else will get the cease and desist (which we in the trade call "nastygrams") next time.

Yeah, how could they do such a thing to someone who designed their page to look exactly like the New York Times! With nothing obvious to indicate it isn't the Times? Let's see some more hard-hitting google journalism on that.

Ech... that really sucks. I have to say this reminds me the milk commission (or whatever they're called) going after this woman's site promoting breast feeding... she'd created t-shirts with slogans on it that said, I believe "Got (breast)milk?" possibly with boobies on it... and I think she had other t shirts that parodied pork being the other white meat? I forget exactly, but she was really mad - but then she was kind of making a profit off the slogans... so it's slightly different. I realize you run ads on here but... I don't know.

PS Seth Green is a total expert on parody laws... you should talk to him. I bet he'd have a solid defense for you.