[waynester]

a site i visit to look at wallys recently received a take down notice from toyota
i did not agree and wrote them expressing my opinion
here are the letters

Thank you for contacting Toyota with your comments and concerns regarding the use of vehicle images. The letter asking the DesktopNexus site to remove all images featuring a Toyota, Scion or Lexus vehicle was the result of miscommunication at Toyota, which we regret.

Copyright law protects the creative work product of artists, photographers, and other creators. Toyota respects these rights, including those of photographers who work with Toyota. Toyota purchases the rights to the images it posts on its sites, and welcomes public use of those images where we have the rights to give. However, this permission is limited to editorial or personal use, not commercial use, such as advertising any products or services. That’s because the photographers - not Toyota - retain the rights to any commercial use, and we cannot give permission to use those images for that purpose. In response the concerns raised by DesktopNexus, Toyota is working with photographers to determine what images may be used for noncommercial purposes, and what we can do to provide broader access. We hope you will understand and appreciate the legal constraints we face.

Toyota also welcomes interested members of the public to use their own images or photography of Toyota’s vehicles, and we confirm that we have no objection to this use.

We appreciate your interest in our products.

Toyota Customer Experience
Customer (wayne ster) 11/16/2008 11:23 AM
this has made news on several websites.
toyota has demanded certain sites to take all toyota images down.
clear cut violations should be specified and addressed.
besides the loss of free advertisement, this reflects badly on toyota as a company.
in my family there are 3 toyota's
they were chosen by reliability records and company reputation.
my opinion was sought in the purchase of these vehicles.
now with reliability being essentially equal, the company reputation
carries more weight in decision.
the weight of this on future vehicle purchase depends on if this is to be the new policy of toyota.
the impression is that toyota is moving away from the "common man"
thank you
wayne

congrats to toyota for being "stand up" and doing the right thing , imho

and do remember that while you do not always get the answer you want , dont always leave it up to someone else to write email, it could be a prob that they are unaware of