jasper

My 2 cents - These guys are either 1) obviously taking advantage of the Porsche Club Of America's goodwill. 2) genuinely stupid enough to think what they are doing is legitimate. Either way - toss 'em...feakin' *** clowns!.

THAT SAID....where I come from PCA is the Portland Cement Association, which was founded in 1916, some 30 years before Porsche GMBH and some 40 years before the Porsche Club of America began.

The PCA is one of the most active industry advocacy groups in existence today. Very important group, working for almost a hundred years under the PCA designation.

Interestingly, the Porsche Club of America was first to register the domain name... The *real* PCA was stuck with this domain:

http://www.cement.org/pca/

If I get some time I might go rattle the PCA forums guys as well - dinks.

Phil G.

Here's their response to my comment:

________________________________________________________________________ ____________

Hey Phil,

No one is forcing anyone to become a member here, the owners of this website are not the Porsche Club of America or Porsche AG, Porsche North America that is why the disclaimer is there. Check any forum that is based around a car company or any company for that matter, including Rennlist.

You are acting like we are making a forum for all the wrong reasons, when in fact we are providing a gathering for friends that share the same intrests. We are giving away items to our members, I myself go to DE's and Races and take photos for our members for free.

I am sorry that you are having confusing on our name, but PCAForums is not Porsche Club of America. Regardless of what you think, it is not our attention to "trick" anyone into thinking we are associated with the Porsche Club of America, hence the disclaimer and the "People Cars Activities"
I hope you can see past your misunderstanding and enjoy our community, if not stay where you are.

Happy New Year

________________________________________________________________________ ___________

It's not their intention to "trick" folks into connecting their name with Porsche Club of America? My misunderstanding? Yeah, mine and virtually everyone else's who signed up for their forum!! I was going to suggest that these guys just don't get it. But, it's clear that they get it completely.

smankow

have any of you actually researched the definitions of cybersquatting and intellectual property? For that matter, how about copyrighting?

Last time I checked, the Porsche Club of America does not have exclusive rights to PCA. If they were so interested in cybersquatting, why haven't they shut down PCA Electronics, Inc. BTW, their web address is www.pca.com. Is there a thread here about Porsche going after them? Or as Jasper mentioned the Portland Cement Association?

It doesn't take a genius to look at their homepage to realize that there is absolutely no affiliation with the Porsche Club of America. Do you see any Porsche logos or anything else that designates the Porsche Club of America besides their web address? The answer is no.


Steve

Phil G.

Steve, you may be correct here that there is no legal violation. There can be no debate that their use of "PCA" is at the very least, deceiving. I can tell you that the real PCA is taking a serious look at their site. But, from the responses I've received to my relatively tame posts, the moderators are at best, insulting. And, that's enough to keep me, and potentially others, from becoming users of that board.

smankow

Phil, put yourself into their shoes for a second. You start a forum and you're attracting new members. Then, these members begin a process of inflamatory posts, threatening posts, slandering your site, etc. Wouldn't you go into a defensive mode?

Is their use of PCA deceiving? It may be. But, is it illegal? How many of you sent emails to the Porsche Club of America siting their use of PCA? and the "real" PCA? If there is no legal violation, what can they do?

Frankly, if I was in their shoes, I'd be viewing this thread and taking notes.

Riad

There's currently 124 members, Rennlist has 58,291.

Phil G.

Steve, if there is no legal violation, fine! Let them "take notes" if they wish. After reading over the posts both on their board and Rennlist, none constitutes slander. Anyone is allowed to start a business - we're just reacting to what we perceive as deceit on their part. It will be interesting to see what PCA's response is - it may all be behind the scenes, so we may not see it publicly.

smankow

so, I guess we can just forget about the posts to see how long it takes to get banned, let's try this screen name to see if it's allowed, etc. or were these posts deleted?

personally, I don't think that the Porsche Club of America will do anything. They may watch the site a bit, but that's about it.

I think that there was an extreme overreaction by a few that incited others to also act quite unprofessionally. And why - because they used pca in their name? BFD

NCporsche

My first post....

NC checking in. Found site through Rennlist.com

NC could be checking out. Also found through Rennlist that this is NOT affiliated with the Porsche Club of America.

Hmmm, wonder what the over / under is on the lifespan of this site. The buzzards are starting to circle.

And their reply....

Welcome to the Site, and we are feeling pretty healthy at the moment...they say we live longer these days.

Phil G.

Steve, it's not a huge deal, it's just deceitful, IMO. But, to say we acted "unprofessionally," just read the replies of their webmaster - I've posted one above. Now, THAT'S unprofessional. Enough said.

Riad

I totally agree. Using the name PCA was not by accident. When I first went to the site I certainly thought it was Porsche Club forum.

Tippy

We need a Lawyer to give their .02.

There is,(to me) clear intent to benefit from adopting the acronym that is(legally) wrong. I am with you guys, I read cases that were less blatently obvious in connection than this situation and the Plaintiffs won copyright infringement.

hwk72

I agree with Phil! It's a different story if you call a flower shop in Thailand PCA than calling a sports car discussion forum in the US PCA. It's the same intent as if I call a Ford dealership "Ferrari Cars of New York" and then say:"Ah it's in honor of my grandmother as her maiden name was Ferrari."

Rolla

+1

Holger B

Why isn't it "Cars, People, Activity"? Simple, none of us would have gone there to check it out.

Also, what does "a community within a community" imply?

I'm not going to get all worked up about it, since the site will die on its own soon enough. They'll fool a few people for a little while, but not enough to gain any real traction. And they're probably dumb enough to believe that any publicity is good publicity.