I'd created it using an image of HMS Edinburgh, which I'd taken in Lyme Regis last year. Zazzle wrote to say that the UK Secretary of State for Defence had a problem with that. They alone held the copyright for such things.
I wasn't having a good day at the time, so took exception to this. I complained to the Ministry of Defence about their complaint, ccing my own MP along the way.
I've finally received a response. I did have a kind of holding e-mail before, from my MP, telling me that it was all being looked into. But then a three page letter appeared on my doorstep. It was the correspondence between my MP and Philip Dunne, the Secretary of State for Defence.
The latter denied ever telling Zazzle to remove my product. He did say that his department had stepped in before, when other people's products reproduced the MoD's trademarks. But on this occasion, no laws had been broken and no action was required. I was free to take as many pictures of HMS Edinburgh as I wanted, and shove them on all the products I could create.
I've just let Zazzle know, having scanned in and attached all three pages of the letter. You have to feel sorry for that poor company. They were obviously just trying to cover their backs, after my government had slapped them before, but ended up caught between me on a bad day and the MoD again.
Let's see how that one pans out then.
But while we're on the subject of Zazzle, let me take this moment to big up one of my latest ventures. I've created a website to cover my Beautiful Britain store. I'd be really thrilled, if you'd take a look.
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