The Poppy Selling Superthread- Merged

[kratz]

Reference: Thieves swipe Calgary poppy boxes

One of this year's obligatory news reports of poppy box thefts.

 

[opcougar]

A local legion was venting that people should NOT wear poppies with the Canadian flag on them. They reckon it's insulting and that the 2 should be separated. Another legion on the news yesterday was moaning that young Vets aren't joining the club e.g. Army - Navy club in Hamilton to keep the tradition going, and that they are not making money.

Lets be fair...a lot of these legions need modernizing, and young people don't exactly see it as Moxies, Lone Star, Jack Tuesdays, Don Cherry's, etc

Wait until the Legion starts taking people to court for poppy tattoo's and copyright infringement
 
I'm with you though, it's the same thing every year, year after year.

 

[Jarnhamar]

A local legion was venting that people should NOT wear poppies with the Canadian flag on them.

Not surprised in the least.

 

[Stoker]

Too easy - if these are copyright in Canada ....

.... and this is copyright in the U.K. ....

.... then someone should come up with a three-petal poppy to use.

Apparently the legion claims all poppy like symbols even if its like the UK one....

Just realized I was replying to a year old post

 

[Pusser]

A local legion was venting that people should NOT wear poppies with the Canadian flag on them. They reckon it's insulting and that the 2 should be separated. Another legion on the news yesterday was moaning that young Vets aren't joining the club e.g. Army - Navy club in Hamilton to keep the tradition going, and that they are not making money.

Lets be fair...a lot of these legions need modernizing, and young people don't exactly see it as Moxies, Lone Star, Jack Tuesdays, Don Cherry's, etc

Some clever guy has started manufacturing pins (http://poppypins.com/) that look like the center of the RCL's poppy.  The idea is that it provides a means to both keep your poppy in place and not prick you every time you move your hand past it.  The Legion claims it "defaces" the poppy and should not be used.  I just ordered a bunch.

I now also have yet another reason not to join the Legion...

 

[Stoker]

Some clever guy has started manufacturing pins (http://poppypins.com/) that look like the center of the RCL's poppy.  The idea is that it provides a means to both keep your poppy in place and not prick you every time you move your hand past it.  The Legion claims it "defaces" the poppy and should not be used.  I just ordered a bunch.

I now also have yet another reason not to join the Legion...

I think the last thing the legion wants is have a permanent poppy and they want people to make another donation if one loses it. Its become a money making racket for them when the original intent for selling poppies was to provide employment for disabled veterans. I heard of the legion going after people "infringing" on the copyright.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Apparently the legion claims all poppy like symbols even if its like the UK one....

It's interestingly phrased here:

.... the Canadian Trademark for the Poppy includes both the Legion’s Poppy logo, as well as the Poppy symbol, as it relates to Remembrance ....

I wonder if the British Legion would jump on the Canadian Legion "claiming" the two-petal version if it came to it?

 

[Sigs Pig]

From the Legion Poppy Manual

RIGHTS OUTSIDE CANADA
719.
The rights obtained by registering the trademark in Canada
do not extend outside Canada.

ME

 

[Danjanou]

...I now also have yet another reason not to join the Legion...

or conversely another reason to join the legion and help change some of this rampant institutional stupidity.

 

[Blackadder1916]

I wonder if the British Legion would jump on the Canadian Legion "claiming" the two-petal version if it came to it?

I don't know if the British Legion executive are as big "a-holes" as their Canadian counterparts but they do seem to have the same protection for their "brand" (that's the word they use on their website).

http://www.britishlegion.org.uk/about-us/our-brand/

The Legion's 2-petal poppy is a registered trademark and should not be used without permission. Additionally, as the national custodian of Remembrance the Legion will take action against companies who are deemed to be infringing its trademark by commercially benefiting from this during the Remembrance period, or at any other time.

To prevent being in breach and to follow best practice as required by the Charity Commission, it is essential to enter into a commercial partnership agreement with the Legion to obtain a licence.

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

At the very least, the explanation given by the British Legion is more in line with intelligent application of the trademark they are granted:  "infringing its trademark by commercially benefiting from...".

In the "RCL Whither..." thread, someone posted about the Canadian Legion bitchin' and throwing its "trademark weight" at a poor bakery which, at specific request of one individual purchaser made for his/her own private purpose, baked a single cake in the shape of a remembrance day poppy. That is not "commercially benefiting from the use of the poppy. If that bakery, without anyone's specific request had baked half a dozen of them and put them on display for sale in the days leading to November 11, that would be different.

The analogy here is the same difference as someone going to a baker and ordering a Donald Duck cake for his kid's birthday instead of baking it himself, for which Disney would have no recourse, or the same bakery baking half a dozen Donald Duck cakes once a week for general display and sale, which would be infringement.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Sad this has to be considered, but these are the times we're in, I guess.

Every year, we hear of heartbreaking stories of thieves snatching donation bins meant for the Legion’s Poppy Campaign, but one Calgary businessman hopes his solution will make criminals pass on robbing veterans.

Dan Kroffat says that his redesigned poppy box can’t be stolen.

The bin itself is made of composite metal and is attached to the store’s counter with a wire.

He says his redesign should stop spontaneous thefts of poppy boxes that account for 75 percent of incidents.

Kroffat says the inspiration for the change came from the amount of thefts in the news last year.

"I saw in the newspaper, there was a story about these veterans, their money was stolen. I said, 'next to that is stealing money from children'. When you think of the money and the value this plays in sustaining their lives, add to that, this. The veterans, a large, large amount of veterans are living below the poverty line, a large number, hundreds are living on the streets. I got pissed off and said 'we need to fix this'."

He's has built 50 of the prototype boxes and plans to put them in place as a test in Cochrane businesses ...

 

[jollyjacktar]

Great idea, but I wonder how many thefts happen in Cochran?

 

[mariomike]

Saw this in our local news,

Toronto man faces 19 charges in alleged poppy box thefts
http://www.680news.com/2016/11/14/toronto-man-faces-19-charges-alleged-poppy-box-thefts/

Comments: "A quick Google search shows this guy is an aggressive panhandler who was jailed for threating TTC employees. Also a poppy donation thief apparently. Back to jail… not the first time and not the last."

Same alleged perp?
https://www.thestar.com/news/crime/2013/02/13/panhandler_jailed_for_threatening_to_kill_ttc_workers.html

 

[Blackadder1916]

I hadn't seen many posts this year about poppies, so I was wondering if the usual annual bitching was over.  However being the sometimes crotchety old bastard that I can be, I thought I should vent in the spirit of the season.

The new thingy on the poppy pin.

So, when I got my poppy this year (I get a few each year, even though I have a collection dating back years and years), the Legion volunteer (wearing a maroon beret, PPCLI cap badge and a few UN medals, so he can't be all bad) made a specific effort to bring to my attention the tiny piece of plastic on the end of the pin and commented that I "wouldn't lose the poppy now".  Well, by the time that I got home, the poppy was gone.  The pin and plastic thingy was still in my jacket, but the red and black portions were gone; I assumed that the holes in those parts were a little larger than the head of the pin and they slipped off.  The next day, the same sorta happened to the replacement that I bought, however this time it was only the black piece that ended up AWOL.

Fashion item poppy.

Watching Power and Politics today, I noticed the host, Duncan McCue, wearing a large, garish, poppy that appears to be made of some sort of beading.  If the item was provided by some alternative veterans organization, how long before the Legion objects?

 

[gryphonv]

The new thingy on the poppy pin.


Fashion item poppy.

Watching Power and Politics today, I noticed the host, Duncan McCue, wearing a large, garish, poppy that appears to be made of some sort of beading.  If the item was provided by some alternative veterans organization, how long before the Legion objects?

Yeah I just watched this. Definitely an eyesore to me. The shiny beads around it was a bit too flashy for my liking. It was fairly overstated.

 

[ballz]

The new thingy on the poppy pin.

So, when I got my poppy this year (I get a few each year, even though I have a collection dating back years and years), the Legion volunteer (wearing a maroon beret, PPCLI cap badge and a few UN medals, so he can't be all bad) made a specific effort to bring to my attention the tiny piece of plastic on the end of the pin and commented that I "wouldn't lose the poppy now".  Well, by the time that I got home, the poppy was gone.  The pin and plastic thingy was still in my jacket, but the red and black portions were gone; I assumed that the holes in those parts were a little larger than the head of the pin and they slipped off.  The next day, the same sorta happened to the replacement that I bought, however this time it was only the black piece that ended up AWOL.

I saw someone wearing those, I guess they just pushed the whole thing (white piece and all) through the poppy and made the hole too big? I just use a pair of pliers and bend the metal, they don't go anywhere after that.

 

[Navy_Pete]

I think I've found different bits of about two dozen poppies on the ground between late last week and today; enjoying my poppy pin center so far! Pretty good deal, and I can stop worrying about it flying off my jacket when walking around.

 

[donaldk]

I think I've found different bits of about two dozen poppies on the ground between late last week and today; enjoying my poppy pin center so far! Pretty good deal, and I can stop worrying about it flying off my jacket when walking around.

Had some fun trolling the local legion about the 'stabbers' and the use of a non-official center.  The lecture I got from my barkeeper was priceless (and not to get caught in my branch with one)...  legion is still steadfast at using their stupid stabbers (well they do have a $40 brooch but its no good for DEU use - https://www.poppystore.ca/brooches-2/poppy-brooch-300650)

 

[Strike]

I push the pin back through the poppy before hiding the end in my clothes.  Haven't lost a poppy yet since using this method, and it was taught to me by a Legion poppy distributor a few years back.  I made sure to show everyone this last year when I was working the poppy drive.