Mission accomplished! Slack did send me a legal notice, and that's great!
Yes, you read it right. I received a "legal notice" from Slack, and I'm happy for that because now I have a clear path to fix the issue and (hopefully) keep providing my service :)
To better understand the context, please read the post: https://www.indiehackers.com/forum/my-startup-lasted-one-day-i-need-your-insights-7509a734bf.
Here's the email they sent me:
Hi there,
My name is Adam and I work at Slack. I'm writing today regarding your SlackBucket project. Based on your latest blog post, it looks like you are already aware of a few of my reasons for reaching out.
Your community was correct in calling out the provision in our Slack App Developer Policy that you quoted in your post. As your product is currently described, we would categorize it as one that circumvents the by-design limitations of our free service offering.
I do see that you're considering your options with regard to bringing SlackBucket into compliance with our guidelines. If/when you decide on a new direction, I would be happy to connect you with one of our Developer Relations representatives. They have the most expertise in this arena and can offer advise on how to move forward with your project. Please let me know if you're interested I'll >share your contact address with that team.
Aside from your project's functionality, the name SlackBucket also poses a problem. Per our brand guidelines, we note several points regarding the use of the name Slack as part of your product name and in your domain.
We politely ask that you change the name of your product and register it under a new domain. Please reply to this message to let me know how much time you will reasonably need to make these changes.
I wanted to close by saying that I appreciate your thoughtfulness throughout your blog post and comments section. We are interested in finding a solution that is mutually beneficial.
I look forward to your reply.
Best regards,
Adam Nace
The post he mentions in the letter is the one I linked earlier in this post. I spent the whole weekend trying to find a way to contact them. Thanks to IH they contacted me first. This community is great!
As you can see, the email is full of kindness and willingness to help me find a way to make my product compliant with their policies. I love Slack even more now! :)
BTW, I already knew the domain name would be a problem. And I was brainstormed some new names.
I'll keep you posted about the updates on this situations. Thanks for all the insights you gave me!
PS: Adam (from Slack), I know you are reading. Thanks for your kindness ;)
Wow, them reaching out like this is nothing but amazing and full of kindness!
I remember some companies who would’ve been very hostile to their developer community in such a scenario.
Slack’s response set’s a pretty good example! I wonder if them having Canadian roots has anything to do with it 😉
Slick.
Wow, what a great example on how a company should behave in cases like these!
Looking forward to following this process :-) best of luck with it!
TautBucket
the fact that u cant own ur domain name cause it has "slack" in it is sad.
Slack is a word like any other word https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/slack
Imagine if my website is called "Potato.com" then no one can name any domain mentioning potato.... Sad!!
I got your point, but thing is that everything around my product says it's related to slack.com, which is a brand. I understand their point and I'm OK to change the name.
I think it's not only because it has Slack, but because it is targeting the same audience as Slack.
If you have IP on "Potato" and one company creates potatobucket.com targeting your users, I believe you would ask them politely to change their name too, isn't it? :)
It's actually because there's a real chance users/customers could be fooled into thinking the service is provided by Slack itself, so you'd be profiting from their brand name (at best) and committing fraud (at worst).
Exactly. I am totally OK to change the name.
no offence bro.. what u did was honourable and decent but my beef is with people who think there "name" is like self-discovered cure for cancer, when they them self copied it from a dictionary
So just to be clear u think I will go to Slackbucket and think its a slack product? won't a simple disclaimer solve that issue? IPing a name from a dictionary is the SAD part. What the innovation in creating the name "SLACK". Also please understand illegal and wrong are not same. Many stupid law ban alot of good things. I know i sound silly here but the point is how do u own a name which you didnt create...
Slack doesn't own the word "slack". You can name your own product "slack". You can't name your product "slack", target Slack's customers and do something similar. This is just as much to protect consumers like you and me as it is to protect companies (imagine if just anybody could call their phones iPhones --> so many people would mistakenly buy the wrong phone and be disappointed).
You seem to lack a fundamental understanding of how IP law (and the legal system in general) works.
A few quick Google searches should show you where you're going wrong.
👏👏
Genius isn't it! let go IP all the name in the dictionary and then block others from using it cause you did it first even tho we didn't contribute to its creation. Now, what part of this is not SAD again? People are doing it and it the law but doesn't make it any better. If u own potato then fine but not everything words with another word front and back of it.
I'm gonna call my company ".com" ...
try DOTCOM.com
Slick