Is Monster Energy Drinks trying to abuse DMCA?
anigbrowl: IANAL, but it appears their argument is that you are exploiting their mark as part of the commercial service your website offers. It seems legally sloppy and you're correct about it not really being DMCA material, but I'm not so I'd go so far as abuse.It is a given in trademark law that if a mark is not aggressively defended by the owner then they have only themselves to blame if it is later misappropriated. Trademarks don't enjoy the same absolute protections as copyrights do. They don't want to dilute the secondary meaning of the trademark, which might (theoretically) happen if they let you keep giving it out at your site.