Bricks & Minifigs Sends Threat to The BAM Map

If you are having a bad day today, you can be grateful that you are not Bricks & Minifigs (BAM).

Over the past two months, the company has been the subject of relentless scrutiny and bad press over the handling of a consignment deal gone bad. What started as a viral video released in May of this year has exploded into a full-blown media and legal firestorm.

What started as a dispute over a Star Wars LEGO collection, has now become a massive campaign against the company, one that has targeted nearly every aspect of its operations.

But now the story has taken a copyright-related turn. BAM recently filed a cease and desist letter against The BAM Map, a site that was created to catalog and record the ongoing saga and, up until recently, hosted many documents purported to be from the company.

But, while the cease and desist letter is probably on solid footing legally, it may still have been a deeply misguided move. Not only has it drawn more attention to this story, but it may have confirmed some things that the company did not want to confirm.

The Background of the Story

Note: Covering this entire story with any kind of completeness is functionally impossible in the space of a single article. So I will just give a very brief overview of the most relevant parts and encourage anyone interested to check out Reckless Ben’s YouTube channel for the full story.

The story begins with Bryan Mansell, the son of Eric Mansell. Eric, over the course of his life, amassed a huge LEGO Star Wars collection. As his father’s health declined, Bryan decided to sell the collection through a consignment deal with a local Bricks & Minifigs store.

Bricks & Minifigs, as a company, is a licensor. The allow franchisees to use their name to sell their products, namely secondhand LEGO sets and minifigures. So while the name of the store is Bricks & Minifigs, at the time, that location was independently owned and operated.

However, in a move that has come under widespread scrutiny, Bricks & Minifigs the company transferred the ownership of the store to a different franchisee. Shortly after that transfer, the collection seemingly disappeared and the Mansell family has been unable to either recover the collection or get payment for it.

This prompted YouTuber Reckless Ben (Ben Schneider) to step in and create a now-viral video trying to help the Mansell family recover their property. BAM has maintained their innocence, saying that their franchise agreements do not allow consignment deals and that they had no reason to believe that the collection was not owned by the franchisee.

Since Reckless Ben began working on the case, the story has exploded. Multiple lawsuits have been filed, Reckless Ben and his compatriots have been arrested multiple times under dubious circumstances and multiple crowdfunding campaigns have been launched to help Ben, the Mansell family and others involved combat BAM’s legal efforts.

This has also prompted a wave of citizen journalists to step in and investigate the company. This includes The BAM Map, which describes itself as an “investigative dossier” on the company and its operations. It is a massive trove of documents and analysis of the company and the story so far.

Two days ago, BAM sent a cease and desist letter to the site. The letter cited 73 URLs that it claimed were infringing on copyrights owned by the company. The letter focused on the BAM support portal and the company’s operations manual. The BAM Map has since removed all of the requested documents but has published the letter in its entirety.

But while BAM may be in the right legally, it may have made a mistake in sending the letter. As The BAM Map points out, the notice confirms that the documents are owned by the company, even though they seem to contradict the company’s claims.

Not Just About Copyright

From a legal perspective, the cease and desist letter is very easy to understand. These are documents owned by the company, being published wholesale on a third-party site without permission. Yes, the site is critical of the company, but this wholesale publication of documents, only some of which are relevant to the case, goes well beyond any fair use argument.

So the cease and desist letter, which is not the same as a DMCA takedown notice, is probably on solid legal footing.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean that it is the right move.

The one narrative that has been consistent through this insane story is that BAM has consistently responded to the situation through legal escalation. Legal threats turned into lawsuits, which turned into arrests, which has now turned into even more lawsuits and allegations of civil rights violations.

That pattern of escalation has not only become a core part of the story, but it’s why the story has remained in the public eye for so long. From their perspective, BAM is fighting a legal battle. But they are actually fighting two separate battles, a legal one and a public relations one.

The PR battle is the one that, most likely, poses the bigger existential threat to the company. What started as a story about a missing LEGO collection has now become an analysis about the company’s business practices, its treatment of franchisees, its financial difficulties and more.

BAM actively complains that a false and harmful narrative has been created about the company. That may be true, but this cease and desist letter feeds directly into that narrative.

Then there are the legal issues. The documents that they filed about contradict some of their claims about how their policies work. For example, the issue over whether consignment deals are allowed is at the heart of the story. However, according to The BAM Map, some of those documents showed that BAM did allow consignment deals, under varying situations.

By filing this notice, BAM is confirming that it owns the documents and that they are authentic. That makes it more difficult to dispute anything that’s in them.

In short, by enforcing their copyright, they may have harmed their case elsewhere, both in and out of the courtroom.

Bottom Line

Like many others, I have been following this saga since it began. I’ve been a fan of Reckless Ben’s work for a long time and am happy for the success that he’s had with this story.

I suppose that it was inevitable that this story would take a copyright turn, even if only a small one. But I had never considered the possibility of discussing it here.

But this is a stark reminder. Just because you legally have the right to do something, doesn’t mean that it’s a good idea. You have to weigh the costs and benefits of whatever action you’re taking.

On top of everything mentioned above, this is an excellent example of the Streisand effect. By trying to remove these documents, BAM has not only made them more credible, but also given them more attention.

But that’s just par for the course in this whole story. Prior to Reckless Ben’s first video, I (and many others) had never heard of Bricks & Minifigs. I was unaware that such a store even existed, let alone that there was one in my area. Now I am very aware of it, and though I feel for the franchise owners, I am unlikely to ever consider going there.

Sometimes, being unknown is better than the alternative.

In the end, this is a continuation of the same strategy that BAM has been using throughout this story. It’s failed to end the story up to this point and isn’t likely to do so in the near future. Legal threats mean fresh headlines. That’s something that not just BAM, but every company should be aware of before taking any legal action.