Re: News Corp threatens Steve Morgan Friedman with lawsuit if he doesn't take Simpson quotes off the web

[Dean Anderson <dean@av8.com>]

Well, not being a lawyer, I'd note that email domains are easily faked and do not indicate where a person works, or what authority he has to make requests on behalf of a corporation.  Seems pretty naive to make such ultimatums through email. Somehow, I doubt that they'll sue if the site isn't down by 4pm yesterday, on the say-so of the web site designer. 

In any case, It seems to me that since the site only includes snippets of episodes, only to the extent needed to refer to the particular episode and not the whole episode that this site ought to be permitted by fair use.  Tapes of these episodes are sold in movie stores, and this commentary seems to be no more or less infringing than a product review of those products, which would certainly be permitted under fair use. Right?

I'm also interested in the status of the bill/law to make internet service providers liable for copyright infringements by customer web sites.  What notice if any is required for the ISP?  I suppose web site service contracts will need to indemnify the ISP for copyright infringments...

		--Dean

Around 02:15 PM 12/16/1999 -0500, rumor has it that James Love said:
>Steve Morgan Friedman, who created Westegg.com, which is
>a personal web site named after a town in NY. has a page on 
>his favorite simpsons quotes.  But, News Corp is now threatening 
>to sue him and his ISP if he doesn't take it down, right away.   
>
>   Jamie
>
>
>http://www.westegg.com/simpsons/
>
>
>-- 
>
>From: "Matt Haber" <mhaber@newsdigital.com>
>To: "S. Morgan Friedman" <morgan@westegg.com>
>Subject: Re: Your site
>Date: Wed, 15 Dec 1999 15:55:59 -0500
>
>[snip]
>   I am writing because, as you can see from my e-mail domain, I work for
>Newsdigital, a division of News Corp, owners of the Fox Broadcasting Network
>and licensor of The Simpsons name and content.  In fact, in my current
>capacity at New Digital, I am the producer of The Simpsons website, and
>overseeing the site's re-launch in January of 2000.  To the point: I am
>issuing you a warning to remove all references to our copyrighted material
>from your website or we will sue you and your internet provider for
>infringing on our copyrights.  You are free to use any quotes and references
>to your own made up characters--your Norman Wheelers and Daniel
>Horwitzes--but not ours.  I thank you for your prompt and thorough response:
>Please have all references removed by 4 PM EST today.
>
>Thank You,
>Matt Haber
>
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>James Love / Director, Consumer Project on Technology
>http://www.cptech.org / love@cptech.org
>P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
>voice 202.387.8030 / fax 202.234.5176
>
>
>
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