[AktiviX-discuss] help: threatened with copyright on art and ideas

[Ian Gregory]

On Tue, Apr 18, 2006 at 02:53:56PM +0100, max* wrote:
 
> does anyone have any experiences of dealing with threats re: copyright 
> infringments? any advice on how to deal with this? anyone been in similar 
> situations?

I once started getting emails from someone about a page on my site
and just when I thought they had agreed to drop their complaint they
went behind my back and threatened my ISP. It was a bit messy and
eventually I took the page down. In fact they didn't have a leg to
stand on (and in fact I think the "company" they claimed to work
for was bogus, and was just a front organisation for a nasty far
right group in the US). I just didn't want my ISP (friends) to get
hassled and so I backed off. There is a time to fight and I decided
that wasn't it.

> I have contacted the organisation three times already without a response.
> I am one of the co-creators of the Blob Tree which was published in 1988
> by Marshall Pickering. It was copyrighted to Pip Wilson and myself, Ian
> Long. We have asked that the 'Jelly Baby Tree be taken off the web site as
> it infringes our copyright. We have had to contact several organisations,
> including Government agencies, who have agreed to take your resource off
> their websites.

The Government agencies probably just couldn't be bothered with the
hassle, but I don't see how the objection can stand unless you copied
the text or photocopied the drawing. Copyright does not apply to ideas,
it applies to paticular works/performances/texts/performances etc.

But I am not a lawyer - if you want to resist the attack you should
speak to a copyright lawyer to make sure that there is no chance that
they have a valid case.

Ian

-- 
Ian Gregory
http://www.zenatode.org.uk/ian/