Posted by Wolfgang Staehle on November 03, 1997 at 14:12:55:
Interport also has some Barbie troubles.
Here's the letter of their Vice Prez to Mark Napier who has a personal website
"Distorted Barbie" on their server.
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From: Phillip Kim
Subject: Personal Web Site
To: napier (The Distorted Barbie)
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 1997 15:41:23 -0400 (EDT)
Mr. Mark Napier
451 East 14th St
Apt #12H
New York, NY 10009
16 October 1997
Dear Mark,
My name is Phillip Kim, and I am Vice President of Interport Communications Corp.
We recently received a letter from Mattel, Inc.'s attorney which claims that a
section of your Web site which you maintain on our service is an infringement
on Mattel's BARBIE copyright. The address of the Web page is:
http://www.users.interport.net/~napier/barbie/barbie.html
This is the first time Interport management has been made aware of the content of
this particular Web page. Interport is not qualified to verify Mattel's claim and
has absolutely no opinion on whether Mattel's claim is true or not. Regardless,
Interport is in a position of potential liability; Internet Service Providers
have been found liable for the copyright infringements of their users in past
court cases. Again, we make no statement that a copyright infringement exists.
However one may agree or disagree with this existing environment, Interport
is compelled to act accordingly in a manner which limits our liability. We hope
that you would appreciate our position and, as such, voluntarily remove the
Web page from the Internet until the issue is resolved between Mattel, Inc.
and yourself. Interport must have the Web page removed as of Wednesday
22 October 1997.
If you have any questions, please contact me at 212.989.1128 ext 205. Mattel's
attorney, should you wish to contact him, is:
William Dunnegan
Attorney at Law
720 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10019
212.397.7000
I have sent this letter via regular mail which also includes a copy of Mattel's
letter. Thank you for your prompt attention to the matter, and I apologize
for any inconvenience it may cause you.
Sincerely,
Phillip Kim
Vice President
Interport Communications Corp.
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Now what do YOU think? Let's mirror Barbies all over the net! I don't care
whether it's good or bad art, but I won't be bullied by
arrogant expensive lawyers!
There's more about this story at http://wwww.hotwired.com/surf/97/43/index4a.html