Copyright infringement complaint from The Onion

Email from The Onion | 09/19/03 | Sean Mills

[Jim Robinson]

Subject: Copyright infringement

Date: Fri, 19 Sep 2003 16:27:04 -0400

From: Sean Mills smills@theonion.com

To: webmaster@freerepublic.com

Dear Free Republic,

It has come to our attention that you have published a number of pieces of Onion content at:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/keyword/onion

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/k-onion/browse

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/583819/posts

This material was published in THE ONION and the images you are presenting are being served by our servers. The material that you are publishing was published without permission of ONION, INC. Further, the material is copyrighted. You have infringed on our copyright and we, therefore, demand that you immediately cease and desist from any further use of the copyrighted material and remove the material from your website. In addition, you may not use the material in any other manner whatsoever.

Please understand that we anticipate your full and immediate cooperation in this matter. Also, please understand that we do not hesitate to enforce our rights in these situations.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Sean Mills

[alisasny]

There goes the beer all over the keyboard...LOL

[malakhi]

Soon, FR may consist of nothing buy vanity ramblings.

This isn't a problem. Excerpt and link.

[Alberta's Child]

Actually, the headline that said something like . . .

U-2 Flights Will Continue over Iraq
Bono: "It's a bit unnerving flying over there at a time like this."

. . . was an all-time classic.

[Old Professer]

What exactly are they protecting, do you suppose?

If now we post an excerpt and a link, will that make them happy?

For the life of me I can't understand how posting something on a web site is the equivalent of planting a rare flower and enclosing it with fencing - it is not as though we can pluck the petals.

Jim, you've had a long run, but it is beginning to look as though you have become a convenient target.

Most of the Onion's stuff is juvenile drivel, sort of a poor man's Mad magazine approach to "journalism."

I, for one, promise never to paste a complete Onion, I won't even proffer a single slice.

Onions make me cry, anyway.

[bedolido]

I find the onion boring and lacking humor... can we talk about them w/o getting sued?

[Old Professer]

One must always step deftly behind the King's carriage.

[bedolido]

One must always step deftly behind the King's carriage

is that so we don't step in it?

[Jeff Gordon]

Now that was downright silly of Onion. I never would have known about Onion if it had not been for FR. I will bet there are a lot of other Freepers who could say the same thing.

Things like this are the reason that lawyers should not have Second Ammendment Rights. They are always shooting their clients in the foot.

[bedolido]

can it be added to your "Blocked" site list? I'm still confused over the Knight-Ridder thing... can we or can we not post there articles?

[RonF]

I wouldn't necessarily accuse them of not having a sense of humor. I know that trademarks can pass into the public domain if their owners don't protect abuse of it; I wonder if the same applies to copyrighted material?

[skinkinthegrass]

Well, there goes my patronage of the onion. I used to go theref 2 - 3 times per week.

Sheees...Sour Grapes...I smell/sense the Clintons' odor on this action. :|

[bedolido]

it's probably a political thing. they don't like conservatives.

[LibKill]

Too bad for the Onion. They got some new readers from FR, but no more.

Of course, no posts from them anymore. Message received and understood.

[Willie Green]

Someone posted something from that idiot site?
Why? It couldn`t have been anything funny, witty, or newsworthy.

Ananova is pretty worthless too.
As long as we're tidying up the house,
I wouldn't mind seeing posts from that site get the old heave-ho.

[RightWhale]

That's okay. Onion isn't in FR's league anyway.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Same here. Sounds like some lib got his panties all in a wad and barraged them with emails whinning about how unfair life is that their stuff was being linked here. The same way the do with web polls. I wonder if they sent the same thing to liberal sites. Probably not.

I also found them through FR. Bye bye Onion. I'm deleting all links to your site, and will advise all of my friends to do the same.

[inquest]

From now on, they shall be known as freedom rings!

[Old Professer]

Quick study, aren't we?

[Keith]

Well, I have not been loking at the Onion for ages now. Despite the great bit they did right after 9-11, ( "Hijackers Surpised to Fnd Themselves in Hell") they have become increasingly whiny , anti-troops and Anti-America.

What do you expect...a bunch of ex-Madison ("Midwest chapter of the Kremlin") lefties...I love some of their stuff but they make Mother Jones look like The Washington Times...

[DollyCali]

I dont post but I do read.

what is THEIR PROBLEM?

Everything i have read gives them full credit & more readership & potentially more money.

duh,

educate me please...

(okay, I will comply.....but just curious)