Copyright Infringement complaint from Vanity Fair/Condé Nast

Email

[Jim Robinson]

Subject: Copyright Infringement

Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2003 15:42:53 -0400

From: "Gigante, John D."

To: "'WEBMASTER@FREEREPUBLIC.COM'" WEBMASTER@FREEREPUBLIC.COM

September 23, 2003

VIA CERTIFIED MAIL RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED, AND BY E-MAIL TO WEBMASTER@FREEREPUBLIC.COM Free Republic, LLC P.O. Box 9771 Fresno, CA 93794

Re: Copyright Infringement Dear Sir or Madam:

We represent The Conde Nast Publications, publisher of Vanity Fair. It has come to our attention that your website posted and continues to post without permission at least two copies of an article entitled "The Message in the Anthrax" written by Don Foster for the October 2003 issue of Vanity Fair.

Mr. Foster owns the copyright in this article and Vanity Fair paid for the exclusive right to publish the article for a limited period of time. As the copyright owner, Mr. Foster has the legally enforceable right to determine who, if anyone, may publish the article, and during the period of its exclusivity, Vanity Fair has the legally protectable right to be the only party publishing the article.

Your reproduction of this article on your site (even if it was posted by third parties) is an infringement by you of Mr. Foster's copyright rights and, since your infringement continues to occur during the period of Vanity Fair's exclusivity, it also violates Conde Nast's rights. The remedies available under the U.S. Copyright Act are severe, including injunctive relief, payment of statutorily-prescribed damages of up to $150,000 per infringement, and reimbursement of attorneys' fees.

We demand that you immediately remove from your website all materials from Vanity Fair and any other Conde Nast publication, and that you provide us with a written statement specifying all of the material removed, and that you agree not to use any Conde Nast material in the future unless you first obtain the copyright owner's written permission (which may be granted or withheld). If you do not agree, we will advise our client it must pursue more formal means to resolve this problem. We expect to hear from you within ten (10) days of your receipt of this letter.

Sincerely,

John Gigante, Esq. Sabin, Bermant & Gould LLP Four Times Square New York, N. Y. 10036-6526 Tel. 212-381-7066 Fax. 212-381-7227

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail may contain information that is privileged, confidential or otherwise protected from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail, purge it and do not disseminate or copy it.

[Jim Robinson]

Please do not post materials from Vanity Fair or any other Conde Nast Publication.

Thanks,

Jim

[b4its2late]

Yes Sir!

[BunnySlippers]

Gotcha. Bump.

[TheBigB]

I think this was asked about the Onion posts, but I don't know if it was settled...what about excerpts?

[finnman69]

It sounds like the LWers are writing magazines to report posting of their articles to get FR in trouble.

[MineralMan]

"Please do not post materials from Vanity Fair or any other Conde Nast Publication. "

Jim,

This is the second one of these recently. I wonder if someone is ratting out FR to publications. It's possible that it's just a coincidence, but....

[AppyPappy]

They came after me one time for something I posted on the church website from something I got in an email. I didn't even know the source. They need something to do.

[finnman69]

Quesiton. Is this ALL material or can material be briefly excerpted. What about photos from Vanity Fair such as a the Bill Clinton crotch shot cover?

[Fred Mertz]

How vain....sheesh.

[ambrose]

Why on Earth would anyone post anything from that rag in the first place?

[AppyPappy]

You also may want to remove your email address so the spambots don't pick it up.

[kimmie7]

Good grief, is that thing still being printed? No problems not posting from them here.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

Thats a pretty big list.

Includes all publications listed to left on this link. Especially applicable for FReepers are Wired, Conde Nast Traveler, New Yorker and GQ.

[Ff--150]

Like I said: WE're at war, but don't seem to realize that. They're going after this forum as well. (And "we're in power")

[piasa]

Could you post the list of "no" sources on the posting page... and does VF have a list of associated publications? Sometimes it's hard to tell what belongs to what publisher.

[TheBigB]

Nothing else from Teen Vogue? Strike me dead now....

[Shermy]

Ping.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

How'd you do that? I tried looking at the source and gave up.

[piasa]

Small loss, there...