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

[Radix]

A lot of people refer or link  me to "the Onion" articles. Personally, I think that the humor there is not very good. I think that it is largely contrived, and it is lacking the essence of "spontaneity." Admittedly, I rarely go there, and it has been a while since I checked the site out.

 

I will say, that I have never laughed more, than I have at some of the FR.com threads. IMHO, you should have the moderators let the funny threads go. Some of the very funniest threads that I ever have imagined possible, have been deleted.

[Timesink]

Copyright law requires that the holder protect the property on a universal basis or else the broad protection may be deemed waived. A holder places his enforcement rights in jeopardy if he allows some infringers to do so unchallenged while at the same time he places others on notice to desist.

Except that they don't actually DO this. At least, the LAT/WP don't. Liberal sites are allowed to post LAT/WP material with abandon. I don't know about Onion reposts, but I have a feeling it wouldn't take more than two minutes' worth of Google searches to find dozens of other sites reposting their stuff.

[CFW]

Before long, we will be receiving our daily email from the government as to what we can discuss here.

Kinda like the "Good Morning Vietnam" movie.

[Radix]

. Soon, FR may consist of nothing buy vanity ramblings.

That is a very real possibility.

No it isn't.

[Radix]

But I doubt every publication will ask us to stop, but the list may grow to a point where it is unmanageable to remember which papers we can or cannot post from.

FReeper PRogrammers take of that! I have learned. You cannot post threads from the few sites that object. The notion that the Onion can stop FReepers from posting articles here is a silly one indeed. The Internet, is not subject to certain constraints. That is just so. FR.com has apparantly chosen as a courtesy to abide by requests of certain site providers.

The Media who actually use the net for their articles, ads, editorials, and whatever, will not thrive when they limit access to their sites. Blocking linkage, is a very very short sited policy.

[Reaganwuzthebest]

The shame here is that the Onion has reliably been a more accurate source of news than either the Washington Post or the L.A. Times.

So has the Enquirer. They don't have an agenda other than making money, so they print everything about everyone.

[cyborg]

going the way of the libs and their papers I'd say...

[RonDog]

Is there a link to a list of those entities we aren't supposed to post in full?

Check out THESE threads:

Related Publications in the LAT/WP vs Free Republic Settlement Agreement
			Posted by Jim Robinson On 06/24/2002 8:39 PM PDT with 133 comments Free Republic LAT/WP Settlement Agreement ^ | 06/24/02 | Jim Robinson

and

Besides the ComPost and the LAT, which papers are excerpts-only on FR
			Posted by foreverfree On 02/07/2003 7:20 PM PST with 6 comments foreverfree | 2/7/03 | foreverfree

[Imal]

I'll never understand the mentality of people who complain about those of us who use the World-Wide Web the way it was actually intended to be used.

If using hyperlinks in a medium designed for hyperlinks offends Sean Mills, then he should either password-protect his pages, or use dynamic links (i.e., temporary URLs) like everyone else who wants to publish material in a manner that requires a visit to the homepage.

Sheesh, what a droid this guy is.

[RonDog]

Please so not post anything from The Onion.

ping

[Diverdogz]

but I have a feeling it wouldn't take more than two minutes' worth of Google searches to find dozens of other sites reposting their stuff.

In that case, I'd simply ask two minutes of your time to show us where this is happening. You can spare two minutes...right?

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

A "For Your Information" ping.

[Hildy]

I never think anything from the ONION is funny anyway.

[Diverdogz]

Seconded. Just as the LAT/WP went after us, and only us (there are plenty of liberal sites that report LAT/WP stories every single day right now, in September 2003, and the LAT/WP lawyers have never said a word to them), The Onion is now going after us because we're conservatives and they're liberals.

Ok, I took the challenge and waded thru the cesspool over to peek at DU. (Don't worry, I took a lysol bath when I left...) DU looks like they only post excerpted articles of EVERYTHING. Which liberal site are you looking at that allows posting of complete articles?

[Timesink]

In that case, I'd simply ask two minutes of your time to show us where this is happening. You can spare two minutes...right?

More like 20 seconds. Five hundred and eleven hits for one of the more famous Onion articles.

[Timesink]

Which liberal site are you looking at that allows posting of complete articles?

Truthout.org is one.

[af_vet_rr]

I did as well. Some people can be so stupid.

Let me ask you this - if your neighbor tapped into your water or electricity and over time your costs began climbing, and you finally realized just what they were doing and how much it was costing you, wouldn't you be upset?

That is what was going on, only this isn't water or electricity but bandwidth, and it still costs them money. Their get their revenue from ads, and if people are bypassing the ads, their expenses for that bandwidth don't get paid.

Folks, if somebody outside of FR was directly linking to pics on FR, and it caused JR's bills to rise, and he had no way to get the expenses back from the people directly linking and had to pay for it out of his pocket, a lot of you would be screaming for somebody's head.

[af_vet_rr]

I am going to cancel my subscription. Onion comes out a loser on this.

They were coming out losers anyway on this - it costs them money everytime somebody posted a pic hosted on their website. A single thread on FR could probably cause quite a little bump in their bandwidth costs.

I'm just surprised they took this long - they need to check their web logs a little bit more closely in the future. See my above post (#197 or so) for an explanation of why it costs them money.

[SamAdams76]

How long did Jim battle the LA Times and Washington Post and now an email has him cowering?

Give it up already. Let Jim and Free Republic save their resources for things that matter. Articles from the Onion don't contribute to the stated mission of the Free Republic website which is to "roll back decades of governmental largesse, to root out political fraud and corruption, and to champion causes which further conservatism in America." So their omission here is no big loss.

Sure, the articles were nice for a humor break now and then. I posted a few here myself. But looking at the big picture, they really aren't that important.

So the H-Dog is out. And Jim Anchower too. Permanently.