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

[ArneFufkin]

Why don't you be a man and cut and paste material directly from The Onion directly into your little college newspaper. Be sure to call Sean Mills and let him know that it's your First Amendment right to use his copyright material.

Let us know how it goes!

It's easy to be a tough guy with somebody else's ass on the line.

[jriemer]

[visualops]

Take a chill pill and actually read my posts. I didn't "take sides" (which is a childish attitude). I stated some facts regarding websites and bandwidth. What I did say was that I felt The Onion should have compromised.

Turn off the caps lock and grow up.

[Sally'sConcerns]

bttt

[visualops]

LOL!

[Bob J]

My recommendation to FR management would be to demand excerpt and linking to EVERY piece of copyright material posted here.

I disagree. Some publications and authors love their stuff being posted here. I suggest Jim keep doing what he does. If someone doesn't want their stuff posted in full, they can notify Jim and the appropriate measures can be taken to meet their request.

[Bob J]

BTW - I should change that to "most publications and authors". Out of the hundreds of different venues from which we pull information, only a half dozen have complained.

Pretty good batting average if you ask me.

[Bob J]

One more ---> During our interactions with conservative authors and publications at CPAC and RadioFR over the years, and besides those that have stated they love their stuff being posted here, I have had maybe a dozen go further and state they use the Forum as a means to tighten up their writing. Some said use it as a "trial balloon" prior to actually publishing.

[Diverdogz]

Hey - you and I apparantly will always butt heads, but lets try to be civil.

We post stuff here unless we are asked to stop. We've been asked to stop by LA Times, Washington Post and the Onion...probably a few others, too. We lost a court battle against LAT/WP, so we are making sure that posting an excerpt with a link to the the Onion falls within the bounds of "Fair Use". It should be a no-brainer but we want to avoid expensive legal battles. The copyright holder is protecting his copyright, and we comply. That is my position, as far as I can tell that is JR's position.

The WP/LAT case was a bit less clear - which is why we tried to fight - since we are generally engaged in research/educational non-commercial use of the material. Its a bit harder to make the educational argument with a humor website. They wouldn't think it was funny :)

Good day.

[MEG33]

The "huh" was about your ordering people to get off this site.Have you have been appointed to a new position of authority? Perhaps you should notify JR and let him decide.It's his forum.

[rwfromkansas]

I am not saying I disagree with Jim Rob. This is not worth the fight and it is fine with me not to post anything from the Onion.

All I am saying is that it is hypocritical of you and everyone else yelling hooray for the Onion to be even posting on this website, much less posting threads of copyrighted material, EVEN OF THOSE WHO HAVE NOT SUED US.

[rwfromkansas]

I have no problem with stopping the posting of material when asked.

It just seemed like you actually was saying we would be wrong to continue posting it if we did want to go to court.

[rwfromkansas]

No more power for me (probably a good thing also). They certainly won't leave just because I say so, but it gets my gander up to have hypocrites basically spitting in Jim's eyes while enjoying his website.

[MEG33]

I did not think anyone was dissing JR.

[rwfromkansas]

By the way, your request is denied. I obey copyright laws in my publication, thank you very much.

Your request was not really on the point anyway. The issue was not about JR's request to comply with the Onion's demands, which is fine. Why fight this issue, one that isn't a big deal (we are talking about the Onion after all)? It was why there are people on this site actually defending the Onion...when they are not sticking to what supposed principles they have about copyright by posting on threads.

[fatima]

Bump.

[rwfromkansas]

They said FR was wrong in the copyright battle. Thus, they were saying JR was wrong for having this website set up the way he has opted to have it organized. That's my interpretation anyway.

[nutmeg]

We have so many creative artists on FR that we never needed the Onion stuff in the first place.

Good point, asliasny!

I had never even heard of The Onion until I read articles posted here at FR. Oh well, it's The Onion's loss... they're going to lose lots of exposure to their site.

[Diverdogz]

They said FR was wrong in the copyright battle. Thus, they were saying JR was wrong for having this website set up the way he has opted to have it organized. That's my interpretation anyway.

I think we all like the way the website is set up. It sure makes it easier to read the articles before posting comments. But if we are asked to stop posting articles in their entirety(like the Onion has asked us to do), we either stop or have a court battle. JR's asking us to stop is tacit acknowlegement that we would face adverse consequenses for failure to comply.

I fully support the Onion's right to protect their livlihood through copyright law. I wish they'd grant us express permission to carry on as we have been, but it is their decision and not ours. I'm confident that anyone who thinks this through will see wisdom of copyright law. It remains to be seen whether it will be a smart decision on their part.

Who knows what can be worked out with the Onion and other sites. Maybe they could preserve their rights and accomodate us by requiring us to put "Copyright TheOnion 2003 - Used by Permission" on all of their works we use. Then again, they may really need as many web hits as possible. Wait and see.

Again, for a humor site, it would be hard to make the educational/research 'fair use' argument.

[an amused spectator]

Can we post a link to their site/articles?

Why bother? They apparently are part of the information cartel, and don't want people gaining knowledge without control.