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

[rockrr]

Sean,
Stupid Stupid Stupid
In your zeal to "protect" nebulous copyright claims, you piss off the very people who (used to) be among your fan base.
Because he is an honorable man, Jim R. at FreeRepublic will honor your demand to refrain from linking to the onion. Because we tend not to suffer fools gladly, hundreds of thousands of Freepers will refrain from further supporting your site.
Works for me!
Have a nice life.......

[Bullish]

This is real stupid on the part of the onion.
FR probably more than doubled their readership.

[OXENinFLA]

This sinks, The Onion is a riot. I'll never forget this one.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/699570/posts

As reported last week on NewsMax.com, the Beijing paper reported The Onion spoof that members of Congress want a brand-new Capitol, complete with a retractable dome and luxury boxes, in order "to stay competitive," as a genuine news story.

------

[weegee]

Have to wonder if The YonYon (cajun pronunciation) sued that Beijing newspaper.

[Focault's Pendulum]

Free Republic is not a non profit, it is an LLC.

Thank you for the correction.

[an amused spectator]

Robert Scheer: 'White House's cynical ploy: 'Misspeak' first, correct it later' Tuesday, September 16, 2003

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/article.php?sid=12972

The Smirking Chimp has a fairly complete Robert Scheer archive (full article) for the last several years.

The Smirkiing Chimp used to post articles from the Washington Post, but the Posties warned them off, for form's sake.

Now the Chimpsters just post the WP articles from other papers and pretend that the WP staff writers & columnists work for those papers:

E.J. Dionne Jr.: 'Ninth Circuit makes its point' Friday, September 19, 2003

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/article.php?sid=13017&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

By E.J. Dionne Jr., San Francisco Chronicle

I wonder when Dionne quit the Washington Post Writers Group and moved to San Francisco? :-)

The LA Times hasn't, it doesn't and it will not. To do so it runs the risk of a continuing wavier of its rights to enforce their copyrighted materials. Perhaps you could offer some examples, even one will suffice.

Oops! ;-)

You won't find one because it doesn't exist-----other than in the minds of those who hate the newspaper.

That's news to me.

Actually, I used to keep track of dozens for a couple of years, until I became bored. The Chimpsters actually posted the FR decision way back when, but apparently it doesn't apply to them. ;-)

[middie]

I'd bet a dollar to a cake donut that everything to which you refer has a license or reciprocal agreement for cross publication or ad hoc waiver. Excerpts, as part of a fair-use exception, are the norm. Republishing the entire piece removes the holder from the benefits associated with a reader who wants whole piece picking up the publication and seeing the ads....It's a economic matter as well as a creative protective device.

[Cold Heat]

As for me, I have never visited the site, nor do I intend to.(especially now)

I find their humor only moderately funny.

They will discover, as this news gets around the forum, that their hits will be reduced due to the fact that many visitors come from FR. If they want to play hardball, I suggest we simply stop the visitation and dump them in the ash can.

This does not include eating onions however. Onions are indeed a good thing to eat.(I prefer Vidalias)

[prairiebreeze]

Thanks for Ping. I never did an onion. And I never will
!

Haaa

Prairie

[an amused spectator]

I'd bet a dollar to a cake donut that everything to which you refer has a license or reciprocal agreement for cross publication or ad hoc waiver. Excerpts, as part of a fair-use exception, are the norm. Republishing the entire piece removes the holder from the benefits associated with a reader who wants whole piece picking up the publication and seeing the ads....It's a economic matter as well as a creative protective device.

Yes, all 100 or so Scheer articles from June of 2001 forward, and the 20 or 30 Dionne articles. There are hundreds more articles from LAT/WP, archived in full on their website.

I'm going to explain this real slowly.

They....are....doing....exactly....the....same....thing....that...Free....Republic....was....doing.

LAT hasn't bothered them. WP gave them a cursory warning, but then they just switched to reposting the entire pieces made to look like they were written by writers from The San Francisco Chronicle et al.

I don't hate the Smirking Chimp, LAT or WP. I'm just amused at the double standard.

[Chad Fairbanks]

I found the onion thanks to FR, and have recently actually purchased merchandise through them.

No more, though. They can live without my patronage, apparently. More power to 'em.

[Timesink]

What's the name of your software, if you don't mind me asking?

I use PithHelmet, which is specifically for the Mac OS Safari browser. But if you're using Windows, there are dozens of different choices (though I don't have any experience with them and can't recommend a specific one). Go here and run searches on the words "filter" or "block". That'll pull up Windows ad-blockers.

[Nita Nupress]

Thank you, Timesink. I really appreciate your help.

[SheLion]

Darn shame they're limiting their exposure this way. Sigh...

You've got THAT right! They will REALLY be limited in their exposure. I never read anything by the Onion unless it's posted in Free Republic. Oh well.........fork em!

[myrabach]

I wholeheartedly agree that The Onion stinks... not enough to make my eyes tear, but stinks nonethe less.

No big loss to me...

[Sir_Ed]

"I use PithHelmet, which is specifically for the Mac OS Safari browser"

I love PithHelmet.

Ed

[weikel]

If you ask me, the place has never been the same since T. Herman Zweibel blasted off from earth.

ROTFLMAO. C Montgomery Burns should aqquire the rights.

[smith288]

All the Onion had to do was dissallow the ability for their images to show on external sites. Many webmasters do this trick. I think one time, a website used a dirty picture whenever someone tried to remote link their image... It was a disturbing pic as well.

[EveningStar]

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.

Goodbye, Onion. Don't let the door hit you in the ass.

[Elsie]

It's time to parody a parody site!!!

---

(Or maybe satirize a satire site: Then let's see 'em BITCH!!!)