maybe we can get together again !
Posted on 06/19/2002 1:54:11 PM PDT by Jim Robinson
I just received official word that our settlement with the LAT/WP in their alleged copyright infringement and unfair competion suit against Free Republic (click Source link above for complete history of the case) is completely finalized with the court. I do not have a copy of the final order yet, but the basic terms are as follows:
- Unless we receive prior written permission on an article by article basis, Free Republic agrees to continue posting only excerpts (as allowed by fair use) and links from any of the LAT/WP or related publications.
- Free Republic agrees to remove all full text copies of any LAT/WP and related publications copyrighted articles from its archives and servers and to destroy all copies of same.
- Neither party is awarded any damages, attorney fees or costs except that Free Republic agrees to pay the Los Angeles Times $5,000 and the Washington Post $5,000 (these negotiated amounts have already been paid).
I will post the entire final order including the list of related publications as soon as I receive a copy and get it scanned in.
Well, my fingers are not cold and dead and my keyboard has not been ripped away. While this is not entirely a win for FR, neither is it a crushing defeat. Free Republic is alive and well and the fight against liberalism continues on. It's a crying shame that the hallowed words of the WP/LAT will no longer grace our pages, but, somehow, I am sure we will manage to live on without them.
And despite what our detractors may say, we have not committed any crimes or broken any laws and we have not admitted to any guilt. We have negotiated a mutual agreement and settlement with the LAT/WP and have agreed upon satisfactory terms for continuing forward without having to spend the rest of our lives in court.
Many thanks to all of you for your past and continuing support.
Regards.
Jim Robinson
For Answered Prayers!
Thank You JimRob and Family for All that You've Done.
It was well worth the long struggle.
LET FREEDOM RING!
As a result of Fr, I have added umteem links to sites with advertisements. These are sites I would not have known about except for FR. FR should charge theses writers and news sources for giving their precious work wide spread exposure to the public. Because of FR, I have purchased books I would not have been aware of otherwise. FR should get a royalty for those book sales.
You have it wrong, FR is not stealing their property, FR is adding value to it.
Mike
Very happy for you and us. Thank you for fighting the "good fight". It has been a long time coming.
Its free by virtue of it being accessable for no cost. I can't step outside and read the news but I can walk to the corner library and read papers from around the country. For free.
And, I can discuss them with my friends. For free.
You see, if they didn't want their stories read with no exchange of cash, they wouldn't post them in such a way that poeple could read them that way.
FreeRepublic and sites like it are nothing but the extention of the library function. Its a non-profit site. It carries articles and allows anybody to read them for nothing. It allows its community members to comment on them. Tell me this; if libraries have been doing this for years and years, why isn't the LAT/WashPost sueing them?
The digital medium is the most copyable, most easily reproducible of all that are out there. It is the most difficult to control. Their marketing people should know that. IMO, LAT/WP doesn't know how to market their goods. I have always contended that left-wing PC'ers don't know how to make anything work. The LAT/WP is requesting an extremely hypocritical double standard foisted on the public. They support politicians who write laws which allow the government to steal property from the public (via legal plundering). They support a communistic agenda which tramples all over the Constitution and steals our liberties. And then they have the gall to scream 'theft of property when someone 'cuts and pastes' their articles.
You need to analyze and reason this issue before your next rant.
Yes it does. Information is freely available.
GREAT NEWS!!!!!!!
Get lost. Why don't you go to work for the government or ETV?
IMO, the people who generate and sell internet advertising are the biggest scam artists of the last decade (outside of Social Insecurity). Internet advertising is probably the least prudent way to spend an advertising buck there is.
In the land of the CSA, you invade a home, you invite a bullet.
And thanks for everything you have done!
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