Passed through the storm ~ message from 11th Hour
POSTED BY: 11thHour
UPDATED: Wednesday, January 31, 2007 01:43
VIEWED: 33055
PAGE 8 of 9
Hay 11th, I'm so happy to hear that you're ok and that things worked out without ruining you. Sorry I haven't been around to comment earlier or to stick by you, RL getting in the way of my VL, which sucks.. but it happens.
Anyway, really happy to hear things are good and that you're ok! Sorry that you had to go through this but being a talented gal like you these things around bound to happen to make things hard, but it motivates and you come out stronger on the other side of it.
big hugs to ya! And congrats! :D
http://dana.thedudes.nu/gallery/ http://dana.thedudes.nu/chosenart/
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So.... how goes the sleeping? You feel better now?
"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." http://www.myspace.com/6ixstringjack
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Congrats. You now rank with Sarah Michelle Geller, who holds the world record as the youngest person sued in US history, when McDonalds sued her and Burger King for saying the word "charbroiled", implying it was better than fried in its own rusty fat.
Quote:
VIDEO: Sarah Michelle Gellar Burger King
Gellar was the first person to ever mention a competitor's name (McDonald's) in her 1982 Burger King commercial. McDonald's sued Burger King and four-year-old Gellar.
http://advertising.about.com/od/gellarsarahmichelle/p/sarahmgellar.htm
As for merely using the word "Serenity", tell them to fuk off. Presumably, you already believed you were following The Law, using Due Diligence. I didn't see anything wrong with your products violating copyright. If anything, they are violating YOUR copyright, since you were first! If you believe you were right, then stand your ground. Call their bluff. They will have to pay their lawyers $500/hour, which even Universal is too cheap to do on frivolous cases. And Universal would have to pay your legal expenses, including paying your attorney fees, when you win on motion for summary judgement. So it would not be hard to find you a lawyer, since that's a slam dunk paycheck for them.
Many collection agencies illegally claim to be law firms (practicing law without a license, and other crimes), and use illegal tactics to bluff the sheeple out of money they don't owe. When a collection agency makes a claim by letter, the recipient has 30 days to demand proof of the alleged debt, by certified letter of the original contract. 72 hours is BS, which is a fraud that most municipal courts do with parking tickets that also lack personal service of process, to trick the sheeple into volunteering for "personal jurisdiction" of the so-called court. This scam sounds a little like "Universal's" tactic. Or it could be a scammer claiming to be Universal, to extort some lunch money. Are other Cafepressers getting this extortion email? Is like the Nigerian Scam, that got that Tennessee preacher's wife to shoot and kill her husband?
You can also countersue for your personal time and expertise promoting their products (Firefly & Sernity), since "Universal" is attempting to enter into a contract with you. That means you get to rewrite and renegiate that contract anyway you want. Presuming this really is a real "Rule 68 Offer of Settlement" (Federal Rules of Civil Procedure) from real lawyers really working for Universal. If you don't email them back (or discuss in public forum), then their is no proof of personal service of process, as required by Rule 4.
www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcp/
"Donations" for free guerilla art bypass copyright problems.
Sometimes these big shots (or their flunky lawyers) get swelled heads, and falsely allege they own the entire English (and Chinese) language:
Quote:
Gol-LY! Andy Griffith sues Andy Griffith
November 11, 2006
MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (AP) -- Forget the small-town belief in letting bygones be bygones.
The star of "The Andy Griffith Show," who portrayed the sheriff of the fictional town of Mayberry, has sued a Wisconsin man who unsuccessfully ran for the Grant County post after legally changing his name to Andrew Jackson Griffith.
The lawsuit, filed November 3 in U.S. District Court in Madison, alleges that William Harold Fenrick, 42, violated trademark and copyright laws, as well as the privacy of actor Andy Samuel Griffith, when he used his new name to promote his candidacy for sheriff in southwestern Wisconsin.
The lawsuit says the former Fenrick changed his name for the "sole purpose of taking advantage of Griffith's notoriety in an attempt to gain votes." It asks the court to order him to go back to his original name.
The actor's lawsuit also asks Griffith to publish disclaimers and an apology in Grant County newspapers that say he has no association with the actor. It seeks unspecified damages and court fees.
Griffith described the lawsuit as "incredibly absurd" and said he doesNOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Hey Piratenews...
You seem to know your law. I definately would have appreciated your presence a few weeks back when I was holding a discussion on this topic. You seem like my kind of people. I'll be checking out your website now that I know about it. You looking for any employees? I'd love to work a job that I actually have a great deal of passion for.
Here's the thread if you wanna take a read. It's called "I will not wear Firefly as if it were a Nike symbol on my chest."
I'll have to let you know what I think of your site. "A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." http://www.myspace.com/6ixstringjack
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Hey Piratenews...
You seem to know your law. I definately would have appreciated your presence a few weeks back when I was holding a discussion on this topic. You seem like my kind of people. I'll be checking out your website now that I know about it. You looking for any employees? I'd love to work a job that I actually have a great deal of passion for.
I'll have to let you know what I think of your site.
"Indy" is translated as "virtually unemployed" and disabled, fighting 7 years for disability insurance benefits versus 1,000s of corrupt govt trial lawyers. When I started that fight, I knew nothing about law, and made the mistake of trusting lawyers, thus making "fatal" legal mistakes on paperwork. Uncle Scam is NOT here to help! So no jobs, just "internships".
What you can do is start your own cable access TV show in your town, and broadcast my TV shows on your network. We need about 10,000 cable access affiliates in my Pirate News Network. Our buisness plan includes 100% market share of Truth programming, since the Media Mafia is only capable of pathological lies, and has abdicated the playing field. There's a whole New World Truth out there, waiting to be capitalized. Pirate FM Radio is also very powerful, when used for Truth.
Cafepress is useful for zero overhead, but sales are dead on the web, unless you buy inventory for resale face-to-face with customers. That's where it gets interestin.
"You can't stop the signal! You'll be hearin from my lawyer!"
-Mr Universe, Pirate TV
FIREFLY SERENITY PILOT MUSIC VIDEO V2
Tangerine Dream - Thief Soundtrack: Confrontation
http://radio.indymedia.org/news/2006/03/8912.php
www.myspace.com/piratenewsctv
www.piratenews.org
Does that seem right to you?
www.scifi.com/onair/
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Yeah... I figured as much. Nobody who has any money has a lick of interest in the truth... either sayin' it or believin' it. My old man is paying child support for my 23 year old man-child brother because he's supposedly disabled to the point he can't work. I won't go into the stupid details. My question with the whole thing is, since my mom can't get the state to legitimatize his disability and grant him social security, why does my dad have to foot the $800+ dollars a month to support him. There's a whole lot more to that story that I don't feel the need to get into in this forum, but it's all a bunch of whiney feminist bullshit. I'll admit that there are a ton of deadbeat dads out there, but my father was always there for us and my mom is abusing the legal system so she can sink her talons into him for the rest of his life. She doesn't even need the money, and he's got two kids of his own now that he's got to try to put through college soon.
I also have two friends that had DUI problems. The one with five grand for a lawyer had actually smashed and destroyed his car and a parked car 3 blocks away from his house and he walked away virtually unschathed in court. My other friend doesn't have a pot to piss in and the DA let him lose his license for a year, which he subsequently lost again when he was caught driving to work without it. All that particular friend had been guilty of (besides having a little alcahol on the breath as the cop found out after pulling him over) was driving with a busted tail light when he left the bar.
Justice goes to the highest bidder.
That is... if you're uneducated. Glad to see you took up arms yourself and got yourself educated. I hope it worked out for you and I am interested in learning more about your organization. I feel like I'm surrounded by people who are perfectly content with getting walked on and herded around everyday and it's nice to know that there are people out there that do more than just talk about it like I do, although I've always thought that at least talking about it was better than doing nothing at all. There's no denying that I'm probably not the most fun guy talk to at the parties.
Anyways... lawyers suck and courts suck and justice is non-existant for anybody in my price range who isn't fond of getting their ass into a heap of debt they can never pay off.
Don't even know how to get started with a cable station. I'm assuming that that takes quite a bit of money, and I'm afraid that I'm in short supply of that. I do, however, have a good deal of free time... don't know what that's worth. I'll be keeping in touch. My name is Mark, by the way... it's nice to meet you. "A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." http://www.myspace.com/6ixstringjack
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Been tending to my life, which was seriously thrown off its tracks by the adventure through the looking glass with Universal's law firm. Finally have a bit of a breather to check in instead of my fly bys of late...
So many wonderful posts. Does my heart good to read all the words of support, and shared relief that sanity was finally restored and the matter was quietly concluded. I know it was due to "people of influence" making behind the scenes calls on my behalf. This time my angels did soar overhead and rain fire down on those... well, y'all know the colorful description that follows...
There's no way to answer every post, though I would like to, but I want everyone to know that I have been reading them. It's meant so much to me to see so many shiny folk express such loyalty and spirit. Browncoats shine their brightest when they band together for a cause they believe in. It was somethin' to see... and a reminder of how readily we can rise together when the need presents itself.
There was a recent post here that brought up some questions which relate to the relationship of the fans to Universal and the subject of fan made merchandise overall. So since it is a subject still up in the air and on our minds, thought it would be good to reply....
Quote:
Originally posted by Unsardonic:
Hi 11th-dahling...
So, I scanned down this thread & saw lots of congrats-'n-such but... I was wondering...
Had you never thought to go slightly beyond "guerilla-marketing" and simply go legitimate, that is, get together with the Universal marketing people, explain the depth of demand for Serenity items & why you managed to offer the marketplace things they wanted & then... sign-on to pay the royalties they want to turn you into a (the word is...) "licensee?"
I have nothing against being a legit licensee, however it does involve more than just signing on. I've discussed the matter with an actual real life licensee, and such an arrangement requires an upfront payment of lots, and lots, of cashy money from the prospective licensee. Plus, a major studio like Universal is more interested in dealing with a company that handles large quantities and big sales, otherwise it simply isn't worth Universal's time. There are expenses they incur when setting up a contract with a licensee, initial and ongoing expenses, and an individual isn't likely to generate the revenue required to make it worth their while.
As far as working with them in a promotional capacity, then that goes more into becoming employed by them, which is a whole 'nother matter. They could possibly set up the agreement as an independent contractor thing... but again, they would need to recognize this as a good business move. Serenity is a project in a holding pattern right now and they would need to make a conscious decision that they want to revitalize their support for it. Absent some announcement, Universal seems to be content to stay in a "wait and see" mode and let the fans continue to do promotion, at the fans' time and expense. Although with the recent heavy handed legal attack, it's bound to leave fans very wary about doing any activity which involves using copyrighted materal. And it's really really hard to promote something if you can't use the name.
Just because my particular case was resolved doesn't mean this is all over. We still don't know what Universal's new stance is regarding their intellectual property. I have received no communication from Universal, and apparently no official statement has been made. Believe me gang, you don't want to find out the hard way that you've stepped on their copyright toes.
I was in this fandom long before there was any licensed merchandise. The way that fans had t-shirts to spread the word was to make our own. It was the Wild West. When something needed to get done, we did it ourselves... and we did a great job. But the landscape has changed. Lawyers moved into town and the frontier got all civilized, less fun, less free, and more dangerous. We gotta tread carefully now. We can still spread the
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:)
I'm so into Firefly, my butt glows in the dark. And in the dark is where I am, lurking.
Which is somewhat stupid, considering my glowing butt.
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Really glad to hear it all worked out for you. You've done so much for us and our crew. Take care, and have a relaxing week this week!
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I'm glad you've made it through this mess okay. Had to have been nasty scary.... *shudder*
But...I hope this prompts people to be more aware of copyright laws. Too many people ignore them and then become indignant and feel like they're being personally attacked when bad things happen as a result. It sounds like your problem was more of a misunderstanding than anything, but I see things like this happen all too often. I just hope people learned a lot from this.
Sorry you had to be the "example" for Universal. :-[ And again, I'm glad it's over and that you're okay.
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