During my trip to Washington, D.C., I had a chance to catch up on some matters neglected while I was overseas. My attorney may have to file a lawsuit against Mr. Michael Moore. In May we contacted Mr. Moore, through his counsel, about Mr. Moore’s unauthorized use of my work on his website. He did not respond. My attorney has written again. If Mr. Moore and his counsel continue to ignore our correspondence, we will proceed with a lawsuit.
Via Jules Crittenden, 75th Annual Maggie’s Farm Blog Awards; also, The Burgies.
Comment by Joe on 1/13 @ 1:27 pm #
Obviously not all torts are bad. Go get em Yon. Unleash the dogs of litigation.
Comment by Mikey NTH on 1/13 @ 5:45 pm #
Go get the fat ‘friend of the working man’.
Comment by meya on 1/13 @ 6:11 pm #
Is Moore dropping names in violation of the copyright act? tsk tsk tsk.
Comment by Mikey NTH on 1/13 @ 6:21 pm #
No, meya. IIRC, he was using a picture of Yon’s, a copyrighted picture, without permission or paying for it.
Comment by meya on 1/13 @ 6:38 pm #
Its not up anymore — I didn’t get that from the Yon article, I thought his communications had no effect. I wonder if he registered the pic. If not, he may be quite limited in his damages.
Comment by Ric Locke on 1/13 @ 7:03 pm #
Quite true, meya, but that’s limited almost entirely to monetary damage. Copyright exists as soon as the work does, and it would be trivial to establish (by witness testimony, if no other way) that Yon had it up first and claimed it as his work.
Non monetary damages are an entirely different kettle of fish. Make him take it down. Make him admit he stole it. Make him leave it up with an explanatory paragraph accepting blame and apologizing. If he fails to comply, the offense/tort is no longer copyright infringement, it’s contempt of court and refusing a legal order of the court, and the only reason the sky’s the limit on those is that lawyers have to breathe occasionally.
Regards,
Ric
Comment by Mikey NTH on 1/13 @ 8:25 pm #
#5 meya:
It may not have been in that article, but I do recall Yon having this problem in the past with Moore, and his article does inidcate that this issue has been in contention for a few months, with Yon’s lawyer sending letters to Moore, or his lawyers, and not receiving replies.
Comment by meya on 1/13 @ 9:10 pm #
“Make him take it down.”
I think he already did. It wasn’t on the Moore site when I looked. This was unclear from the Yon quote though.
“Make him admit he stole it. Make him leave it up with an explanatory paragraph accepting blame and apologizing.”
I think it will be hard if not impossible to get this, specially when the monetary damages are low.
“and his article does inidcate that this issue has been in contention for a few months, with Yon’s lawyer sending letters to Moore, or his lawyers, and not receiving replies.”
Yeah it looks like Yon wants an actual reply, not just that it be taken down.
Comment by MAJ (P) John on 1/13 @ 10:18 pm #
So Mr. Minutemen of the Revolution was only a thief for a few months then…