July 16, 1999 |
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Around 6 months ago, someone from Universal Pictures wrote to me because I had some Universal trailers on my site that they held all the rights to, and they wanted them removed. I quickly looked over my server, found the Universal trailers that were kept there and removed them. I responded, saying that all the trailers that I was hosting had been removed and all that remained were links to other servers which I didn't run or have control over. I received no further replies. On July 7th, I received the following... July 7, 1999 Direct Dial: (818) 777-6287 Facsimile: (818) 866-2166 VIA FAX & MAIL (613) 733-8165 Mr. Jean-Pierre Bazinet 16 Rosegarden Cres. Ottawa, Ontario K1T 3B2 CANADA Re: Unauthorized Use of Universal Property Dear Mr. Bazinet: You are well aware that Universal representatives have contacted you before regarding your illegal activity. This matter has now been forwarded to me for handling. Specifically, I am referring to your blatant display and sale of trailers of Universal Pictures' ("Universal") motion picture properties on your website (located at http://www.movie-list.com). Indeed, you are displaying and selling so many of our properties that they are too numerous to list them here; yet, rest assured, Universal has the exclusive rights to said motion picture properties, and these rights include all of the motion pictures' visual elements. You are hereby put on notice that the unauthorized display, sale, reproduction, marketing and/or distribution by you of original and/or copies of Universal's trailers constitutes copyright infringement, and is in violation of both state and federal laws concerning copyright protection, unfair competition and dilution. Your conduct - for which there can be no defense whatsoever - will likely subject you to liability for damages, including statutory penalties (of up to $100,000 per infringement), in addition to attorneys' fees and costs, and a disgorgement of profits from your sales. Universal intends to protect its valuable rights in its motion pictures from such violations to the full extent afforded by law and equity. In accordance with that intent, we hereby demand that you immediately remove all Universal trailers from your website, and that you cease and desist from marketing, selling, or otherwise making available any CD-rom containing one or more Universal trailers. If you require assistance in identifying which properties belong to Universal, then we will be happy to provide that information. Please provide written confirmation, no later than July 14, 1999, that you will comply. If we do not hear from you within this time period, then we will have no choice but to pursue the matter further to protect our rights. Such action would include contacting your internet service provider, as your activity clearly violates its express terms of use. Finally, please be advised that this letter is not intended to be a complete statement of the facts or law concerning this matter, nor a waiver of any of Universal's rights or remedies, whether at law or at equity, all of which are expressly reserved. Very truly yours, /s/ Carolyn A. Hampton Litigation Counsel I again, went to my server and looked for any Universal trailers I might be hosting, and quickly removed them. I then went through the trailers CD's, marking all the Universal trailers. I removed the titles from the CD's, the webpage listings and made it very clear on the main page (www.movie-list.com/trailercd.html) that no Universal trailers were on the CD-ROMs anymore. I emailed and faxed back the following. July 9, 1999 Re: Unauthorized Use Of Universal Property All Universal trailers on the CD-ROMs have been removed. A full list of which were removed follows. All Universal trailer on the http://www.movie-list.com server have been removed (Army Of Darkness, Babe, Babe: Pig In The City, Backdraft, Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas and Jaws). All other trailers contained on the site, are simply links to other servers (such as http://www.universal.com, http://www.hollywood.com, and http://www.loewscineplex.com) If you think there are any trailers that I have missed, or if there are any other problems, please let me know. As a sidenote: I do not see why Universal should have a problem with me distributing unaltered promotional material for their movies, providing them with free advertising and increased sales for their motion pictures. But I fully intend to comply with any requests regarding legal issues. Jean-Pierre Bazinet Removed from CD-ROMs: 12 Monkeys Apollo 13 Babe: Pig In The City Back To The Future (1, 2, 3) BASEketball Black Dog Blues Brothers 2000 Boxer, The Bride Of Chucky Cape Fear Casino Casper Daylight Dragonheart Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas Fierce Creatures For Richer Or Poorer Grace Of My Heart Half Baked Happy Gilmore Jackal, The Kissing A Fool Kull The Conqueror Leave It To Beaver Liar Liar Lost World: Jurassic Park Mallrats Meet Joe Black Mercury Rising Mystery Science Theatre 3000 Out Of Sight Patch Adams Primary Colors Psycho Relic, The Scent Of A Woman They Live Thing, The Trigger Effect, The Village Of The Damned Virus Waterworld So far, I don't believe anything strange has happened. I can see how Universal would not like their trailers being sold or hosted on another server. I complied and removed all trailers in both these cases. The part that shocked me was the reply I received next... Mr. Bazinet: As other Universal representatives previously explained to you, you are not permitted to link to other sites that contain our copyrighted material without our authorization. Not only is this activity another violation of our intellectual property rights, it also violates your internet service provider's terms of service. Accordingly, you must remove all images from our films as well as links to other sites that have our trailers. Thank you, in advance, for your prompt attention to this matter. Very truly yours, Carolyn A. Hampton It seems to me, if my linking to another site requires Universal's authorization, then there are quite a few large internet sites and companies breaking this law on a daily basis... > Mr. Bazinet: > > As other Universal representatives previously explained to you, you are not > permitted to link to other sites that contain our copyrighted material > without our authorization. Other Universal representatives told me I could not host or sell copyrighted material. Nobody ever mentioned linking to a site, that may have some of your material on it. If this were illegal, all search engines (including yahoo.com and lycos.com) would be violating the law everytime a search were conducted. If this is truely illegal, send me the law stating this and all the links will be removed. > Not only is this activity another violation of > our intellectual property rights, it also violates your internet service > provider's terms of service. Accordingly, you must remove all images from > our films as well as links to other sites that have our trailers. My internet service provider forbids me from hosting illegal material. There are NO Universal trailers on my server. The images (captured from your trailers) will be removed. Forgive me for sounding blunt, but these attempts to basically shutdown my personal site seem VERY misplaced. I am not a business and I am causing Universal NO harm. I am simply pointing users to places on the internet where they can download completely legal movie trailers, released BY Universal FOR Universal movies. There are hundreds of other sites, doing the EXACT same thing and I am very certain, that they have received no threatening letters, such as I have. Jean-Pierre Bazinet Movie-List http://www.movie-list.com I thought maybe now I would receive a few answers. I thought I made some valid points... You are simply not telling the truth. I have copies of all of the correspondence sent to you. Moreover, I have neither the time nor the obligation to send you copies of case law. Simplenet's terms of service are sufficient and they expressly forbid the type of activity you are conducting on your site. If you do not comply with our terms, then I will take up the issue with simplenet.
I guess not. |
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July 19, 1999 |
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Finally got an email from SimpleNet... only took them 6 days. Dear SimpleNet Customer, If you have received a formal complaint from Universal, we advise that you comply IMMEDIATELY. If we receive a formal complaint from them, we will have no choice but to suspend your site (per legal obligation). Rather than have that unfortunate situation, please cooperate with them. SimpleNet policies do state that copyrighted material is not permitted on our accounts without the express authorization of the copyright holder. In light of your contacting us first, we will not suspend your account at this time. However, if we do receive a complaint from Universal, we will have no choice. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter. SimpleNet Abuse Review
Gee.. thanks for not suspending my site. The point was that there was no copyrighted material
on my site. It's all on other servers, who have the rights to use them.
I'm currently looking into other servers as well. |
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July 20 1999 |
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I replied with the following: The point of my letter, was that there was NO copyrighted material on my site. All I do, is direct users to other sites that have 100% legal material (such as www.hollywood.com) using links. The same way a search engine links to different sites when you conduct a search. Universal is saying that I am not allowed to link to any other servers that contain their material, even though the servers have the rights to use them. Again, I emphasize that, I have no copyrighted material on my account. Jean-Pierre Bazinet Movie-List http://www.movie-list.com |
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July 21, 1999 |
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He replied: Mr. Bazinet,You are not a registered search engine, therefore you cannot consider yourself under the same guidelines. Universal HAS contacted us at this time. The situation is now that you must abide WHATEVER Universal insists upon. If not, we will have no choice but to suspend your site. We are bound to do so legally. Please comply with them IMMEDIATELY. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter. Sincerely, SimpleNet Abuse Review
You have to register to be a search engine now? Funny... I haven't heard that one before. |
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July 22, 1999 |
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I put up the message board: |
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July 23, 1999 |
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Sent this to SimpleNet today: Please confirm receipt of this email.I am removing all links to Universal movies as they requested. I would also like a copy of anything they have sent you, for legal purposes. If you could forward them to me, I would appreciate it. Jean-Pierre Bazinet Movie-List http://www.movie-list.com The gutless babies sent me this: Dear Simplenet Customer,We wish to inform at this time that if you require documentation of Universal's correspondence with us, you will have to request that of Universal. This mater is between you and them, our only involvement would/could be to suspend and reactivate your account based on your cooperation with them. Sincerely, SimpleNet Abuse Review Sent this to Universal today: > If you require assistance in identifying which> properties belong to Universal, then we will be happy to provide that > information. I've removed all the Universal trailers I was able to find... Please let me know if there are any more. I am currently checking with lawyers as to whether or not you can copyright an Internet Link. I'll be sure to let you know what they say. Yours so very truly, Jean-Pierre Bazinet Movie-List http://www.movie-list.com |
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July 27, 1999 |
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Getting some press... Wired.com features this article... Universal: Don't Link to Usby Oscar S. Cisneros 3:00 a.m. 27.Jul.99.PDT A Web site that aggregates links to movie trailers online has come under fire from a major movie studio that says the links infringe on its copyrights. "Every time someone posts something on the Internet it's now for public viewing and most of the time I'm just pointing to the address," said Jean-Pierre Bazinet, owner of Movie-List. "I don't see how you can copyright or make restrictions on posting an address." Bazinet, whose site features links to externally hosted movie trailers, received a letter from Universal Studios representatives asking him to cease linking to movie trailers on their Web servers. "[Y]ou are not permitted to link to other sites that contain our copyrighted material without our authorization," the company wrote. "Accordingly, you must remove all images from our films as well as links to other sites that have our servers." Movie-List's legal scuffling with Universal began almost six months ago when a Universal representative contacted Bazinet and asked him to quit using the movie studio's digitized movie previews. Bazinet had no objections and removed the trailers from his Web servers and CD-ROM collections. "Then they contacted me and said I wasn't allowed to link to any of their servers containing the trailers -- that I don't understand," he said. "I'm basically sending a user to their servers." Citing a policy against discussing legal matters in action, Universal declined to comment on the matter. Legal experts did comment, however, saying the legal landscape surrounding deep linking, or hyperlinking deep into another's Web page, is fraught with unpaved ways. "The question of deep linking is unsettled in the law right now," said David Hayes, chair of the intellectual property group at the law firm Fenwick & West. Since no court has ruled on the issue, a guiding precedent has not been established to govern who has the right to link deep into the Web site of another person or company. Some major Web-site owners contend that because they have a lot invested in their pages they should dictate who can and who can't link into their site. Others, however, contend that they have as much right to direct users to a specific Web page as they do to point out a billboard on the street. "It's a pretty broad issue because, as you know, linking is ubiquitous on the Web," Hayes said. Although there are no major court decisions on record, Hayes said a series of settlements in deep linking cases have established a trend. "They were settled by the defendant agreeing to link only to the main page," he said. For example, when Ticketmaster sued Microsoft for deep linking from its Sidewalk.com site, the software giant eventually backed down. The parties settled out of court, with Microsoft agreeing not to deep link into Ticketmaster's site. Ticketmaster's main complaint was that users hyperlinking deep into its site were missing several banner ads they would have seen if they had entered through the frontdoor, Hayes said. "They felt they were getting harmed in their ad revenues -- they weren't getting as many eyeballs," he said. Microsoft, meanwhile, argued its links were a First Amendment right. Legal experts were watching as Ticketmaster and Microsoft duked it out. Had the companies fought to the end, the decision in their trial might have cleared the fog surrounding the issue. One expert watching the trial was Jeffery Kuester, an Internet law specialist who maintains his own law and technology resource page called KuesterLaw. "The Web's not the Web if you can't link," he said. But where the line should be drawn between the right to link and the right to protect one's intellectual property is for the courts to decide, he added. The trailer links on Movie-List technically point to other servers, but only the URLs mark the pages as studio content. Kuester says the average user is likely to be confused, because the trailers appear to be part of Movie-List's pages. Both Kuester and Hayes agreed that while HTML originally facilitated deep linking from one scholar's footnote to the original academic source, people shouldn't abuse it. "I think [Movie-Link's deep linking] does subvert the philosophy on which the Web was founded," Fenwick's Hayes said. He pointed out that although copy machines were designed to make copies, not all reproductions are legal.
Carolyn Hampton at Universal contacted me, by phone, saying that there has been some sort of misunderstanding and that they never intended to shut down the site.
They say, they have no problem with me having Universal movies on the site, but would like me to link to the webpage instead of the trailer itself when it is on a Universal server.
On other servers, such as hollywood.com and loewscineplex.com, she says, it is upto those servers to deal with.
She also has no problem with me having images from the trailers. Some people chatting away about "deep linking" issues here... http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a379dd6b855a3.htm |
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July 28, 1999 |
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and here... http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/07/28/1436208&mode=threadWe're in french too http://www.zdnet.fr/cgi-bin/a_actu.pl?File_ini=a_actu.zd&ID=10263 |
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August 12, 1999 |
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'nother article... I like this one the best. http://www.salonmagazine.com/tech/col/rose/1999/08/12/deep_links/index.html |
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