Avoiding & Dealing with Lawyers
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On this page you will learn some ways of avoiding having a lawyer contact you. These are not a guaranteed methods. These are only tips which might help keep you out of their interest. If you should get contacted by a lawyer, don't panic! There are things you could do to protect yourself from being intimidated. However, you should never go by just what you read on this site. The best advice for dealing with lawyers is to find a lawyer for yourself. If you do not have the money (and most of us don't), some of you may qualify for legal assistance from your county government. Check your phone books for listings. But if you wish to take a big risk and do it all on your own, this page offers some tips and examples of one way you could go about this. With luck you might keep your web site intact and the lawyers off your back. Most lawyers pick on the uninformed and easily intimidated, and tend to back off when someone shows some knowledge of the laws and their own legal rights. Check the links on the main page of this site for some other resources that may also help.
Avoiding Lawyers
The first rule of thumb is not to get their attention, but be able to get other fan's attention. This may seem impossible, since any advertising you do is seen by everybody. However, most laywers don't have the time to monitor all parts of the internet. Generally, they hang out in newsgroups and mailing lists, look up their company and clients (stars) in search engines (a.k.a. 'ego searching') and links off of other fan sites they happen to come across.
What are they looking for? It varies depending on company policy. Generally, they are looking for people who are selling or significantly displaying pictures of their product or copyright material. By significantly I mean entire archives of entire shows or other works (movies, videos, songs, etc.) But some do go after fans who have only one or two of these things. This is wrong because you are protected by the Fair Use part of the Copyright Law (more on this is found on the main page). They also like to shut down sites that have particularly high traffic.
How to avoid being seen, yet available to new fans? First, let's start with...
Search Engines. A search engine is like Yahoo! or Excite. These search engines not only rely on webmasters to submit their site URL (address) to them, but they also use automated programs that go out and try different domain names. These programs are called bots, robots, or spiders. When the program finds a page, it "reads" the text and reports it back to the search engine with the URL, which is why some of the search engine descriptions you get are rather messy looking. It was probably "spidered". Next, the spider will look for any links referenced on that page, visit those links and do the same to those, too. How do you stop these spiders from reporting back and entering your site in the search engine, where lawyers can find you? You can place a meta tag in your HTML code. It's really easy. For example...
<html> <head> <meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow"> <title>Your Page Title</title> <!--- The rest of your web page goes here. ---> ... </head> <body>
Not all spiders will honor this! Unfortunately, some spiders don't suppor this type of meta tag. But at least it's better than nothing!
More careful use of meta tags might further protect you from unwanted searches, yet allow new fans to find you. Most all spiders do support these meta tags. Just be sure to put these between the <head> and </head> areas of your HTML file!
<meta name="description" content="This page ....">
The description meta tag lets you describe your web page in one sentence. You put that sentence in quotes after the "Content" part. This is the description that shows up when someone searches for sites.
<meta name="keywords" content="This page ....">
The keywords meta tag lets you assign keywords that will lead people to your site. Put the keywords in between the quotes after the "Content" part, separated by commas.
Don't link to official sites! Try not to link to any official sites run by the company that your favorite celebrity works for, or any of his or her official affiliations. These will point search engines to your site as well when lawyers do ego searches.
Hide your identity!! This is highly recommended for fan sites! If they can't find your real name, address, general location, IP address or phone number, they really can't do anything to you personally. All that they could do at worse is force the company that hosts your web site to remove the files and shut your site down. Ways to hide your identity:
When signing up for these, always use them when working on your fan site. Do not sign up for e-mail or web hosting with your normal ISP where you can be tracked! When signing up for these services (especially the free ISP, which you should do first), be sure you don't give out the following information!
When you sign up for a free host, which is highly recommended for fan sites, do not give out your real name, address, or even state or zip code. Even if the "Terms of Use" say so. I know this sounds 'unfair' but the worst they can do is close your site. Normally they won't even know to do this unless the lawyers are really desparate and submit a legal warrant to obtain server information. They could go as far as to trace your IP address you used when you signed on (in which case, it's nice to have a back-up ISP, a free one, which you didn't give your real name and location to). This way, if they are hot on your trail, they will shut you down anyway, but at least, they won't be able to find you and make you agree to anything, leaving you free to restart the site somewhere else. It's always best to start with another name, a different look, alias, etc. and rearrange the content differently. Collect e-mails of frequent visitors and save it, if you can (those who contact you about the site and friends you make). Then notify the fans only that you know you can trust and have them spread the word - it's you. :)
Dealing with Lawyers
What if you do all this and you still got a threatening letter from some legal department? It can happen, but don't panic! Your best bet is to get legal representation for yourself fast. There are referral services and even free assistance to those who qualify. Look through your phone book, and make a few phone calls before you get contacted for anything. Be prepared! This way, if you should run up against trouble, you won't be taking your lunch break sifting through huge phone books for Uncle John's favorite attourney! If you want to take your chances and stand up to them on your own, you could. It just might work, too, if they lawyers see that you are not intimidated and are informed of your rights and the Law! Let's take a look at a sample letter. If they should find your snail mail address and also send you a letter by that means, then you definitely must get an attourney of your own. Have your own lawyer handle it. However, if it's just a simple e-mail threat, here's what it might look like and a sample letter you can try (at your own risk) to send back to them, if you are confident they don't know who your are!
(your name here)
RE: Company That Likes To Sue
Domain Name: Your IP address/Your e-mail ID
Dear (you):
We represent the Company That Likes To Sue, which is the owner of all the following logos, trademarks and copyrights (they then list them). We have the exclusive right to exploit these copyrighted works and trademarks, and, as the only provider of this type of entertainment, we have substantial and valuable assets in these trademarks. (yada yada yada...)
It has come to our attention that you maintain a web site called (your site name here) located at (your URL here) that contains numerous copyrighted works owned by our company, including (list of stuff they don't want you to have). We believe that your display of these items on your web site is in violation of US copyright laws.
While we appreciate your enthusasm and dedication to our clients and our offerings, we hope you understand our need to protect our intellectual property rights. We do not wish to loose these rights, so we are put in a rather difficult position when we have to contact you regarding your use of our materials. You must understand that such an infringement makes it hard for us to deliver the quality of entertainment that you have enjoyed.
Therefore, on behalf of the company we represent, we have no choice but to demand that you immediately cease and desist publication of all infringing works that you have on your site that we consider to be our intellectual property. As a result, we demand that you do the following to avoid further legal action, fines or imprisonment:
1. Remove all of our copyrighted works (list of items they want you to remove) from your site and do not publish these works or similar works belonging to us ever again.
2. Stop using our logos (if that is what you were doing, etc.)
3. We will need you to reply to us in writing and with your signature that you have complied with these requirements.
We believe that you will still be able to offer information and discuss our product on your web site after you comply with our demands. Compliance will just insure that you do so in a way that does not infringe on our intellectual property rights. You may refer to our stars, programs, etc. in any descriptive way such as commentary and news reports, but you may not use our trademarks or other marks in a way that may suggest they belong to you or your site. Moreover, you may not use our logos or copyrighted works such as images of your favorite stars without express authorization from us. We will continue to monitor your web site to be sure you stay in compliance with our demands.
We cannot stress enough how important our fans are to us and we do appreciate your enthusasm and support. But we cannot continue to deliver quality entertainment to our fans if our fans will not in turn respect our intellectual property rights. We wish to resolve this matter in a friendly way, so please cooperate with us in respecting our intellectual property. Your prompt attention to this matter is required and appreciated.
Sincerely,
(lawyers who want to sue you)
Ok, first off, the above letter is complete baloney! If you get a letter similar to this, or any letter demanding something from you, read it over thoroughly. Send a letter back stating you recieved the letter and you are reviewing it with a 3rd party, even if you don't have a 3rd party involved (yet). Next, look at the terms of use from your site and see which parts of the letter contradict them. Let's suppose you are using the terms of use from this site on your own. You can write and let them know that they are in violation of an agreement that they entered with you by visiting your site, and thus their demands are null and void! You can also mention that when they entered your site, they understand that your use of their so-called intellectual property was in accordance with the Fair Use Copyright Law (quote actual part of Terms of Use where you can). If you still are intimidated, then you will want to contact and attourney anyway. Here is a sample letter you could give back to them in response. Do not send this snail mail! Only e-mail it back to them using the same account that they e-mailed you, and be sure to use your Free ISP account that you hopefully made under an alias when sending the e-mail!
Dear (Company that wants to sue you);
I recieved your letter and can understand your concern over what you believe is your intellectual property and copyright material. However, the demanding tone of your letter was not necessary or warranted. When you visited my site you agreed to the terms of use which state:
In the terms below, WEBMASTER refers to the owner(s) and/or maintainer(s) of this entire web site. (This means that WEBMASTER, in effect, refers to myself.)
- You agree not to threaten, harass, take legal action against, coerse, make demands or requests of, or force signatures or other legal contracts with the WEBMASTER no matter what the reason, even if you feel you have legal right.
- You agree not to hold the WEBMASTER liable for anything you find on this site.
You state that you appreciate our enthusasm for your product. However, compliance with your demands would leave us with no graphic view of the stars on our site, and therefore would severely hinder ours and other's enjoyment of your product. Many fans go to fan sites for images and other material which they can not obtain from you. Many fans go on to buy your offerings because they saw this material from a fan site and as a result became more interested in what you have to offer. That is how I got started, too. By stifling our right to use some of your material freely, you are stifling further revenue for yourselves.
In addition, due to a clause in the US Copyright Law, the general public is allowed limited use of your material as an example and to go along with a report or commentary. This includes your logos and other material, so long as we give proper credit, as I have on my site. Keep in mind that by visiting my site you also agreed with these statements:
- Unless specified otherwise, the WEBMASTER does not claim ownership to anything found on this site.
- The WEBMASTER does not knowingly intend or attempt to offend or violate any copyright or intellectual property rights of any entity.
- To the best of the WEBMASTER's knowledge, all content, images, videos, sounds, photos, etc., if any, are being used in compliance with FAIR USE COPYRIGHT LAW 107.
- The WEBMASTER does not claim any affliation or connection with the celebrities or any other entity referenced on this site.
- This is a fan-operated site and the WEBMASTER is not compensated for any portion of this site in any way.
Therefore, I must demand that you immediately cease and desist any further contact with me regarding this matter. I am convinced, and willing to prove that you have no legal complaint against what I offer on my site. If you wish to continue to contact me in the same manner or more agressively, I will have no choice but to exercise my right to freedom of speach and publish all corespondance (including all previous corespondance), and further complain about your demands to other fans and the public on the internet and elsewhere I deem necessary. This might further put your revenue and reputation more at risk than it would letting me continue with my web site the way it is. You may even recieve complaints by other fans regarding this matter.
(If you got yourself a lawyer, add this part...)
Furthermore, all further correspondance on this issue is to be sent to the following address and NOT to me!
(Put your lawyer's contact information here.)
Sincerely,
Webmaster of (site name & URL).
Do not give any personal or identifiable information such as real name, etc. in your letter!
WARNING: Sending this letter may get you in more trouble, but it may also make the lawyers back off, especially if enough of us fans do this! Just be prepared to back up your claims!
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