Dear TimeWarner-AOL : Bite me.

This is what I got late last night :

From: margaret_langston@timeinc.com
Date: 28 February 2007 06:57:58 PM EST
To: Liza Sabater ...

Subject: Re: DMCA Copyright Notice

Dear Website Proprietor:
I am an attorney for Time Inc., the corporate publisher of People Magazine. This will put you on notice that Time Inc. has concluded an agreement with a photo agency for exclusive rights to publish photographs of Patrick Dempsey and his family (including his newborn twins) in People Magazine and on People.com. These are the only photographs of Mr. Dempsey and his twins now in existence.

In the past your website has posted photographs which have been licensed exclusively to Time Inc. for publication in People Magazine and on People.com, in violation of Time Inc.’s exclusive rights.
This letter is an official notification under the provisions of Section 512(c) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that the posting of any photographs of Patrick Dempsey and/or any other members of his family with his newborn twins, would infringe Time Inc.’s rights in North America, Australia and New Zealand.

I have a good faith belief that use of such photographs in the manner set forth herein would not be authorized by of Time Inc., its licensing representatives, or the law. The information provided herein is accurate to the best of my knowledge. I hereby swear under penalty of perjury that I am authorized to act on behalf of Time Inc. for matters pertaining to notification of infringement of its exclusive rights in its copyrighted material.

Very truly yours

Nicholas J. Jollymore
Deputy General Counsel
Time Inc.
nicholas_jollymore@timeinc.com

Here is my response:

Excuse me Margaret Langston and/or Nicholas Jollymore,

I am perplexed and confounded by your email. Is this an announcement about Mr. Dempsey's photographs or is this a threat?

When I published the photo of the cover of a Hello! Magazine a year ago, I did so under fair use clause of the DMCA and in a manner that was never meant to reproduce the exclusive photographs that appeared inside the magazine. Not only that, the article was an opinion piece on Fair Use which was far from an appropriation of the image for "gossip" news.

Yet Time-AOL encouraged Above.net to harass and intimidate Simpli.biz and me in a manner contrary to the protocol and procedure set in the DMCA. Notwithstanding the fact I received private contacts from counsels at Getty Images who agreed with me on the points on fair use and who believed Time Warner-AOL was using the DMCA to cover up for a bad business decision.

I see you insist in making the same mistakes --and with a lesser celebrity at that. Oh dear.

As much as I would like to get excited about your paranoia, nobody really gives a rodent's bottom about Mr. Dempsey's twins. I hope you have good luck with your photographs. You are going to need it.

As with this email, I will make sure it gets added to the archives of both the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Chilling Effects.

Cheers,
Liza Sabater
www.culturekitchen.com

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