what do I do about this legal notice?

[knight1]

I just received this email today. I'm fairly new at all this, and not sure what I should do.

----------------------------------------
To whom it may concern:

We are trademark litigation counsel for Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen and Dualstar Entertainment Group. We are aware that your website offering pornographic material is electronically linked to "britney-spears-nudes.com" which is making unauthorized use of the domain name "olsentwinsnude.com".

As you are aware, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are well known celebrities, famous for their movies, televisions appearances and products. Mary-Kate and Ashley are interchangeably referred to by their given names and the common public identity "The Olsen Twins". Additionally our clients are currently operating a web site under the domain name "olsentwins.com". Through our clients' extensive usage, advertising and promotion of Mary-Kate and Ashley associated goods and services, their names, likenesses, identities, character and personae have become famous and highly regarded throughout the United States and the world and are associated with wholesome family values that are inextricably tied to our clients' good will and reputation in the eyes of the consuming public.

You and your company's linkage to "olsentwinsnude.com" or any website utilizing that domain name is a disparaging and unauthorized commercial use of our clients' name, likeness, identity and trademarks in violation of California and federal law and is causing irreparable damage and harm. Specifically, your usage of the domain name is in violation of the United States Lanham Act 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a) (unfair competition and false designation of origin); 15 U.S.C. 1125(c) (trademark
dilution); 15 U.S.C. 1125(d) (Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act); California Civil Code § 3344 (unauthorized commercial use of name) as well as common law invasion of privacy and right of publicity.

We hereby demand that you immediately terminate all links to your website from any other website using the domain name "olsentwinsnude.com"and any other domain names making reference to Mary-Kate and/or Ashley Olsen and and otherwise cease all usage of any domain names that are unauthorized use of our clients' name, likeness or identity, or any colorable imitation thereof.

We also demand that you immediately cease all similar usages in all forms of communications, including but not limited to all meta tags, links, search engine key words, or any other method or device.

In addition, we demand that you immediately provide us with an accounting of all sales and revenue derived from your linkage to the domain name "olsentwinsnude.com" and any other usage of any confusingly similar domain name or other form of communication as described in the previous paragraphs.

We further demand that you contact this office no later than forty-eight (48) hours from your receipt of this correspondence to advise us of your agreement to cooperate with the demands set forth above. If you fail to cooperate, or fail to contact this office within the requested time, our clients will proceed with a civil action seeking a preliminary and permanent injunction , and monetary damages, including disgorgement of profits, actual damages, costs and attorney fees. We anticipate your prompt response to this urgent matter.

Very truly yours,


David N. Makous of
LEWIS, D'AMATO, BRISBOIS & BISGAARD LLP
-----------------------------------------

Please help.

[knight1]

I should just add that I do not link to "olstintwinude.com" nor do I make any reference to the olstin twins on my site.

I only recently signed up to trade with britney-spears-nudes.com.

Should I just take off the link to britney-spear-nudes and leave it at that?

Or do I need to contact them about all that revenue stuff?

I'm really in a panic. I've never experienced anything like this before.

[wiZd0m]

You tought you were really cool with your stolen picture, now you are fucked

This is where people like you end up

------------------
wiZd0m

[UnseenWorld]

First, I'm not an attorney and you should probably talk to one about this. That said, I would probably quit any linking and ignore the rest. I doubt if they will pursue it further. And if they want to, let them get a court order first. At this stage, they are merely bluffing.

And, oh yeah, if you are smart, you will stay about as far away from celebrities and celebrity content as you can get.

------------------
Producer of truly original teen/young woman-oriented adult content at Wonders of the Unseen World

[This message has been edited by UnseenWorld (edited 06-21-2001).]

[RedShoe]

I think UnseenWorld is right, this sounds like a bluff.

Saddly, my wife works with the Olsen twins and she says they are little bitches. The funny thing is they refuse to be called "twins". They prefer "special sisters". They hate the term "twins" but that was the only domain they could get. LOL

Go over to http://xxx-law.com ask him what he thinks of the letter. He is a great adult webmaster lawyer.



------------------
...:::End Of Line:::...
------------------
* uSexFan.com
* ICQ : 114683191

[Gemini]

NEVER ignore a demand to contact. That could screw you in a sourt soooooo bad! Make sure you call them if possible and tape the conversation.

The stars are making a move and celeb sites are the target. Recently the guy using different takes on the Beatles names was ordered to turn over the sites to the Beatles. And he was just using them to redirect to a mainstream commercial site.

If you comply with their wishes they'll leave you alone most likely but to ignore a possible real legal notice can really be bad for your sunlight. The sunlight could end up with stripes in it from bars. lol Don't get worried about it but do make contact. That would show that you are trying to work with them to a judge if one ever gets involved.

[richard123]

Mate,
Just email 'em back saying you have complied with it all and you derived no revenues from the alledged use of any links potentially confusable with any of their clients. Looks like a form letter to me - I wouldn't worry about it

[ldinternet]

Lawyers and accountants: shoot 'em all!

[Sinnister]

Sounds like they are trying to scare of
everyone that's currently linking to that
site.

Personnally myself I wouldn't let anyone tell me
whom I can link to or not.



------------------
Just fucking click on it already !!

[boneprone]

I think you should ignore them.
Just be sure to keep in contact with this board to give us details if anything happens.

Other than than ignore them, or send them back a simple reply email with the statement
"ya like that?" in return.

Fuck em.


Remember to keep us posted with what happens and if any litigation occurs.

[boneprone]

Im soo bad.

But Im serious, fuck em.
Let me talk to em for ya. Gimmie your info and their info, I will represent you.

Let the boneprone family take care of this for you.

[boneprone]

Like the saying goes "You're in good hands with the boneprone family at your side"

[DarkJedi]

thats right - tell them to to go fuck themselves
they cant't do shit to you - you don't use the twins in any way, britney-spears-nudes.om does - so it's their problem

[shunga]

That's TWO form letters joined together.

The first paragraph is aimed at sites linking to sites that link to olsentwinsnude.com, and the second is aimed at olsentwinsnude.com itself. I can't see what law you're breaking by linking to a site that links to a site... You can take the link down and email them informing them that the link is now gone, or you can email them and ask them why you shouldn't link to a site that links to a site... But the legal mumbo-jumbo is there to frighten you. Don't be intimidated.

Have boneprone send the boys round.

[Phil21]

Uhm, that letter is the equivilent to legal bullshit. Mail them back citing the number of case precedents stating hyperlinking to ANYTHING is *NOT* illegal, and covered under free speech.

Especially hyperlinking to a site that hyperlinks to another site. Gimme a fucking break.

Litigeous(sp) companies like this need to die a slow ass horrible death. Unfortunately, you get people like those posting under this thread bending under their totally illegal demands because they get intimidated.

If I were you, I'll tell them exactly where to go, and let them try to get an injunction.

I hate lawyers.

-Phil

[MrBrian]

i got a letter saying that my exit link goes to yahoo and yahoo links porn so i must take off my yahoo link...jk

lol

i dont think you have anything to worry about. i do frown upon the guy with olsontwinsnude though. they are 15 years old. i would post a link to their 18th birthday countdown site. but, im respecting lensman's comment about postings of that nature. i will say the counter is over 1k days though...

[Incognito]

Hate to admit it but if You got guts enough mr.Boneprone is 100% right...

Tell them to go and fuck themselves in the worst possible way and in the worst words You know of.

I am no lawyer but You dont have to be one really to see that their email is a fucking bullshit.
You can notice it by a simple fact that even that site You link to DOES STILL EXIST which means that in reality they cant do a shit even to the "guilty" site...

And that's exactly where good news come. You see if You tell them to fuck off may be You get a chance that they will actually get really pissed off and try to do anything legal against You thinking that it's easier to take down a small webmaster......which is FUCKING cool cause they dont have a shit against You and You gonna win in any case but with such case You'll get a FREE huge public attention and popularity if lucky...

Think about it...
P.S. Let Boneprone handle this. I already imagine huge interviews over CNN about some fucking TWINS against Your FREE SPEECH in Your FREE country...

[Incognito]

I though it over a bit more and got even more pissed...


I think You DEFINETELY got to consult a lawyer. Cause though probably it's nothing but I reccomend You to find out if THEY got legal rights to send You over emails with a requests to contact them "immediately or else..." and to give them Your financial info.
Such stuff is a clear threat. I am not sure they got legal rights to threaten You in case of a link, though probably I am wrong.

[carnalpassion]

Hey, it never hurts to look more ito it yourself and see what is going to bite you in the ASS! I'm working with a lady who had a website called barbieflasher.com and you should see the trouble she got into, seems like the term 'barbie' was trademarked and she had to go to court, got fined big, had to turn over the domain name, and needless to say pay for her own atty too!

She then changed her whole site to blondeflasher.com and no problems now...

watch out if you don't got deep pockets!

[knight1]

Yes, thanks for all your help you guys.

I haven't emailed them back as yet.

But I will contact boneprone on his icq.

Who is boneprone anyway? You all seem to have a lot of respect for him.

Once again, thanks. I am not as worried now as I was before. You've kind of put my fears aside.

[Gemini]

I repeat: NEVER ignore a possible legal notification. I speak from personal experience. My ex ignored a seemingly innocent legal letter and we lost the farm. Literally lost it. 70+ acres with two houses on it. Had he contacted the letter writer we may not have lost it. The judge had one thing to say that stuck in his head... WHY did you ignore the legal notification? Bottom line is better to be safe than sorry. Precedence HAS been set with the beatles sites being remanded over from private hands.

Our attornet recommends that you contact them and demand legal notification thru the normal certified US Mail system which would verify that its the real thing.

[knight1]

You are right Gemini. They did in fact ask me to contact them. I have just sent them an email explaining that I've taken off the link.

Since boneprone asks that I keep this board informed of what happens, I have included the email below.

-----------------------------------

Hi.

I have taken off the link to britneys-spears-nudes.com from my site.

I have deleted the site from my trading script also. However it may still show on my site for a further few hours until the script resets itself. It will then be permanently removed.

I had only exchanged links with that site a few days ago. So no revenue has been derived.

I do not link to the olstintwinnude.com nor do I make any reference to the olstin twins on my site. It appears my only mistake was to trade with britney-spears-nudes.com. I have rectified that.

I am very sorry for the inconveniece this may have caused you, and your clients.

If the problem has to do with britney-spears-nudes.com, perhaps you should contact them and inform the webmaster to stop linking to olstintwinnudes.com

I have already sought legal advice on the matter. And I have been advised that it is inappropriate for you to request that I remove a hyperlink from a site which is hyperlinking to another site.

Google.com the search engine has a listing for britney-spears-nudes.com. It would be unreasonable, not to mention next to impossible for you to expect every site linking to Google to take their link down.

Sincerely,
H. S. Tseng

-------------------------------------------

[aprilkorova]

I'm not exactly sure as to your culpability in this matter due to me scanning thru the thread and not giving it the thourough reading it deserved....but...any link, site, program, etc. that is devoted to these girls is SICK and CP!

Disassociate yourself as far as you can and count your self lucky that you were warned ahead of time as opposed to legal action.

My son watches the Disney Channel and I remember overhearing a promo for them and it said that they were 14!

Can we all say CP?

[Phil21]

Jesus, read the fucking post before you go spouting off nonsense about CP.

This guy linked to A site. Which *IN TURN* linked to the olsen twins site. WTF?!

I'm actually sad to see he rolled over, as the letter was nothing more than a blank threat that lawyers send out to hundreds of people in hopes of frightening them.

As for precedence, go read up on it. It it not illegal to link to damn near anything, the case with the NY times against some other big corp. The site was linking to NYT articles, and NRY didn't like it. NYT lost big time. This is again being tried in the DeCSS case, but.. Wait! The injunction only prohibits listing direct links to the illegal content, so the party being sued (2600) just linked to a link site with links to it. It's still up.

So, basically this guy just got screwed in the ass by some idiot legal aide sending out cease and decist letters to people.

I'll go pull my links to google, or to another pornsite right now.. Because somewhere in chain I'm ASSUREDLY linking to someone who links to someone who links to someone who links to that site.

Just simply redicoulous. The nations legal system is an absolute fucking farce, and lawyers like this should lose their license for making illegal demands.

-Phil

[tenletters]

April,

Get your head out of your ass. Even if the site DID show them nude it doesn't make it CP. More like exploitation which is still disgusting.

People have been taking photos of nude children forever. Don't tell me you don't have some of your children.

Now don't get me wrong. There is a difference between nudity and blatant sexual positioning. Hell, I just removed a CP site from my bosses freehost, and emailed other freehosts that the same guy was using to post real cp.

I do feel that there is little use for nude photos, of children, online though and will not link to sites using these photos.

[aprilkorova]

WOW! Didn't either of your two read my post?

I admitted to not reading every post, only his and I scanned the others (which is a rarity, I was short on time at the moment).

I said very clearly, that I was not able to decipher HIS culpability (as far as how the FED/POLICE could do to him, legally). My advice to my fellow GFYer was to distance himself to any CP site, link, console, whatever(DUH!).

He, clearly, seems to have gotten into a link mess situation that any of us could get into.

My ONLY advice was to do what he needed to do to protect himself.

The Olsen Twins Are CP! WTF do you think 14 year olds are?

Even if they're all fake pics

[aprilkorova]

Assuming it is porn or of adult in nature, which I obviously assumed coming from a fellow porn webmaster.

April

[tenletters]

April just because they are nude doesn't mean the pics are CP !!

If the pics just showed them naked it's not CP.

Nudity is not porn. The human body is beautiful, even a childs.

What makes CP is when the photos imply/show sexual desire or act.

You don't see childporn when you look at your nude children do you? But by your own definition, you would be guilty of CP if you took nude photos of your own children even if they were just getting out of the bathtub.

I do want to mention again that nude children photos do not need to be online.

And I hope you look over the head/ass comment, April.

[tenletters]

<--- and I don't use a MAC ! LOL

[aprilkorova]

Thanks Ten Letters.

May I just Say DUHHHHHHHHHHH!

I am a mother, I am well aware of the difference between CP and children frolicking naked pictures.

Being that this is an adult webmaster board and the vast majority of our threads are of an adult nature and the URL of the site, it kinda gave me a clue that the twins weren't posing in their Sunday Whites LOL.

If I'm wrong....spank me. I may not make it to Vegas, but we'll meet sooner or later.

[tenletters]

April,

I will agree that the majority of the photos we come into contact, of nude children, are being used not in a way that is right.

I also agree that it is twisted to use children is such a way.

I do however see a [EDIT] difference [/EDIT] in nudity and porn.

And though you are not wrong, I'd still take you up on that spanking thing, hehe.

[This message has been edited by tenletters (edited 06-21-2001).]

[aprilkorova]

OOOOO! You bad boy!

I am ,currently, betrothed. But, I don't think a friendly paddle on the rear would be considered betrayment.

[DragonAss]

Reminds me of Mastercad's lawyers pulling similar crap:

Mastercard's threating letter is here: http://www.netfunny.com/rhf/price.html

And the guys response: http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~umroyma...ard/mcrhf.html

Basically, they really have NO legal justification for their demands about 3rd party links... but it's good that you responded just so you don't fall into any technically legal bullshit traps. Of course, even a simple "Go Fuck Yourself" would've constituted a response no?

If you're making money, there will be different rules concerning the usage stuff, but even then I highly doubt those sharks have many (if any) in their favor.

[knight1]

haha Dragonass thats funny.

If only I could have thought of something like that to reply

[DarkJedi]

Man (knight1), your e-mail reply stinks.
You shouldn't have taken the link down. And your reply should have been like this:

"Suck my ass shit heads. If you ever spam me again I'll sue the fuck out of your olsenbitches. Now www.gofuckyourself.com "

[shunga]

Originally posted by aprilkorova:
I don't think a friendly paddle on the rear would be considered betrayment.

Form a line, guys.

[Kat - Fast]

http://www.olsentwinsnude.com doesn't exist....

[shunga]

Originally posted by Kat:
http://www.olsentwinsnude.com doesn't exist....

I think "no longer" exists would be right.

[boneprone]

leave April alone.. She's one of the boneprone babes.

[Pure]

if they sent you that notice, and you dont even use those two twin bitches on your site, why are they bothering you?

Angelfire doesnt have CP/Porn, they just have links on their site to them, correct?

Ok, maybe i'm just blabbin, I dont know

[brocklanders]

14, huh? Omg, I can't wait another 4 years... They have serious potential!


Hey Boneprone, you likey:
http://www.playerdome.net/www/teens/boneprone.htm

Going to be in Vegas @ Treasure Island, with some outlawed GFY posters. Where you gonna be?

--Brock

[Pete]

Just e-mail them back and say "Fuck Off" Let us know what happens:-))

[DamageX]

knight1,

Mate, why the fuck do you shit yourself like that when a lawyer sends you a threatening e-mail? Dude, THINK, you're in Australia, the Olsen bitches are in the US. Even if had posted fake pics of their titties on your site, their lawyers would still have to go through a lot more to get to you. On your home turf it's YOUR NATIONAL LAWS that apply. Don't you know that's why European webmasters get away with spam (not that I spam myself, but I guess I just put some fire under my ass)? Grow a pair of balls, mate.

Respect,
DamageX

[winter]

Everyone:

I own britney-spears-nudes.com. Here's the story about this incident...

I registered the olsentwinsnude.com thing a long time ago thinking they would be popular in a few years and I'd get lots of hits from type ins like kournikovanude.com or something similar. I set it up to redirect to my real site britney-spears-nudes.com. I totally forgot about it for months since it didn't send decent traffic. The lawyer guy emailed me with a similar letter with "Cease and Decist" as the subject line. I have complied with all of their demands, and the domain name, olsentwinsnude.com, is being transferred to them as we speak.

They send similar form letters to ALL websites with .com names involving the olsen twins and ALL websites using olsen twins content that they haven't released to webmasters to use.

Now I have no idea in HELL why they sent that email to half my trades. My best guess is that the lawyer guy thought people were linking to olsentwinsnude.com which redirected to britney-spears-nudes.com which in fact they weren't.

Knight1, you shouldn't have to do anything, because the issue is 99% resolved at this moment. I'm just waiting for the word from registerclub.com that the domain has been transferred.

I'm quite embarrassed about this whole thing and really wish I never registered the domain. The thing is you never know who is going to go after webmasters with threatening letters, like Alyssa Milano did.

Adam

[winter]

As for the few that were talking about CP, there was no content on olsentwinsnude.com, it wasn't even a website. The only thing that existed was a domain name which redirected to brintey-spears-nudes.com.

I think they are 15 now.