---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 3 Jun 1996 09:31:32 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dennis Derryberry <dennis@eff.org>
To: Arthur Chandler <arthurc@crl.com>
Subject: Re: Cease and Desist! (fwd)
On Sun, 2 Jun 1996, Arthur Chandler wrote:
>
> Greetings! I'm Arthur Chandler, one of the "wizards" (system
> administrators") of an all-text virtual reality named BayMOO. We have been
> around for almost 3 years, and have a community of about 2,000 people who
> build virtual objects, exchange ideas, host conferences and classes, etc.
> We are non-profit, and are housed on a Sun Sparc20 at San Francisco State
> University.
> We received the message cited below the other day from a man who
> apparently feels that the name of one of our player's rooms violates his
> exclusive right to "Mystical Crossroads." BayMOO is accessible through the
> web, and generates an "on-the-fly" temporary page so that visitors can
> browse rooms, objects, etc. (Go to http://130.212.41.251:4242/ for a look).
> Does anyone at EFF have any advice or experience with this issue? If
> our players decide to name their rooms "Microsoft" or "Coca-Cola," can
> those companies legitimately force us to cease and desist?
> I realize this issue may sound like a laugher. But so have many other
> cases, which have wound up in court with substantial damages extracted
> by the offended party.
> Thanks for your help.
>
Arthur:
The subject of copyright and trademark law online is a tricky one right
now. A new law in Georgia makes it illegal to use someone else's trademark
or copyright to represent themselves online. This applies to domain name
registry, user id's and even links on web pages. A similar bad bill is
bouncing around in Calfornia state legislature.
We don't know what the outcome of this issue will be. but we hope that
use of trademark online does not restrict 'fair use' traditions which
all for printed trademarked/copyrighted material to be used by schools,
libraries and journalists for educational, scientific and
criticism/discussion purposes.
I don't know what Mystical Crossroads is, nor how strongly they claim
their trademark. Due to the limited naming system now in effect, there is
an obvious problem: What does Sun Microsystems and Sun Hotels both own
the trademark names, and can do so because there are exceptions which
allow for the sharing of a name if the businesses are not in competition
with one another. On the Internet, however, since everyone is a .com for
the most part, the naming bandwidth is too narrow for these crossover names.
If you have a specific legal questions, please write to either Shari
Steele <ssteele@eff.org> or Mike Godwin <mnemonic@eff.org> as they are
EFF's Staff Attorneys and can better answer your questions.
Thanks, and good luck,
Dennis
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>
>
> Date: Wed, 29 May 1996 19:47:52 -0400
> From: Storm <mystical1@zeus.jersey.net>
> To: request@baymoo.sfsu.edu
> Subject: Use of copyrighted name!
>
> To whom it may concern,
> Today after searching alta vista I was surprised to see another listing
> under Mystical Crossroads. Apparently you were not aware that this name
> is copyrighted, since it is the name of my Company. I would appreciate
> it if you would cease & desist from using same.
>
> Yours truly,
> Richard Kowalski
> President
> Mystical Crossroads
>
>
>
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Dennis Derryberry * Executive Administrator * Electronic Frontier Foundation
* Phone: +1 415 436 9333 * Fax: +1 415 436 9993 * Email: dennis@eff.org *
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