Re: VW LICENSING PROGRAM (loooong)

[Jens Vagelpohl <jens@dataflake.org>]

<x-flowed>daniel,

i had actually thought of contacting you directly to get your thoughts 
on this.

basically, our sites are in violation because we use names such as "VW" 
and "Volkswagen". i don't think "Karmann" or "Ghia" or "Karmann Ghia" 
are *their* trademarks, i believe those are safe. obviously they won't 
be able to trademark "411" or "412" or "type 4" in my case.

i received the email because i had sent them a question while they were 
soliciting community input on the proposed program. needless to say, i 
never received an answer.

the fact that the type 34 was never sold in the US won't help you. i 
think VoA is simply acting as an agent for VW AG, for which all those 
trademarks apply, regardless of the country. making VoA do this job is 
a good choice because the US justice system is so warped by the 
copyright nazis that it is easy for them to demand anything.

i believe the only people who are "safe" for now are those who are not 
"reachable" by US law (meaning they are not living in the US and are 
not US citizens) whose websites are run (and this is a biggie) by a 
non-US internet provider. so even if they can't sue you they can make 
the ISP take down the site, if the ISP is in US jurisdiction.

and yes, they will find you eventually. google is their friend, too. 
one of the reasons i am applying already is that i am not sure what 
their attitude is towards those sites that did not apply. maybe they 
will be more hostile. i don't think anyone in this day and age can 
claim ignorance when it comes to copyright laws, so even that would not 
defend you.

jens


On Wednesday, Apr 30, 2003, at 07:43 US/Eastern, Daniel Baum wrote:

> Are they within their rights to make demands of people who aren't US
> citizens or residents?
>
> I've not yet actually heard from them, but at this rate I may yet. My 
> site
> is very easy to find via google etc and I have had 7300 visits, as of 
> now.
> If Dave has heard from them there seems to be no reason that I won't
> eventually.
>
> As the Type 34 was never sold by VWOA, it's actually an interesting 
> question
> whether it is considered their product at all. I'm not really sure 
> whether
> my site actually "infringes" any trademarks at all, but I'll bet their
> lawyers could make a case for it if they wanted to.
>
>
>
>
> Daniel

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