2/24 - Letter to EFF re free speech "blue
ribbon" (by Steve Freedkin)
2/15 - see Robbie Osman's REPLY to Epstein,
Becker & Green's threat
2/16 - see GOOD NEWS about legal help
Here are the earlier emails about Epstein, Becker & Green's website harrassment :
Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2001 09:44:23 -0800
To: freepacifica@recordist.com
From: Robbie Osman
Subject: Re: www.wbai.net domain name under attack
"SaveWBAI" won't keep the Pacifica censors from dragging you into legal proceedings.
The site 'savepacifica.net' was notified on Friday by EBG that they will challenge our right to use that domain name if we don't surrender it to them.
Robbie Osman
From: "Lyn Gerry" <redlyn@loop.com>
To: freepac@recordist.com, savepacifica@peacenet.org, pacificacampaign@yahoo.com
Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2001 01:06:37 -0500
Subject: {FP} Website Harassment by Pacifica Theft
CC: jmurdock@ebglaw.com
Apropos of the recent threatening letters received by wbai.net and savepacifica.net, this is not the first time that Pacifica's coup leaders have attempted to shut down dissident communications with a bogus threat of trademark infringement.
In 1995, Take Back KPFA set up the freekpfa listserv, which morphed over the years to what is now the freepacifica list serv. They received a letter from Pacifica Foundation's counsel at that time trying to shut them down with the same "infringement" justifications.
Then, as now, it was a rather obvious intimidation tactic.
Lee Altenberg has provided a list of potential co-defendants, which perhaps The Pacifica Board could also sue, and thereby transfer even more of the subscribers donations into the pockets of "EBG Law"
How much *more* of the subscribers' donations are being misspent on this little escapade?
If EBG Law advised Pacifica to engage in what is obviously a baseless legal action, and thereby increased their billing, and one of the Pacifica Directors is a beneficiary of that spuriously increased billing by virtue of his partnership in EBG law, can we bring an ethics charge before the American Bar Association?
Lyn
==================
Reply-To: altenber@hawaii.edu
There are many domain names with "pacifica" in them. How does Pacifica justify going after some, but not all of these, for "blatant trademark infringement, unfair competition, dilution, and other causes of action under state and federal law. In addition, your domain name registration and Web site use restricts our client from conducting business on the Internet under its own name, is likely to cause confusion, and dilutes the distinctive quality of our client's famous marks, among other wrongs".
Here is a partial list:
www.pacifica.com: "a leading manufacturer of medical gloves, non- woven sponges and other disposable products"
www.pacificainc.com: "The Tube Bending Specialists!"
www.pacificaco.com: "Pacifica Co. Apartments"
www.pacificabank.com: "Pacifica Bank in Bellevue, Washington"
www.gopacifica.com: "Pacifica Communications, 670 San Antonio Road, #3 Palo Alto, CA"
www.inpacifica.com: "a free service of Rainbo.net, providing an online information source for Pacificans."
--- Lee Altenberg
________________________
http://www.radio4all.org
http://www.radio4all.org/freepacifica
From: "Craig Gingold" <gingold@sierratel.com>
To: freepacifica@recordist.com, freepac@recordist.com
Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2001 22:18:36 -0800
Subject: Turn Pacifica's Latest Threats to OUR Advantage
CC: NewPacifica@yahoogroups.com, pacificacampaign@yahoo.com, savepacifica@peacenet.org, emmasdance@cs.pdx.edu
===================================================
R. Paul Martin <rpm@glib.com> wrote:
What a spectacle, Free Speech Pacifica Radio is using the law to try and silence listeners and producers with whom the illegally seated Pacifica National Board disagrees.
While it's par for the course, given their behavior over the past several years, it looks like a big mistake on their part to me.
===================================================
Craig Gingold comments: Yes -- you've put in in a nutshell, R Paul.
Once again, the fine minds on the Pacfica board -- whose increasing resort to one or another variety of brute force reminds me of nothing so much as the Shah during his final months, as the lid of repression finally blew completely off in Iran -- have handed us a magnificent opportunity to expose them for what they really are: an arrogant bunch of interlopers who don't have the slightest concern for the historical mission of Pacifica Radio as a bastion of Free Speech.
This latest outrage must be brought to the attention of the widest possible array of publications (both online & print) and organizations dedicated to protecting and promoting Freedom of Speech. The press release about wbai.net that was sent out earlier today could serve as the core for a revised version which would include the threat to Savepacifica.net and any other sites that may receive such notices in the next day or two.
There have been a number of notorious attempts by corporations to suppress criticism by threatening legal action if their detractors failed to shut down websites that "infringed" on their copyrights. My impression is that these have generally backfired, provoking a groundswell of sympathy for the underdog critics, as well as raising their visibility. Considering that the whole struggle with Pacifica revolves around Free Speech issues at its very core, I should think that Pacifica's latest ham-handed move is the very sort of thing that could rally support from quarters that haven't previously been heard from.
Undoubtedly, Pacifica hoped to strike fear in our hearts with this tactic of legal intimidation. But as far as I am concerned, it is in reality a clear sign of desperation -- evidence of our increasing effectiveness. Venceremos!
Craig Gingold Midpines CA
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Patty Heffley <patty@inch.com>
Tel. 646-489-5963
SUBJECT: PACIFICA FOUNDATION TRIES TO SHUT DOWN FREE SPEECH ADVOCATE WEBSITE WBAI.NET IN NEW YORK CITY IN ATTACK ON FIRST AMENDMENT
In what has become a tiresome pattern of attacks on free speech and First Amendment advocates, a law firm representing the Pacifica Foundation has threatened legal action against a woman who has maintained the wbai.net website in New York City since 1997.
Epstein Becker & Green has been in the news lately, but in ways that are less than favorable to their clients. Epstein Becker & Green is the law firm retained by the Pacifica Foundation to defend itself against multiple lawsuits charging that the directors of the Foundation sit on the Foundation's board of directors illegally. Plaintiffs have filed those lawsuits based on their concerns about the apparent efforts to liquidate the radio broadcasting assets of the Pacifica Foundation in apparent violation of state and federal law.
Patty Heffley, a multimedia producer in New York City and a member of the group Coalition for a democratic Pacifica-New York chapter, has maintained the WBAI Listener Network website http://www.wbai.net continuously since 1997. The website has a long track record in support of First Amendment rights, Free Speech Radio in the United States and worldwide, and the discussion of issues related to WBAI 99.5 FM, the New York affiliate of the Pacifica Foundation.
Important issues discussed on the website wbai.net include announcements of listener-sponsored events in New York City concerning the conflicts between the Pacifica National Board and their five affiliates, the pending lawsuits against the Pacifica Foundation, and the documented union-busting efforts carried out at WBAI by the recently fired former General Manager of the station, Valerie Van Isler.
CdP-NY has verified reports that Epstein, Becker & Green advertises their skill at interfering with union drives in the workplace as a selling point for their clients. In an extraordinary demonstration of stretching legal ethics to their breaking point, Epstein Becker & Green attorney and staff member John Murdock currently sits on the board of directors of the Pacifica Foundation. Plaintiffs in one of the lawsuits against the Pacifica National Board allege that Mr. Murdock sits on the board illegally, in apparent violation of California state law and in apparent violation of the bylaws of the Pacifica Foundation itself.
Ms. Heffley received a letter from Pacifica's lawyers -- the same law firm that employs Mr. Murdock, a member of the Pacifica National Board -- via email on Friday (see below). It's rather strange that after years of this site operating as part of a listener network (wbai.NET), Pacifica decided to attack wbai.net now, claiming that wbai.net infringes on their trademark! If there is any site that has hurt WBAI's name, it's the "official" www.wbai.org site, which has completely wiped out all information on the current crisis from its site in recent weeks.
Even cursory review of the relevant case law, as well as the relevant guidelines posted by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) at <http://www.icann.org/udrp/udrp.htm> suggests that the operators of wbai.net are engaged in fair use of the domain name wbai.net. Thus the efforts by Epstein Becker & Green appear to be a clumsy attempt to intimidate Ms. Heffley into closing down a site with a long record of support for the very principles now under attack by the Pacifica Foundation, which is a client of Epstein Becker & Green. Ms. Heffley fully intends to fight for the right to use the domain name wbai.net to support people working for Free Speech Radio in New York City, throughout the Pacifica network, and around the globe.
WBAI has always been more than a corporate name. It has also been the voice of listeners. wbai.net represents some of those voices and right now is an especially critical time for them to be heard. It's pretty clear that the Pacifica Foundation is annoyed with the contents of the website wbai.net. But it's also clear to anyone who simply looks at the page that this is NOT a page belonging to WBAI management. This page is, and will continue to be, for the listeners. This latest clumsy attempt to intimidate Ms. Heffley verifies that individuals running Pacifica perceive Free Speech as a threat, rather than as a cornerstone of the mission of the Pacifica Foundation.
Date: Sat, 24 Feb 2001 13:17:16 -0800
To: owlswan@eff.org (Henry Schwann)
From: "www.ProgressivePortal.org" <Progressive515@iname.com>
Subject: Your Note re Pacifica Threats to Web Sites
Dear Henry:
I am pleased to see your letter (below) reporting that there has been much discussion
within EFF about Pacifica Foundation's threats to sue sites critical of its
direction.
As the owner of a Web site who is expecting to soon receive his own threatening
letter from Pacifica's attorneys (for having a subdirectory called "pacifica"),
I want to respond to your reference to "domain name grabbing." It
should be entirely clear this is NOT a case of such.
I understand "Domain name grabbing" as the registration of domains
in order to resell them to others who would have a legitimate interest in owning
those names, or otherwise prevent those other parties from having domains they
would want. That is most certainly NOT the case here.
Most of the sites under attack have names that clearly denote the registrants'
positions as critics of a non-profit foundation that they (and I) feel has gone
severely astray. The names themselves -- "savepacifica.net," "freewbai.org"
-- quite obviously identify the sites as protest sites. There is no scenario
under which Pacifica would want these domains for itself -- other than to silence
its critics, an objective antithetical to Pacifica's mission and to the Web's
raison d'etre -- nor could there be any confusion among users as to what these
sites are about.
Even where a name is similar to a Pacifica domain, the protest site is unambiguous
about its purpose, and a user could not mistake it for an official Pacifica
Foundation resource.
It has been firmly established both in case law and by Internet regulatory bodies
that the creation of protest sites that include the target's name in the domain
is quite legitimate and to be protected. I would be quite dismayed if EFF were
to view Pacifica's indefensible, disingenuous, and unethical threats as anything
but attempts to silence its critics. Confusing this issue with "domain
name grabbing" would bely EFF's stated mission to "[u]phold rights
to digital free expression from political, legal and technical threats"
<http://www.eff.org>.
I hope your open letter to Pacifica will be entirely unequivocal in this regard.
If any reference is made to domain name ownership issues, it should be to condemn
Pacifica for attempting to uses trademark issues as a smokescreen for its attempts
to stifle free speech.
Finally, I hope you will reconsider the appropriateness of EFF asking Pacifica
to remove the blue ribbon from its site if it does not stop harassing other
sites. Telling another party that you disapprove its disingenuous use of YOUR
symbol is absolutely not "censorship." You may not wish to pursue
the matter legally, but expressing your dislike of the misuse of your symbol
is YOUR free-speech right.
>------- Forwarded message follows -------
>Date sent: Fri, 23 Feb 2001 23:51:06 -0800 (PST)
>From: Henry Schwan <owlswan@va.eff.org>
>To: Undisclosed recipients: ;
>
>friends,
>
>All your mail has caused an internal discussion within EFF. We do not
>condone domain name grabbing. We also are a free speech organization and
>do not ask people to take the ribbon off their page. Current plans are to
>write an open letter to the Pacifica board explaining the spirit of the
>blue ribbon. this will happen soon. more later.
>
>Best wishes,
>Henry Schwan
>owlswan@eff.org
--
-----------------------------------------------------
COMING MARCH 2001: http://www.progressiveportal.com
-----------------------------------------------------
Your Internet Starting-Point for Progressive Activism
Welcoming Your Suggestions and Comments
(let us know if you want to view and comment on
the test version before it's ready for public debut!)
-----------------------------------------------------
Steve Freedkin * progressive515@iname.com
-----------------------------------------------------
Reply to Epstein, Becker & Green
February 15, 2001
Tanya Vanderbilt
Epstein, Becker & Green
Suite 700
1227 25th Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20037-1175
Dear Ms. Vanderbilt:
I have received your letter dated February 14, 2001. Although you claim that
your client noticed our domain name recently, the domain name savepacifica.net
has been in use for nearly two years. As you know, it is the internet address
of a completely non-commercial web site that publicizes the misconduct of the
usurpers and censors whose temporary control of the Pacifica Foundation is under
attack in the courts and in the forum of public opinion, and provides interested
viewers with information about the various ways they can join this opposition.
The web site also contains extensive criticisms of your law firm for its shameful
role in this controversy. I can understand why you would want to help your clients
suppress our web site, but the laws you threaten to invoke will not serve you
in this regard.
Quite to the contrary, the cases decided under both the new cybersquatting law
and the Lanham Act of which it is a part make quite clear that we are entitled
to register and use this domain name, and that it does not violate your client's
rights in any way. These laws do not apply to noncommercial web sites like ours,
which are created for the purpose of consumer criticism and not competition
with your client. Nor is there any possibility of confusion. The web site makes
it quite clear that we are fighting for the soul of the Pacifica Foundation,
but that the site is not an official site and is not sponsored by the Foundation
in any way. And the existence of your web site belies the claim in your letter
that the maintenance of our web site "restricts [y]our client from conducting
business on the Internet under its own name." Similarly, nobody who comes
upon our web site through a search engine could possibly believe that ours is
an official site. Even the description of our web site that appears in search
engines and directories makes clear that we are not the official site.
Even apart from these issues, if a web user typed pacifica.com into her browser,
she would get to a different entity. Indeed, a recent WHOIS search reveals 789
different registered domain names including the term "pacifica", and
that number does not account for the many domain names that are duplicative
except for their top level domains. The notion that your clients have any exclusive
right to all domain names containing that term is, in a word, foolish, however
typical of your firm it may be.
In short, the web site and the domain name are protected by both the First Amendment
and the laws that you purport to be invoking. It would not surprise me if you
bring the lawsuit that you threaten, however frivolous the case may be, because
it is of a piece with other efforts that you and your firm and your client have
undertaken to suppress its critics' free speech. My biggest regret about such
a lawsuit would be the knowledge that you would not only be milking the Foundation
for attorney fees to fund your hopeless lawsuit, but also placing the Foundation
at risk for an award of attorney fees that will be awarded after your frivolous
lawsuit is dismissed. Be assured, therefore, that we will be asking the judge
to assess the fees against you and your law firm personally.
Sincerely yours,
Robbie Osman
Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2001 22:40:18 -0500 (EST)
From: Patty Heffley
Subject: WBAI.NET gets help!!
Hey everyone,
Through a great team of great people with really good suggestions all investigating all kinds of things and caring too, the WBAI Listener's website WBAI.NET has an offense and a defense.
Public Citizen Litigation Group, http://www.citizen.org/litigation/litigation.html founded by Ralph Nader and Alan Morrison in 1972 - a public interest law firm that litigates cases at all levels of the federal and state judiciaries has taken the case for wbai.net and savepacifica.net. Paul Levy a member of the group is representing us and everyone will be able to see the letter written to Epstein, Becker &Green by morning's light at http://www.wbai.net
Press release to follow.
Thanks everyone for all your suggestions and help in this first step of the way.
Patty
CdP-NY serving the listeners since 1996
"Bring Lawyers, Guns and Money, the shit has hit the fan"
-read on a business card I found in the street: