Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2010 06:53:32 -0700
Subject: Re: Cease and Desist
Matthew.
Re: You seem like an intelligent fellow, a school teacher and writer by honorable profession, please accurately go to the source and inquire. You have been mislead. Attached is the actual copyrights created by the Robert Adams Institute as filed with the copyright office over the years. After you investigate the repercussions of this type of violation involving perjury and theft and clear disregard for the Sages lineage and the misrepresented teaching contact me if the results of your actions are not entirely clear to you, either by The Master Teachers copyright or the laws of the state of Arizona. Also of note we are speaking to the first screenplay posted on the itisnotreal web, follow the link in the first attachment.. the one removed from Scribd.
Deepest Regards In Robert,
Blake Warner Ph.d.
Infinity Institute either have a valid copyright claim or they don't. Someone with the necessary skills can determine that quite easily, I should imagine (isn't one of your readers an IP lawyer?).
ReplyDeleteIf Infinity Institute do have a legitimate claim, then Matthew can decide to take steps to protect himself (or not).
If they don't have a legitimate claim then communications from Infinity Institute can just be ignored.
In the meantime, is sending them a whole bunch of emails asking them nicely to change their views going to work? No. And so what's the point?
My question 'what's the point?' is a genuine one. I just don't see one, and so if there is some higher/deeper purpose or reasoning behind the current 'send a volley of emails to them' I'd really like it to be revealed to me; I might learn something.
At the moment (to me) it seems like a storm in a teacup, and something that could be put to bed quite easily.
So, are you a lawyer? Are you going to tell me definitively whether they have a claim or not? Are you willing to defend that claim in court? Or is this all talk on your part?
ReplyDeleteYou make IP law sound like it is cut and dry, figured out in a moment, and no price tag associated with holding an opinion. No matter what any opinion is, the court system can take years to determine what is true or false, as one emailer pointed out. One would have to listen to hundreds of hours of satsangs to see if they were public domain or not, and that will cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Infinity has been using these scare tactics to force everyone off the web for years whether they have a claim or not. They threaten a claim. They scare people into going away. It has worked.
Let me ask you, why are you bothered? What is upsetting you about the emails and counter claims? Do you think Matthew should just ignore Infinity and keep his stuff up, or take it down? Would you prefer I posted crossword puzzles and not bother you about claims? Did you bother to write any email yourself, or just the thought of making that effort was too much for you?
If you don't like the reality that Infinity has been harassing Robert's old students for 13 years, why don't you tell them to stop?
Or, did you have nothing better to do so you thought to take the time to complain?
Hehe, no I'm not a lawyer. :-)
ReplyDeleteThe comment was made in a constructive spirit, with a genuine desire to understand more.
Anyway, thanks for the response.
To answer your questions (if they weren't rhetorical):
> Let me ask you, why are you bothered? What is upsetting you about the emails and counter claims?
I feel genuinely sorry for those people at Infinity Institute. And I feel sorry for Matthew. And I feel sorry for the people who could be reading about (or even eventually watching a film about) Robert but aren't.
> Do you think Matthew should just ignore Infinity and keep his stuff up, or take it down?
I don't have an opinion on that. It's his manuscript and his risk. I would help him financially to some degree if he wanted to defend against Infinity Institute though (which is where my previous comment was heading - raising a fund for legal counsel on whether the claim is valid or not and a court defense if it isn't).
> Would you prefer I posted crossword puzzles and not bother you about claims?
I'm just not sure what I can say to that. :-)
> Did you bother to write any email yourself, or just the thought of making that effort was too much for you?
Hehe. The presumption there is that I am only contributing something of worth if I am pursuing the exact action that you exhorted.
I felt that sending an email would not be effective and so I decided not to do it. But I did think about trying to stimulate some sort of fundraising effort. If it's of any interest, I've also been looking into ways to circumvent takedown notices and am taking regular backups of your site in case you ever go down, so I can put it back up again out of their reach (and with no liability on your part). But I digress.
> If you don't like the reality that Infinity has been harassing Robert's old students for 13 years, why don't you tell them to stop?
Only because I don't feel it will work, and if it is going to work, the extremely well-written letters that have been sent so far and republished on your website already encapsulate everything I can think of saying to them.
> Or, did you have nothing better to do so you thought to take the time to complain?
I think it's entirely possible that the tone of my comment has been misinterpreted. :-)
Love, James
I would listen to hundreds of hours of satsang for free :) Just because it's Robert. Joking aside, this is truly sad that Infinity keeps this up. What is their true intention? I cannot imagine they make much money...but what do I know.
ReplyDeletehttp://itisnotreal.com/gpage2.html
ReplyDelete"I have maybe 70 or 80 transcripts of Robert's talks from 1989 trough 1993, and maybe 30 audio talks."
"I cannot be successfully sued as I have the original recordings and I understand that therefore I own the copyright to the actual soundtracks of Robert's voice."
"Also, I transcribed many of these talks and I wrote an introduction for many. Of these, many were copyrighted by No-Self Press or Jnana Marga, which was Robert and I."
Don't these statements imply that Matthew is in the clear? You own the copyright to the recordings, Matthew uses the wording in the recordings... Or not?
You can decide I'm just a bothersome nuisance if you like and not respond, but it just doesn't seem to add up for me yet and I do want to increase my understanding of the situation.
I'm on a roll with the comments. :-)
ReplyDeleteDo we know for sure that John Bernie Shapiro is real? I ask because it looks like one 'cease and desist' notice came from Blake Warner's email address according one of Edji's previous posts (http://itisnotreal.blogspot.com/2010/09/nicole-adams-and-blake-warner-deliver.html). It doesn't seem likely to me that a real laywer would do that.
In addition, I think the language employed in the 'cease and desist' emails seems suspiciously 'un-lawyer-like'.
And has Matthew received any notices through the post, or only through email?
What do we know about this Bernie Shapiro fellow? What company of lawyers does he work for? Does anyone know? I can't seem to find him on the internet, you see.
Hello Everyone... if you want to do something constructive regarding Infinity's continued and unfounded harassment, report Blake Warner for a violation of Gmail's Program Policies using the form at the link below and copy the email message below into the link. The abuse is making unfounded and unsubstantiated claims of perjury, theft and copyright infringement and forwarding the email in question to more than one person when the facts of the matter show these claims to be false and without substance or foundation.
ReplyDeleteTo do your own research to show Blake Warner and Infinity's claims against Matthew Brown to be unfounded go to http://TheSimpleTruth.yolasite.com for the actual copyright documents, a relevant court opinion and a personal opinion.
Jo-Ann
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/request.py?contact_type=abuse
From: blake warner
Date: Tue, Sep 28, 2010 at 6:53 AM
Subject: Re: Cease and Desist
To: Matthew Brown
Attached is the actual copyrights created by the Robert Adams Institute as filed with the copyright office over the years. After you investigate the repercussions of this type of violation involving perjury and theft and clear disregard for the Sages lineage and the misrepresented teaching contact me if the results of your actions are not entirely clear to you, either by The Master Teachers copyright or the laws of the state of Arizona. Also of note we are speaking to the first screenplay posted on the itisnotreal web, follow the link in the first attachment.. the one removed from Scribd.
Deepest Regards In Robert,
Blake Warner Ph.d.
Thanks Jo-ann
ReplyDeleteI have gone to http://TheSimpleTruth.yolasite.com "for the actual copyright documents, a relevant court opinion and a personal opinion." but was unable to find it. can you help?