letter of Raymond Franz to the administrator of www.atalaya.org
Dear Sir:
I have read your message to Esteban López González, who wrote to you at my
request. If you are unable to understand English you may wish to ask
Esteban to translate this for you.
En essence your letter states that you view yourself as having the right to
ignore my request and decide what YOU wish to do with MY writing. This is a
case of twisted thinking that I have not seen before.
We have thus far dealt with a number of cases of copyright violation of
Commentary Press publications, one by an individual in Australia, utilizing
(as in the case of your web site) the Internet, another by a person with a
web site titled DKMinistries using the same Terra Lycos Internet network
that you use, and yet another by a U.S. author in a book published by
Minerva Press in England. In all cases the violation of international
copyright laws was recognized and correction was made, in the cases
involving web sites on the Internet, by full withdrawal of the material from
the Internet (the Terra Lycos network even completely removed the web site
that was in violation of copyright laws). In the case of the book published
by Minerva Press, they discontinued distribution of the copies containing
plagiarized material and republished the book without that material.
Writing is hard work, at least if the material is original with the writer.
Our human nature at times leads us to seek to get around some of that hard
work, trading on the thinking, research and work of another. The principle
stated by the apostle in his letter to the Galatians seems a good one to
follow in this as in all fields of life. He writes: ³All must test their
own work; then that work, rather than their neighbor's work will become a
cause for pride. For all must carry their own loads.² (Galatians 6:4, 5)
If you wish to exercise control over the way certain writing is use, then
you should write the material yourself, not attempt to appropriate control
of someone else's work.
The books that I have written are the product of MY thought and work, not
that of someone else, yourself included. The documentation came from MY
files, and is unique to my work. The books were published through MY
efforts and at MY expense, not that of someone else. The international
copyright was obtained through MY efforts and at MY expense. Translations
(now in 12 languages) have been made through MY contacts with others and
under MY supervision, not that of someone else, yourself included. In a
number of cases, as is true of the Spanish translation, the pagination,
formatting and proofreading preparatory to printing was done by me. This
represents many months of work, done by ME, not someone else. The PUBLISHING
of the Spanish translation was arranged by me and I bore much of the
original expense.
International copyright laws are clear on this and show that literary
property deserves the same protection as material property. To publish
another's literary work without his permission is a violation of
international copyright law and subject to legal penalty under that law. It
is a form of theft, something no genuine Christian would engage in.--Romans
2:21; 13:1, 5; Ephesians 4:28.
I am now formally requesting that you completely remove the material
contained in the book CRISIS DE CONCIENCIA from your web site. Failure to
do so will oblige me to contact the Internet server you employ and request
that they take action to see that the unauthorized publishing of the
material is removed. As stated, I have had to do this with others who
followed a similar illegal course and in every case the material was
removed.
I am as interested as you are in seeing the material reach many people but
since it is the product of MY work it is up to me to decide how and in what
manner this goal is to be achieved. It is extremely arrogant for someone
else to attempt to dictate the terms on which this is done. What
arrangement I may make with Esteban López González is for me to decide, not
you or anyone else. You may rest assured that if the book had been written
by you, rather than by me, I would never think of publishing it (or any part
of it) without first asking for and obtaining your permission. And if that
permission were granted I would still show full respect as to the manner in
which the publishing were done. God is my witness that I sincerely believe
in those high principles as the ones by which we should live. To do
otherwise, you must acknowledge, would be unchristian.
I will expect a prompt response to this request. I trust that your
responding in observance of Christian principles and in compliance with
existing laws will save me the trouble of taking further action.
I look forward to your reply.
Sincerely,
R. V. Franz
Following is a copy of statements made by the Lycos network referred to:
---------
9/11/02
through Lycos on one of our free homepage services. You should
understand that the content to which you have referred have has been
stored on the Lycos system solely at the direction of a Lycos user and
has not been initially reviewed, monitored, or edited by Lycos
employees. Lycos users bear sole responsibility for such material, and
Lycos Inc. has no knowledge of the specific contents of member
directories.
Lycos Inc. fully complies with all intellectual property laws. In
particular, when the owner of an exclusive right is concerned that this
right is infringed by material placed on a provider's system or network
by a subscriber of that provider the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
("DMCA") provides certain procedures to ensure that infringing materials
are removed without wrongfully injuring the subscriber or unduly
burdening the provider.
Upon receipt of a proper notification, Lycos Inc. will respond
expeditiously to remove or disable access to the materials properly
identified in the notification. Lycos Inc. will provide a copy of the
notification to the subscriber and give the subscriber an opportunity to
respond.
Sincerely,
Eric
Registered Copyright Agent
Terra Lycos Network
Hello Ray,
The owner of the Angelfire site found at:
http://www.angelfire.com/home/dkmcoc/
- has been informed of your copyright complaint. In accordance with the
DMCA, their site has been removed. In the event that they elect to
contest this action, they will be furnished with guidelines in order to
so, along with a copy of your infringement notice.
Thank you for bringing this to my attention.
Sincerely,
Eric
Registered Copyright Agent
Terra Lycos Network