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Date: Thu, 27 Mar 1997 09:18:39 -0500
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Newsgroups: alt.tv.x-files
Subject: FOX SHUTS DOWN WWW X-FILES SITES
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Status: RO

In an action sure to rate them high on the stupidity scale, FOX is
shutting down personal X-Files sites on the net.  Watch out; yours will
be next.  I'm moving mine off the company's server ;) and into a
personal area while I wait for them to shut it down; get what clips and
pix you want NOW.

This defendant just gave in, but would anybody really have a case here? 
I guess copyright is copyright.  If there are any (Non-FOX ;)) lawyers
here please speak up.

If you don't appreciate FOX killing personal web-sites then go to
http://www.foxworld.com/mailindx.htm, pick an e-mail address, and tell
them how you feel.  Remind them that personal sites are free advertising
for their show.   Tell them you're not watching FOX anymore!  Tell them
that they're losing viewership with these shenanigans.

This is an AP article about the first defendant:



-   Fox lawyers shut down area student's `X-Files' site
- 
-                               By DAVID BORAKS
-                                  Columnist
- 
-   One of the exciting innovations of the World Wide Web is how it lets
-   anyone be a publisher, sharing ideas, interests and opinions with a
-   potentially large audience.
- 
-   Those who support free-speech in cyberspace -- including me -- often
-   point to this when arguing against government restrictions on the
-   Internet.
- 
-   But publishers -- whether multinational media conglomerates or
-   hobbyists with their own World Wide Web pages -- have certain
-   responsibilities. And sometimes, freedom of speech is not so clear
-   cut, especially if it clashes with another value we Americans share:
-   intellectual property rights.
- 
-   That lesson hit home earlier this month for Dan St. Clair, a
-   17-year-old Harrisburg resident and novice Web publisher who until
two
-   weeks ago ran a personal Web site devoted to Fox TV's popular
-   science-fiction show ``The X-Files.''
- 
-   St. Clair's site -- one of thousands of Internet ``fan sites''
-   celebrating TV shows, entertainers or other celebrities -- carried
-   images of the ``X-Files'' stars and audio clips of memorable lines
-   recorded from the weekly show.
- 
-   He removed the site after receiving a certified letter from lawyers
-   for the show's owner, Twentieth Century Fox film studios.
- 
-   If St. Clair had merely handed out a few photocopies of the stars'
-   photographs to his fellow fans, or passed around an audio cassette
or
-   two, he might have gone unnoticed. But the very medium that allows
-   anyone to be a publisher also makes it easier for potential
copyright
-   violations to be caught.
- 
-   Fox's legal responsibility
- 
-   Dennis Wilson, a lawyer for the Los Angeles firm of Baker &
Hostetler,
-   wrote in his letter that the firm's ``Internet monitoring program''
-   discovered St. Clair's ``X-Files'' site.
- 
-   ``Fox has dedicated tremendous time and resources to create quality
-   entertainment programming such as `The X-Files,' '' Wilson wrote.
-   ``However, the development and distribution of Fox's programs
require
-   a collaboration with many different entities, including guild
-   organizations representing the actors, directors and writers, as
well
-   as local, national and international television and cable stations.
.
-   . . Fox has a legal responsibility, including many contractual
-   obligations, to prevent the unauthorized distribution of its program
-   material.''
- 
-   The letter asked St. Clair to remove the audio clips and images and
-   said, ``If you do not remove these properties, we may be forced to
-   take legal action to have them removed.''
- 
-   That was enough for St. Clair and his parents, Don and Carolyn St.
-   Clair.
- 
-   Although Dan St. Clair isn't sure he did anything wrong, and said he
-   hasn't made any money from the site, he closed it because ``I didn't
-   want them to sue me or anything.''
- 
-   No money in it
- 
-   St. Clair created the site more than a year ago after he began
-   exchanging ``X-Files'' sound clips and pictures with others in the
-   alt.binaries.x-files Usenet group, a sort of e-mail gathering place
-   for the show's fans.
- 
-   ``I would go to the newsgroup and there were always people posting
-   sound clips there, so I was posting them there, too, along with
-   everybody else. I thought, I'm getting tired of posting these every
-   week. Why don't I post them on a Web site,'' he said. ``I didn't see
-   anything wrong with it.''
- 
-   When Fox and its lawyers began shutting down fan sites devoted to
-   another television program, ``Millennium,'' St. Clair and his mother
-   discussed the possibility that his site might also be targeted.
- 
-   But, said St. Clair, ``I never thought it was a real possibility
-   because there are a lot of 'X-Files' Web sites that are a lot more
-   popular than mine. We were all a little surprised.''
- 
-   Carolyn St. Clair, who is Dan's home-school teacher, is sorry the
site
-   had to come down.
- 
-   ``He didn't sell the pictures or make any money off his site. . . .
-   (But) I guess I wasn't that surprised. I was disappointed for my son
-   because he takes pride in his work,'' she said.
- 
-   Although St. Clair won't be publishing much about ``The X-Files'' in
-   the near future, he'll continue to be busy on the Internet. He also
-   has another fan site, this one devoted to actress Sandra Bullock, as
-   well as a site called the ``Lime Ribbon Campaign'' that opposes use
of
-   terms such as ``geek'' and ``nerd'' to describe Internet users. And
-   he's also the owner of a fledgling Web design business called Danco
-   Publishing (www.dancopublishing.com), which he runs out of his home.
- 
-   To read the letter St. Clair received from Fox's lawyers, go to
-   http://www.dancopublishing.com/x-files/letter.htm.
- 

Read THIS article with the TRUTH about FOX!

If you want to bitch at someone about this atrocity, you may bitch to the following people: