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On December 2, 2005 I received the below letter from
the Poughkeepsie City School District regarding my web site. In the
letter they allege that my domain name is "confusingly similar" to that of the
district and make vague references to copyrighted materials appearing on my site
and threaten me with legal action. At this point I have no comment other
than to direct readers to draw their own conclusions.
Updated December 27, 2005 - I have responded to the
letter I received from the district. You will find a copy of my response
below.
December 1, 2005
Mr. Raymond K. Duncan
39 Worrall Avenue
Poughkeepsie, New York 12603
Dear Mr. Duncan:
The Board has requested that I contact you in writing to formally request
that you change the current name of your website. Your use of the domain
name "PoughkeepsieSchools.Info" is confusingly similar to "poughkeepsieschools.org,"
the domain name of the Poughkeepsie City School District. It is the
District's concern that your use of this domain name will be confusing to
the public. Additionally, it appears that you are soliciting financial
support from visitors to your website, making your website appear to have
commercial purposes. I respectfully direct your attention to the
cyperpiracy protections of 15 USCS §
1125.Your efforts in furtherance of the dissemination of information to
the public regarding the Poughkeepsie City School District and education
are appreciated. The District does not wish to restrict your
Constitutionally protected rights, but only to protect and advocate for
the District's interest in the appropriate use of its name and copyrighted
materials.
Please inform the Board not later than December 20, 2005, of your
intentions with regard to the continued use of the "PoughkeepsieSchools.info"
domain name. In the event that you do not voluntarily change the domain
name of your website, the Board may choose to take appropriate legal
action to prohibit the unauthorized commercial use of the District's name
as part of your domain name and/or to prohibit copyright protected
materials from unauthorized use on your site.
Sincerely yours,
Mr. Stanley F. Merritt
Board of Education, President |
A PDF of the actual letter can be found
here.
Here is my response
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December 19, 2005
Stan Merritt, President
Board of Education
Poughkeepsie City School District
11 College Ave
Poughkeepsie NY 12603
Re: PoughkeepsieSchools.info
Dear Mr. Merritt:
I am in receipt of your letter of December 1, 2005 regarding my
PoughkeepsieSchools.info web site. I must disagree with you that the
domain names are “confusingly similar.” I have provided a highly visible
notice on my homepage that my site is not the official site of the school
district and have provided a link to the official District site. My site
makes no attempt to hide my ownership of the site or its purpose and
includes a notice on the bottom of every page indicating that the web site
is not associated with the Poughkeepsie School District. In order
to clarify any perception you may have that my site is commercial I have
removed all references to visitor donations. I wish to make it clear that
my site operates solely for non-commercial purposes. In addition, a check
of current and pending trademarks shows no records for
“poughkeepsieschools” and the term may not even be eligible for trademark
as it is a combination of a geographic name and common word.
In response to your references of “copyrighted materials,” you did not
specify any items on my website that you claim are copyrighted by the
Poughkeepsie City School District. I ask
that you provide a list of items published on my web site that you are
claiming copyright protection for and refrain from non-specific
allegations.
In closing, I am not in competition with the Poughkeepsie City School District and have a
Constitutional right to express my opinion. I believe that my use of
PoughkeepsieSchools.info as a domain name is legitimate and that without
specifics I cannot properly respond to your allegations of “copyright
protected materials.”
Sincerely,
Raymond K. Duncan |
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