[Infowarrior] - Techdirt responds to HSI's "infringement" claim

[Richard Forno]

Open Letter To Human Synergistics International In Response To Your Accusation That Techdirt Is Infringing

from the fair-use,-learn-it,-love-it dept

To Silvie van Etten: 

Thank you for your letter on November 23rd, 2012, (which we have reposted below in its entirety, minus your contact info) in which you mistakenly suggest that Techdirt has infringed the copyrights of your company, Human Synergistics, via its post from October 5th, 2012, entitled Copyright As Censorship: Author Removes Blog Post After Being Threatened For Quoting 4 Sentences. First of all, it is astounding that you do not appear to recognize the irony of threatening us over a blog post that goes into detail as to why someone else's use of a tiny snippet of your company's work was quite clearly fair use under US copyright law. In fact, it leads one to wonder if you even read the post in question before sending your letter. 

Even if we ignore the question of whether or not that original blog post by Patti O'Shea constituted fair use, I can assure you that Techdirt's use is fair use. Furthermore, your claim that a lack of permission to quote your silly exercise (solely for the purpose of explaining your overaggressive use of copyright law to censor people against your own best interests) is somehow "a direct violation of our copyright" is absolutely false. It is not just false, but an exaggeration of the rights you hold under copyright law -- a situation called "Copyfraud" by legal scholar Jason Mazzone. 

< - READ - >

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121128/02492821166/open-letter-to-human-synergistics-international-response-to-your-accusation-that-techdirt-is-infringing.shtml