Date:         Thu, 14 Sep 1995 16:38:30 -0700
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         amunro@amunro.seanet.com (Alex Munro)
Subject:      


>Volkswagen of America is suing myself and the university I'm at over the use of
>the pictures of volkswagens I have and the technical information provided by
>Jan Vanderbrande that I have listed on my page. They claim  that only an
>"Authorized" venue can use materials relating to Volkswagens, namely only VW of
>America. Even though most of my pictures were from Volkswagen AG who encourage
>the downloading of their materials by enthusiasts.


How does John Muir publications, Hot VW's and the like do it?  I always
thought that you just couldn't make a profit off of it (Like the
aforementioned examples do) with out paying VW (or whoever).


>
>The reason behind this you ask. Why would VW of A  complain about a venue that
>celebrates their cars and engineering? A site that garners over 100,000 hits
>per day giving free positive advertising of their products? It's because VW of
>A is trying to set up their own homepage service and wants to charge for its
>usage. Imagine even a dollar per download times 100,000 per day.... big $$$$!
>

I've never been charged to log on to a home page, and I'm quite sure I
wouldn't be willing to pay for it in the future.


>They even went on to imply that pictures of your own car and any of its badges
>pertaining to VW are the property of VW of America and can only be disributed
>by them (at a charge of course).



Hopefully that turns out to be a big crock.  If they can sue you over such
trivial crap, then it means VW is just now exercising a right ignored by the
rest of the world.  I feel the beginnings of a mass e-mailing going on here...


>Is it right for VW of America to dictate what
>you can do with your car that YOU paid money for and for them to say that only
>they can distibute pictures and articles on YOUR car, unless they SELL you
>PERMISSION to do so?



Fuck no.


>And does VW of America forget the fact
>that they have no jurisdiction in a matter involving a CANADIAN University with
>a homepage b a CANADIAN? 


Now there you may have all the power that you need.  I think there are no
copyright laws in Canada (or something quite different in the laws anyway).
Also, are they really willing risk having me (and hopefully a lot of other
people) choose a car from a less anal retentive manufacturer next time my
pockets are full?  Or better yet plaster an old hippie bus with nasty but
true statements about current VW management practice?

Does anybody know the e-mail address of VWoA?