http://www.metsonline.net/metsonline-ceaseanddesist.html MetsOnline.net Ordered To Cease & Desist MetsOnline.net site administrator Bryan Hoch -- a 20-year-old college student at the State University of New York at Rockland -- received a cease-and-desist order via electronic mail from Major League Baseball Properties dated July 25, 2002. The e-mail ordered Hoch to deactivate MetsOnline.net and transfer its domain name, as well as all information regarding its operations, to MLBP effective 5 p.m. July 30. The order also threatened Hoch with further legal action to recover appropriate compensation for use of the Mets marks. Note: When Hoch placed a call to a Mets official, he was told that not only that the Mets were unaware of MLBP's actions, but that: "We really appreciate our fan sites, because they promote the game and our product. We hope you'll be able to keep on doing what you've been doing, and that's creating a great resource for Mets fans." The grounds of the order from MLBP are as follows: * "Your registration of www.metsonline.net violates the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act ("ACPA") (15 U.S.C. § 1125(d)), a federal statute which provides a cause of action to eliminate the practice of those who, with a bad faith intent to profit, register and use the marks of others as domain names. Given that (1) you have no trademark right in the Mets' Marks; (2) your intent in registering www.metsonline.net was to divert consumers from the online location of the Mets to your own; (3) you have intentionally failed to maintain accurate contact information for www.metsonline.net; and (4) the famous nature of the Mets' Marks, it is clear that you have registered and used www.metsonline.net with a bad faith intent to profit. Therefore, your registration and use of www.metsonline.net establishes a violation of the ACPA and other federal and state laws." The truth of the matter, however, is far different. MetsOnline.net does not profit in any way from the service we provide to over 100,000 New York Mets fans who visit the site each week. In fact, any revenue received from advertising goes directly to CIHost.com, our web provider, who charges us a substantial fee for Web hosting and excessive traffic. While we respect the rights of both Major League Baseball and the Mets as trademark owners and profit centers, we do not view MetsOnline.net as a competitor to Mets.com. Rather, we fancy ourselves as a complement. MetsOnline.net offers original editorial content and fan-friendly multimedia extras, the vast majority of which have been submitted by passionate fans interested in advancing popular interest in the Mets. Furthermore, MetsOnline.net has provided links to official MLB Web sites as an additional service to its users (and a potential stream of profits for MLB). Its also curious why Major League Baseball would find such fault with MetsOnline.net when it has been indirectly supporting the site for several years. Hoch, in fact, was afforded a job opportunity with the Mets during the 2000 season as a direct result of his efforts with MetsOnline.net. He spent that summer working as an unpaid volunteer to help upgrade and maintain Mets.com (prior to MLB's takeover of all 30 Major League sites before the 2001 season) all the while openly administering the competing MetsOnline.net. Additionally, he has since received numerous press credentials to represent MetsOnline.net at New York Mets home games and other events, signifying not only the Mets' acceptance of the site as a legitimate media outlet but also their support for it. A main sticking point of the order is the since-discontinued line of products (including t-shirts, sweatshirts, etc.) that were offered for a brief period on this site, produced by CafePress.com and featuring the MetsOnline.net name but not the logo or writings of the New York Mets or Major League Baseball. While we recognize that this legal claim may have some independent legal merit, it is notable that revenues from such merchandise sales totaled just $16.00 (four orders), $12.00 of which was to Hoch's girlfriend. At the end of the calendar year, Hoch intends to use all remaining proceeds from the site (if any are available) to the Twin Towers Fund (www.twintowersfund.org). Unfortunately, such previous intent would be impossible to prove in a court of law, as it was not stated in print on the site. MLB Properties' demands are as follows: * 1. "Cease and desist from all use of the domain name www.metsonline.net and transfer that domain name to MLBP." * 2. "Cease and desist from all unlawful use of the Mets' Marks and any other indicia that creates the impression that there is an association between your company and the Mets and/or MLBP and confirm to MLBP, in a writing signed by an officer of your company, that it has done so." * 3. "Cease and desist from the sale of unauthorized merchandise featuring the Mets' Marks and fully disclose in writing the extent of your company's sales of this infringing merchandise, including the number of goods sold and the prices at which they were sold, the remaining inventory of the infringing merchandise, as well as the names, addresses and telephone numbers of the supplier(s) of such merchandise." * We intend to collect appropriate compensation for your company's unauthorized use of the Mets' Marks. The exact amount of our demand will depend on the information you provide to us, information we gather from other sources and the extent of your cooperation. Put simply, we believe that Major League Baseballs insistence that MetsOnline.net violates ACPA simply holds no water simply because we have never, in six years of operation, held an intent to profit (much less a bad intent to profit!). With the state of the game's affairs as they currently stand, Hoch (and hundreds of fans who have voiced their opinion to him via e-mail) feel that it is unfortunate that Major League Baseball feels that it must go after fan sites that provide nothing more than promotion and love for the game of baseball. MetsOnline.net is prepared to make whatever legal adjustments may be necessary to continue our service and mission statement of providing baseball fans with timely and entertaining reports concerning the New York Mets National League baseball club. This site has never been about making a profit -- it is with the intention of providing a service to fans of the Mets that would only increase their interest and enjoyment of the team. About MetsOnline.net: Since 1996, MetsOnline.net has provided New York Mets fans with a constant stream of original editorial and multimedia content devoted to their favorite baseball team. The site which appeared on the Internet before the Mets official Web site was founded by then-14-year-old Bryan Hoch, a native of Sloatsburg, New York. Hoch continues to administer the site to this day, but a team of unpaid writers who cover every angle of the Mets organization (including many that are not covered on mets.com) has since joined him. The site averages 10,000-15,000 visits per day and has been featured/cited in the Wall Street Journal, Newsday, MSNBC television, ESPN.com and the New York Daily News, among other media outlets and sources. The site has organized public events including two "Field Trip" outings to Shea Stadium in 2001 and 2002, and a well-attended "MetsOnline Night" at Mets manager Bobby Valentine's Queens-based restaurant earlier in July. Further info regarding Bryan Hoch: Hoch, 20, is a resident of Sloatsburg, New York, where he resides with his parents and brother, Shawn, 16. He is currently a full-time college student at SUNY Rockland, majoring in liberal arts, and is also employed as a free-lance journalist, appearing regularly as a baseball columnist in the Rockaway Wave of Long Island (www.rockawave.com) and as a periodic contributor to New York Mets Inside Pitch, the club's official newspaper. His past experience includes work as a writer and site maintainer for Mets.com. He can be contacted via e-mail at bryanhochat_private BH/jcm ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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