Infringement

[CPickering]

road trip!!!! j/k j/k!

[GammaZeta]

As soon as someone talks to the higher ups at HQ about this, could you please PM me or post the results?

[boz130]

I move that Brothers Gezelius & Chipperfield pursue these schmucks...do I have a second?

[ZetaPhi708]

I second that motion...

That evil website is still up as of today.....

[ZetaPhi708]

Our brothers that are in the film acting industry, unless I am wrong, cannot even wear the letters in films ( if the script calls for it ) unless they have the rights/permission granted by IHQ. Am I correct on this?

I have only seen one film back in the late 1980s that had our letters in it, a made for TV film, where a young man's Grandfather returns to college to get his degree and he gets tutoring help from some Lambda Chi's. Based a true story.

[Tom Earp]

The High Road may be the best way to proceede.

I am sure that the G H Zeta being aware of this, so will IHQ and hopefully it will be taken care of soon.

These if I may use the word TWIT made a faux pas!

OOPS!

[Ottor 246]

As I understand the situation, IHQ has been made aware. The best thing to do now is to cool off and let them handle it. And they will handle it, because they have to handle it.

One of the few things I actually remember from the communications law class I took back at Ship, is that copyright protection must be "agressively defended" or some such wording. Otherwise, it falls into the "public domain," meaning it can be used by anyone for anything.

One way to think about it is to compare Mickey Mouse (copyrighted) and Santa Claus (public domain.) Santa Claus can be used in any kind of advertising, etc., without getting special permission from anyone. On the other hand, Mickey Mouse is the intellectual property of Disney. There was an unfortunate case ten years or so ago when Disney was forced to threaten legal action against three daycare centers for painting Disney characters on their walls. (Click here for the story.)

Our COA is plainly copyrighted, (even on my faded and time-yellowed membership certificate, there's a little "c" inside a circle right under the COA. My guess is that these jokers will cave as soon as they get a letter from a real attorny. If they decide to go to court, they'll lose.

We have nothing to worry about.

[GammaZeta]

I agree with Ottor.

The thing that frustrates me is the lack of any respect from the snot nosed punks and a complete sense that they haven't done anything wrong.

It's kind of the same feeling when you're in the bar and someone insults your wife or girlfriend and you just have to stand their and take it knowing that your buddies will be arriving in a few minutes outside the bar.

[PiLambda1]

Brothers,
I'm not exactly sure who on this board is active and who is not, but
I am still active. Heck, I'm a founding father! Point being, I still pay dues
each semester. 70 dollars of that goes to IHQ. I really would like IHQ to
focus on the more pressing issues of our Fraternity than a couple of
punk EMO kids having a good time on Myspace. Paying a lawyer a chunk
of dough to write a C&D letter then perhaps engaging in a bitter law
suit is not spending my hard earned money adequately. I know that Lynn
is a lawyer, and he can do it. But, I'm sure that IHQ has lawyer's they
PAY to do this kind of dirty work.

Let's use the money better. Let's pay the ELCs a little more for their
hard work. Let's use our resources to ensure that EACH chapter has a
High Pi by having the staff help them find one. Let's dedicate ourselves
to ensuring that no chapter has active debt. Let's use some of that money
to update the ancient manuals, fix the archaic website, get ALL the
forms accepted online rather than snail mail. Let's use the money for
the betterment of the experience of the Active Lambda Chi. Let's NOT
use that money fighting a battle with 3 chumps simply to protect the
beliefs of the Alumni that feel stepped on right now. It's not worth it.

Now, am I upset that our Coat of Arms is now the symbol for
some in-today, dead-tomorrow musical sideshow? Yes. But, I don't want
my money used fighting with them about it. They'll never make any money.
They'll never get anywhere, so who cares? Ignore it, it will go away
in this case.

Any Joe in American can get on Ebay, buy our letters, badges, Coat,
t-shirts, Christmas Ornaments, throw rugs, mugs, etc. Are we getting up
in arms about that? No. We don't know what the buyers are doing with that
stuff. We don't even know if that guy is an actual Brother. He's buying
Copyrighted Material right?
----Okay...that's a stretch, but you might vaguely get my point----





Am I going to further defend these views when 25 of you post later
today telling me I am stupid and wrong? NO - so don't bother...
Tell me why I'm right, and I'll be back...:-)




In ZAX,

Brandon Eldridge
Pi-Lambda Zeta 001
St. Louis College of Pharmacy

[docroc67]

Brothers,

I believe that Lambda Chi Alpha belongs to an association of fraternities and sororities that collectively pursues these cases. But, I could be wrong....

Yours in ZAX,

Mike Raymond,
Z-U Zeta

[GammaZeta]

PiLambda, I don't think you are stupid or wrong, but you do raise good points.

We simply disagree, that is all.

To me it is very disrespectful what that band is doing and it diminishes the quality of our symbols.

[PiLambda1]

Originally Posted by GammaZeta

To me it is very disrespectful what that band is doing and it diminishes the quality of our symbols.

Too WHO?

If this changes anything in your mind then you don't get it. If you think
other Fraternities and Sororities will see this and raise their noses then
you are crazy because they don't know, won't know, and don't care.

So exactly who does this affect?? Nobody...

[GammaZeta]

Symbols are one of the largest factors in both our ritual and general fraternity. To simply have such a nonchalant attitude toward our symbols shows a disrespect to their meaning.

I view our CoA like I do the USA Flag. It is just not some piece of cloth with some stars and stripes. It stands for something. It is the physical embodiment of those ideals.

Our CoA is the physical emodiment of our fraternal ideals. The lamp, light, swords are all part of what we believe in. To just turn your back and not care how those are betrayed is like saying you don't care about our ideals.

Quite frankly I don't care how other fraternities and sororities will view it. If I cared what other frats thought, then I probably would have joined them over LXA. What I do care about is the misrepresentation of what our symbols stand for.

Our CoA doesn't stand for some emo punk kids band. It doesn't just "look cool". It stands for something that [B]I[B] beleive, that [B]I[B] worked hard for.

And when someone or something uses that symbol wrongly or abuses it, it's saying what I believe in doesn't count, doesn't matter and cheapens what we stand for.

I guess I am just one of the older guys where oaths, symbols, promises actually mean something, when a handshake and your word was all you needed for a deal.

You know what, maybe we shouldn't care. Maybe we should let everyone just use our symbols as they wish. Maybe we should open up our ritual to the public, because after all, who does that affect? Maybe we shouldn't keep our ritual equipment in a special place or take care of it. It doesn't mean anything, let's just throw it in a small dusty box. Let's start letting other fraternities use our CoA for their own purposes and maybe charge them to use it?

[Tom Earp]

Easy and steady on.

We all feel the same so why bicker amongst ourselves?

[PiLambda1]

How do I report a copyright violation?

If you believe that your copyright-protected work has been copied and posted on MySpace.com in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please provide our Copyright Agent with the following information: (i) an electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest; (ii) a description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed; (iii) a description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the Website; (iv) your address, telephone number, and email address; (v) a written statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; (vi) a statement by you that the above information in your notice is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf. Please contact us here (http://www.myspace.com/index.cfm?fus...arySubject=29).



I did a little digging...here you guys go if YOU want to act...