11 August 2005

Le Nature's Water

My substantial-cooler replacement at Bexley had a clash with a bottled water company that you can read about at: Le Nature's Water.

The funny thing (besides the posts that the VP of Le Nature's made on Jay's blog) is that googling for Le Nature's Water brings up Jay's site first. You can help perpetuate this by linking to Jay's site, preferably labeling the link "Le Nature's Water."


Speaking of corporations that could use a little more sunlight, Curves is opening a branch in central square (of Cambridge). I'll be sad not to be here to see the "For Sale" sign when it goes under! [Aug 11 update: The above link doesn't quite express my point about Curves starkly enough. A bitchphd guest blogger put it in stronger terms.]
Another Aug 11 update: I think it is important that everyone read this letter, even if they don't follow the above links to Le Nature's Water.

Cease and Desist Letter Received by my Web Host 8/3/05

Subject: Violation of Acceptable Use Policy

I am counsel representing Le-Nature's, Inc., and I am writing to inform you of violations of your "Acceptable Use Policy (AUP)" and "Terms of Service (TOS)" agreements by one of your customers. On July 2, 2005, a web log hosted by your service was posted at http://punkhop.com/jaysilver/index.php?p=41 that contained an article entitled "Ice Water, or Ass Water? Investigative Report." This article was credited to "jay," which refers to Mr. Jay Silver, the owner of at least two of your hosted sites, namely, www.jaysilver.net and www.punkhop.com. In this article, Mr. Silver violated several of your hosting policies, as well as various copyright and defamation laws. Mr. Silver compared the taste of Le-Nature's ICE WATER to "purified rotten ass" and "simmering armadillo feces." Mr. Silver further alleged that Le-Nature's product was made from "sewage treatment discharge." Such statements are defamatory and libelous. In addition to the above activities, Mr. Silver illustrated his article with copyrighted photographs which he copied illegally and without authorization from Le-Nature's website, www.le-natures.com. Such activities constitute a violation of the U.S. Copyright Act. Together, these activities are also clear violations of your AUP agreement, sections 1 (Illegal Use), 4 (Harassment), 12 (Copyright or trademark infringement), and 17 (Infringement of Copyright, Patent, Trademark, Trade Secret, or Intellectual Property Right).

...

As of July 13, 2005, Mr. Silver had apparently blocked my firm's access to his websites. However, when attempting to access his sites from computers outside of the firm, it appears that these websites are still readily accessible, and Mr. Silver has continued to add damaging comments to his web log. Therefore, we are requesting that pursuant to your policies, you terminate Mr. Silver's [edited for privacy] account and permanently remove this offending material. Please provide us with confirmation of these actions.

Sincerely,
[edited for privacy]
Pittsburgh, PA