Online Journal Publisher Raided by Police

mwalker writes "Transasia Corporation is claiming over a million dollars in damages based on their claim that a search engine request using the word 'Leonardo' brings up not only their web sites but also those of the MIT-published Leonardo arts organization. What's worse is that the police have now raided the publication for incriminating papers (papers containing the word 'Leonardo')." Okay. This is over the edge. Way worse than the Etoys/etoy stupidity. I'm making a personal donation to the Leonardo Defense Fund, 425 Market Street, 2nd Floor, San Francisco, California, 94105, U.S.A. I strongly urge other Slashdot readers to take their own appropriate actions - short of lawbreaking or violence, of course. Here's the Leonardo Finance site so you can see the enemy's face first-hand. Unbelievable!

Comments

Confirmation??

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know where wired got it from, but this article on Etoys references the Leonardo problem http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,33189,00 .html The article is about a rally to protest against Etoys. A quote from the article: "Also appearing at the event was Jack Ox, a New York-based editorial advisor for Leonardo, a scholarly review published by MIT Press now facing a similar suit to the one challenging etoy. Transasia Corporation has filed suit in Nanterre, France, against Association Leonardo, the non-profit arts organization that produces the journal, for trademark infringement. The company is claiming more than US$1 million in damages in lost revenue." ulf

Slashdot sued for using ``Leo-NOGREP-nardo''

[David A. Madore]

(Paris, 1999/12/23)

After its successful lawsuit against ``Association Leonardo'' for illegal use of the trademark ``Leonardo'', and somehow managing to be placed higher than them in web search results, Leonardo® Finance filed a suit against the famous on-line discussion forum ``slashdot'' this morning for commenting on the matter without acknowledging the fact that the term ``Leonardo'' was a registered trademark of Leonardo® Finance. They claim $42 billion damages due to the massive slashdot readership, and legal experts all agree that slashdot is sure to be found guilty as charged.

``This is terrible,'' is reported to have said slashdot creator CmdrTaco, ``I have no choice but to close the site. This means I'll never be able to pay the damage.''

After this, Leonardo Finance is expected to sue the gli Uffizi museum in Florence for showing paintings of the Renaissance painter Leonardo® da Vinci without duly acknowledging Leonardo® Finance's ownership of the trademark. ``We will probably settle for the paintings themselves;'' said a representative of the finance firm; ``by rights they should be ours, anyway.''

Leonardo® da Vinci was unreachable for comments.

Re:Reality Check

[David A. Madore]

The lawsuit is not against the journal based at MIT. It is against the French non-for-profit organization ``Association Leonardo'', the French chapter of the Leonardo Network.

See this page for more details. As it is hosted by MIT Press, I don't think the whole affair is BS.

In other news...

[grappler]

Anyone heard the latest on LEONARDO DiCaprio? Word on the street is he's making a new movie that chicks are sure to dig. Unfortuately, girls, there's bad news too: rumors are flying about a hookup between LEONARDO and Britney Spears. What a hot couple. I bet they'll be together forever!

My, it's been a while since the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were popular. In my opinion, Splinter was the coolest character, but he was surely closely followed by LEONARDO!

Here's a little fun little-known fact for you readers out there: LEONARDO the turtle's name was inspired by an artist/scientist from waaaaaaay back in the rennaisance named LEONARDO DaVinci! You might have heard of him.

My, there's been a lot of talk about people named LEONARDO in today's column hasn't there. Well, here's another fun fact about the name LEONARDO: The name LEONARDO, a close relative of Leo, Leonard, and Leon, means "Like a Lion".

Let's hope the lions, er, lawyers, aren't sent after me because of this column. Time will tell, dear readers. Time will tell.

--
grappler

Re:Hack or serious, this is out of hand...

[Roblimo]

The Leonardo Journal and the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology have been around for a good long time. I read their stuff from time to time, even though I find some of it a little stuffier than it needs to be.

This is not an MIT prank. I blew up when I saw the submission because I have always *liked* Leonardo and ISAST - and because the idea of suing over search engine placement is a new low.

I'm sorry that so many Slashdot readers took this as an opportunity to knock the French. Leonardo was founded in France, and ISAST is as international as, well, Linux. One dumb company and a few over-reaching French cops don't reflect on the whole country any more than some of the obnoxious moves made by U.S. Government agencies and U.S. companies reflect on all U.S. citizens.

I'm going to spend the rest of the night shaking my head and asking myself, "What is this world coming to?"

Note "the world." All of it, not any particular country. ;-)

- Robin

What the?

[Magus311X]

Suing over results in a search engine? Either someone at LF has been seriously misinformed or they need a serious talking to.

If this was an actual problem, wouldn't everyone have sued every other search engine over this by now? Eesh.

I'm quite fluent in French, and I think my IS deparment is going to have a word with their IS department. Want to get in touch with LF? Here you go for those who don't mind making international calls/faxes:

Tel: +33(1) 47 20 24 88
Fax: +33(1) 49 52 01 01
--

Spoke too soon - better info

[Booker]

First, sorry for my poor spelling of "independent" :)

here is more information on the raid, and a snippet:

The search warrant was served by a squad of eight French policemen accompanied by a locksmith. They had instructions to copy all papers with the word "Leonardo" on them. More absurdly, they had instructions to log into the Internet from my mother's home, presumably to show that the Leonardo web sites could be accessed from this location. They left with copies of papers dating back to the 1960s.

----

Contact Emails

[cheese63]

I pulled these off of the contact page of the Leonardo Finance page:

Yves Delacour : yves.delacour@leonarofinance.fr
Franck Monnot : fmonnot@leonardofinance.fr
Valérie Virlouvet : valerie.virlouvet@leonardofinance.fr

Not even a link?

[aeonek]

It should be a good idea too confirm this before donating any money.

You've *got* to be kidding.

[Skyshadow]

Okay, this one is just too bizarre to believe.

There ought to be some major urges for tort reform, and I mean tort reform with punitive damages available. It makes me sick that deep-pocket corporations can use the high costs to the legal system to bully those annoying "citizens" who live in the country.

In the mean time, we've got to figure out a way to hurt these people without being juvenile about it (Script-kiddieing is not the way to go). Unfortunately, as EToys has pointed out, they don't really see an impact from our boycotts -- we're just not enough in the target audience.

I feel pretty helpless. If only we lived in a country where people had enough brain cells to take the system back from the corporate special interests that control it (but we don't). So many people vote straight tickets or for the candidate that promotes Jesus the most or whoever brings back the pork barrel programs, it just seems like intelligent people can't make any difference.

Well, I'm depressed now.

In case anyone does feel hopeful, here's my list of things that need to happen (in order):

Take away corporation's ability to interfere in elections. There's a bad Supreme Court decision that allows corporations to essentially buy candidates with "soft money" and the like.

Major tort reform: With punitive damages at the judge's discression. See above.

Pump money into the public schools: The smarter the populace, the more people who can think for themselves, the better. Better teachers, smaller school systems, smaller class sizes, more community involvement. This includes requiring decent alternative education choices for people who don't learn in the "conventional" way. While we're at it, get the fsck'ing corporations *out* of the school.

Start sending execs who break the law to prison: No fine will deter a major corporation from breaking the law. Sending the execs who cause said corporation to break the law will.

I could go on, but this post is long enough already. Suffice it to say: This bullshit will continue until America either breaks the hold of the corporations. The only alternative is revolution; CEOs everywhere should take notice that all the money in the world didn't protect, say, Nicholas II or Battista. In any event, we're (and I'm speaking to the non-Firsters, the non-trolls and the non-knee-jerk slashdotters, which disqualifies a lot of the people who port) the ones who will have to make the changes happen. I don't see it happening, and it makes me sad.

----

Reality Check

[Gromer]

IANAL, especially a not a French lawyer, but this is just nuts. No way in hell is this suit going to go in Leonardo Finace's favor. First of all, there is ample evidence that Leonardo Arts was there long before Leonardo Finance's trademark, and that alone should invalidate the case. The fact that Leonardo is a name of a person further invalidates it. If this suit succeeds, I will no longer be able to have any respect for the french legal system. Frankly, I would hope that this be thrown out the first time a judge takes a look at it.

Moreover, this suit cannot succeed on PR grounds. Not even CNN-style obfuscation as with the eToy issue can cover up the egregious stupidity of this suit. Leonardo Finance is clearly the bad guy here, and will certainly appear so if this gets any media coverage. Leonardo Finance's only hope is that this won't get any attention, because any attention it gets will be bad for them. With any luck, and some help from Slashdot (media people! we know you're reading this!), this will get lots of attention.

In fact, this is so obviously grounds-less that it seems to me it must be an intimidation tactic. Leonardo Finance is hoping that it can scare Leonardo Arts into backing down and settling in a manner agreeable to Leonardo Finance. Leonardo Arts is calling their bluff, and Leonardo Finance is going to have to back down very fast or be at risk of looking like a fool, wasting money on an unwinnable court battle, and possibly exposing themselves to countersuit (Is this possible under French law?).

Re:Can I just say this.

[bugzilla]

Thank you, Sp@mMan, for a voice or reason in all of the "me too's". I've also noticed the tendency of Slashdot in the recent year to regurjitate FUD a bit too quickly all while using some pretty weak excuses when called on it. Now we're being asked to send our money to someone to defend themselves against the French? All humor related to the French military tradition of surrender aside, doesn't France use the "loser pays" method of who pays for court costs? Sounds like someone is just rattling their saber to get a little free publicity.

Slashdot, you guys are now in the position of having no small amount of influence on a large part of the net culture - please start thinking about using it wisely. You aren't doing so hot where it counts. Stories about robots and the like are massively cool, but "strongly encouraging" me to send my money somewhere to defend against something I think is inane? Thanks, but no. If I were up for that I'd open up the yellow pages, turn to religion and play "pick a sect".

There is no good excuse for a DOS

[DeathB]

As I read through alot of this and other threads, I notice many people getting ready to DOS them off the face of the earth. By flooding their mailboxes, you make sure that they will not have a chance to read any of the well thought out (but probably still scathing) responses to their action.

By all means, I'm not saying don't flame them. I'm working on an email in french which might blister some of the paint... But I'd really appreciate it, if there was a chance that they might hear some of us.

I know Slashdot is hardly known for it, but it'd be nice to show some maturity.

More on topic: I think that actions such as these are a disgrace, the warrent should never have been issued or served. They said that their first concern in all of this was that the MIT site came up first in a search engine... Isn't that evidence enough? When they are sending out a journal by that name, and also have a web site using it, what does searching the premisis do besides constitute harassment?

I almost hope someone is getting the facts wrong here, because this is amazingly stupid.