| Embroidery Software Protection Coalition |
Article Index for Embroidery |
Website Links For Embroidery |
Information AboutEmbroidery Software Protection Coalition |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT EMBROIDERY SOFTWARE PROTECTION COALITION | |
| embroidery | |
| arts and media trade groups | |
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EBAY BUYER INFRINGEMENT CLAIMS On August 3, 2005, the United States District Court For The Northern District Of Texas approved the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by the ESPC and ESPC member companies against EBay and PayPal , pursuant to a stipulation agreement between the parties. On September 7, 2005, WNDU-TV reported that the ESPC was mailing settlement demands to individual eBay buyers.1 According to one such demand letter, dated October 17, 2005, the buyers were identified by personal records provided by eBay and eBay sellers. The October 17 letter further claimed that buyers, by purchasing and possessing unlicensed copies of embroidery software or patterns, had infringed copyrights according to federal statutes. A University Of Notre Dame law professor interviewed for the September 7 WNDU-TV report disagreed, saying that no exclusive copyright to purchase or possession exists under current law. DEFAMATION SUIT As of April 28, 2006, the ESPC has "claimed" to represent seven United States embroidery publishers and distributors.2 The legitimacy of the ESPC is disputed by Internet critics, who suggest that the ESPC may be associated with only one publisher, Great Notions Embroidery Designs. On June 28, 2006, the ESPC responded to two such critics, against whom the ESPC had previously filed copyright infringement lawsuits, by filing a new lawsuit. In the new lawsuit, the ESPC alleged defamation, Intentional Infliction Of Emotional Distress , Conspiracy , business disparagement, and Tortious Interference . The ESPC subsequently petitioned for a subpoena seeking the identities of every subscriber to the two critics' Internet mailing list. In September 2006, after the Electronic Frontier Foundation intervened on behalf of the anonymous targets of the subpoena, the subpoena was withdrawn. 3 The referenced critics, since February 2006 have entered an out of court settlement with ESPC. Prior out of court settlements show that the infringers hand over lists of buyers and individuals to whom the machine embroidery designs were sent. REFERENCES |
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