As you can see I have been told that if I don't remove my remarks about Uri Geller I will lose my access and website. I simply do not feel that I have done anything wrong here. My use of the video is clearly covered by the fair use doctrine. I did not reproduce the entire tape, only enough to illustrate my point. I added commentary.

Nor do I believe that anything I wrote about Mr. Geller is actionable.

For these reasons I have respectfully declined removing any of my remarks about Mr. Geller. I have found that you can no longer view the tape at this site, I am not sure if it is something that wikiweb.com has done themselves or if I messed up the html but if need be I will be providing a link to a page where you can see the video.

On 1 Nov 2000, at 6:01, Monty Kamath wrote:

> Below is a message that was sent to us.
>
> We would like you to remove the link to the video as well as any remarks about
> Mr. Geller. If you do not remove those references, we will delete the
> Skeptical_Wiki and all other wikis owned by you as well as your user account.
>
> Please understand that we are trying to run a software company that makes money
> from selling software (not providing free web space). While we believe in free
> speech and your right to say whatever you want about Mr. Geller, we cannot
> afford to fight the lawsuits that might be required to protect free speech for
> all of our web site's users.
>
> Thank you for using our service,
> Monty Kamath
> monty_kamath@wikiweb.com
> President
> WikiWeb, Inc.
> http://www.wikiweb.com
First off I would like to assure you that the use of this small piece of videotape would be covered by the fair use exeption to copyright laws. I did not reproduce the entire tape verbatim, only the amount needed to make my point. I would also point out that the description on the page matches the truth of the video. I will also point out that the video does not reside on your server but is only viewed on that page. My last point is that Mr. Uri Geller does not own the copyright to this piece of tape.

The person that wrote this letter Mr. Shippi Shtrang is not a lawyer.

He is merely Mr. Geller's assistant. As such he has no legal standing to threaten anyone with a lawsuit. I am in the process of finding out what the legal ramification of what Mr. Shtrang is doing by writing these letters.

I did not "create" the skeptical_wiki, I merely took it over. It was available from a list your company provided, One wonders if you were going to cave at the first sign of a lawsuit (which is what happens to websites that have skeptical viewpoints, ask any of the anti- scientology sites that are on the net) why you would have bothered to list such a site for someone to take.

I would very much like to encourage you not to bow to pressure from a person that is not even a lawyer, threatening to file a lawsuit he most probably cannot win. I have done nothing wrong.

It is ultimately your website and you can remove the pages if you so choose and there will not be a whole lot I can do about it. Since I do not feel that anything I have written in regards to Uri Geller is actionable I am hesitant to remove pages myself. I also feel that the video in question is covered by the fair use. I would rather you remove the entire site, since certainly if you are not willing to protect the free speech rights of one member of the wiki, you are not interested in protecting the free speech right of *any* member of the wiki. I understand your position while at the same time realizing that in spite of the fact that you are in the biz of software sales and not making free web space available, you DID in fact, make such space available. It is a shame that you don't feel more responsibility to your members.

Your letter and any other communication will be posted to the Usenet newsgroups sci.skeptic, alt.paranormal, alt.censorship, and alt.religion.scientology.
---
Dominion
The Rabbitphile Cookbook
http://freeweb.pdq.net/dominion
Answering the age old question:
What is the best way to serve rabbit?

Go Back