Hendrickson vs. eBay, COURT ORDER
In what Federal Judge Robert J, Kelleher described as a
"matter of first impression in the Federal Courts," the
court finally broke the long-standing spell cast upon the now infamous
Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Most are familiar with the term
"DMCA" as it has been associated with the famous Napster
Case, which is still languishing in the judicial system.
While hundreds of attorneys have been arguing for a couple of years
over the ambiguous language concocted by a less than articulate United
States Congress, Judge Kelleher finally explained it best:
"First, the "right and ability to control" the
infringing activity, as the concept is used in the DMCA, cannot
simply mean the ability of a service provider to remove or block
access to materials posted on its website or stored in its system.
To hold otherwise would defeat the purpose of the DMCA and render
the statute internally inconsistent."
In simple terms, the Court discovered that "Congress could not
have intended," what it actually wrote, when it included the
requirement that a service provider must NOT have the "right and
ability to control" the infringing activity on its website in
order to be immune from liability under the DMCA.
Plaintiff (Hendrickson) aptly responded to the Court's somewhat
peculiar analogy in a recent Motion for the Court to Reconsider its
finding:
"That a Federal Court has recognized the inability of the
entire United States Congress to articulate in writing what
it actually means or intends is, in and of itself scary, but in
these troubled times, it is downright terrifying."
What might be even more incredibly bizarre here, is the fact that a
Court of law has adjudged eBay, which is controlled and operated by an
elite Army of highly educated, college degreed, visionaries, as unable
to control the illegal activity (copyright infringement) conducted via
its website, but another Court of law, some 30 years age in an even
more celebrated case, adjudged a completely uneducated man to have the
supernatural power to control the minds of other human beings, to the
extent that they would even commit murder for him. That is precisely
how legends are made.
While the Court's Order now lets eBay off the hook in the
Hendrickson vs. eBay lawsuits, it also affords "equal
protection" to the Exclusive Film Network and where eBay is now
allowed to keep its 5% of the profits made off the
"counterfeit" MANSON DVD's, ExclusiveFilms.com will be
entitled to keep its 50% of the revenues made in connection with any
potential infringing activity conducted via its website.
More specifically, as was shown to the Court:
"Plaintiff (Hendrickson) owns and operates the website
www.ExclusiveFilms.com, where films are shown, The website is in
the process of being converted to a "pay-per-view"
system, and the website is also being set up to accept other
persons films for web casting, The system will operate almost
exactly like eBay, in that "users" can program in or
post their own films for a small set up fee and a 50% of the
revenues fee. The Exclusive Film Network will comply with the DMCA,
just like eBay with 50% of the take automatically going into the
websites bank account and the other 50% automatically going into
the "users" bank account."
"If the website cannot be held liable for monetary relief
under the DMCA (re eBay ruling) and if one can only imagine some
unscrupulous "user" posting Steven Spielberg's latest
movie on the www.ExcluslveFilms.com website after 6pm on Friday,
by Monday morning, when Mr. Spielberg is pounding on the Exclusive
Film Networks front door, Plaintiff will have made at least
$20,000 representing just his 50%, and that's just from one
specific movie. The other 4 nights, Monday through Thursday could
mean even more illegal profits, obtained LEGALLY."
"Perhaps this is what Congress intended to stimulate
e-commerce on the Internet, but Plaintiff can't even comprehend such a
plan."
On October 15, 2001, the Court denied Plaintiff (Hendrickson's)
Motion to Reconsider the above consequences if the Court's September
4, 2001 Order is allowed to stand, thus the Exclusive Film Network is
now preparing to make the final launch of the first "user"
interactive film-viewing site on the internet.
Imagine, if you had taken the video of the planes crashing into the
world trade center, you could post it on ExclusiveFilms.com and make
50% of the revenues instead of only a few bucks from the networks.
The possibilities are endless and we will censor NOTHING. Perhaps
you want to make your own movie, all you need is a camera to film it
and a computer to edit it, we provide the movie theater to show it,
WORLDWIDE. Maybe you have relatives in Afghanistan who can get you a
one on one interview with Bin Laden or maybe your cousin Louie, the
hit man, will take you along for his next job!
Thirty years ago, Robert Hendrickson rode with the Manson Gang to
film the most incredible experience or a lifetime, we're sure that
someone will soon top that feat.
Without the Court's ruling granting DMCA protection, you can see
that the liability would be so great that no one could even afford the
liability insurance. eBay argued in Court papers that it would be
devastated financially if it could be held liable for
"users" infringing activity and it should be obvious that we
could not even contemplate allowing others to post their films on our
website if we had to worry about major motion pictures popping up
illegally on our website.
Now, you should understand why we had no choice but to shut down
and fight this most important court Battle with eBay. We have lost our
MANSON DVD window of opportunity, but we have gained a most valuable
advantage in the competitive Internet race,
Quite possibly, the Exclusive Film Network will become what CNN
became to cable TV or what HBO became to entertainment and quite
possibly the Judge, in making a King Solomon type decision, has
provided Robert Hendrickson with the means and responsibility to
create a new way of providing endless amounts of information and
entertainment, uncensored, to a world starving for truth and
knowledge. IMAGINE, a new world media outlet, where only the people
have the "right and ability to control" it!
Perhaps a wise US Congress knew exactly what it was doing when it
wrote the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
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