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Here is the text of the counter-notification sent to the
hosts of www.ex-premie.org which Stroock, Stroock and Lavan,
on behalf of their client, Elan Vital, Inc., declined to
take any further. As a result, the disputed pages were
reinstated to www.ex-premie.org.
Re: DMCA Notice of Copyright Infringement on
"www.ex-premie.org"
Regarding the notice from Stroock & Stroock & Lavan
LLP, acting for their client, Elan Vital Inc., alleging that
the website, www.ex-premie.org, infringes Elan Vital Inc.'s
copyright interests, I attach a counter notification. I
would be grateful if you could take the appropriate action
so that the website can continue to perform its public
service as soon as possible.
I would also be grateful if you could confirm receipt of
this letter by email.
Many thanks for the help you have given so far in this
matter.
John Brauns
Counter-Notification regarding DMCA Notice of
Copyright Infringement on www.ex-premie.org
Pursuant to 17 United States Code Section 512, John Brauns
provides counter-notification to Verio, Inc., regarding the
notification of claimed infringement submitted by Elan
Vital, Inc., by letter dated April 24, 2003, as follows:
1. I am the owner of the website domain ex-premie.org, (the
"EPO website") currently being hosted on a platform of
Verio, Inc., and as such I am a subscriber of Verio,
Inc.;
2. I have received notice that Elan Vital, Inc. (EVI)
alleges that certain textual works, photographs and graphic
works as displayed on the EPO website constitute violations
of the proprietary copyrights of EVI;
3. The purpose of the EPO website is to be a source of
information not provided by EVI about Prem Rawat and hence
serves a public need. Such information includes the fact
that Mr. Rawat has taught under such titles as "Perfect
Master" and "Lord of the Universe," that he has claimed to
be the living incarnation of God and wore certain garments
to emphasize that claim, and that he is and was worshipped
by his followers as a deity. In addition to this objective,
the EPO website also utilizes the listed material for the
general purposes of education, criticism and research,
including research into Eastern Cult movements of the 1970s
and 1980s in the West;
4. Neither myself, nor any other contributor to the site,
receives, or has ever received, any form of remuneration
resulting from inclusion of the listed material;
5. EVI's description of the alleged copyright infringing
works as a "staggering virtual library" is not supported by
their own figures of only 49 pages containing the alleged
infringing text, out of over 1000 pages on the website. This
has to be looked at in the context of Prem Rawat giving
public speeches in the USA for over 30 years. In addition,
the "complete book" they refer to, is in fact a booklet
mainly consisting of photographs (not reproduced on the
site), annotated with quotations from Mr. Rawat from 1978,
which, because of the embarrassing nature of the quotations,
are no longer published by EVI. The text from the "complete
book" occupies only one page on the site;
6. It is my belief that the current copyright infringement
allegations constitute nothing more than an attempt by EVI
to stifle the ability of the public to be aware of the truth
about Mr. Rawat and EVI;
7. After receiving notice of EVI's claims, I disabled the
sections of the EPO website that contain any of the material
objected to by EVI, and you may view such material at
ex-premie4.org which is an exact copy of ex-premie.org but
hosted on a different server. For the reasons stated below,
I should be allowed to return the complete website to the
Verio, Inc. platform and I hereby request that Verio, Inc.
acknowledge my right to do so as soon as possible;
8. I declare under penalty of perjury that it is my good
faith belief that the material displayed on the EPO website
claimed by EVI to be in violation of its copyright
interests, is misidentified by EVI as constituting any such
violation because:
a) some or all of the material
identified by EVI is not material in which EVI has an
enforceable copyright or has entered the public domain;
b) even if EVI owns a protectible
copyright in some or all of the material, the material is
misidentified by EVI as a copyright violation because it
constitutes "fair use" as defined in 17 U.S.C. 107.
Specifically, the material was displayed on the EPO website
solely for the purposes of criticism, comment, news
reporting, teaching, scholarship and research, all within
the parameters of the "fair use" limitation in the United
States Code.
9. My name is John Brauns; my address is [address
removed], and my telephone number is [telephone
number removed].
10. I consent to the jurisdiction of the Federal District
Court in which Verio, Inc. is located, specifically, the
Federal District Court in Denver, Colorado. I further agree
to accept service from EVI or its attorneys.
I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is
true and correct.
Dated: 30th April 2003
John Brauns
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