February 19, 2009
I will continue to post here for the next few days as I move something new into place.
Here is the latest information (BELOW) on what is happening with this website! It sounds to me like they “C-SPAN” don’t want anyone using the “C-SPAN” name in a way that they do not control they are insisting that I do not use the name C-SPAN in any way, or ANY variation B-SPAN… Z-SPAN ect…
I LOVE C-SPAN! That’s why I built this website. And I in NO way wish to fight with them. I am VERY afraid they will get my youtube page pulled and that is years of work that could possibly benefit generations.
You CAN’T Hold A Good man Down! I WILL Have A New Plan In Motion By Monday!
Thank You ALL For Making CSPANJunkie One Of My Most Meaningful Experiences.
~CSJ
Letter from C-SPAN:
Thank you for your call today.
We at C-SPAN certainly appreciate your enthusiasm for the work we do here in the area of public affairs, but we are also concerned about being in firm control of our image, our impartiality, our corporate name, and our non-profit business, as we discussed.
I am especially thankful to you for your understanding these issues and for your willingness to make changes in your own website that will respond appropriately to them.
We agreed that by next week you would voluntarily do the following:
1. Stop using a domain name containing our service mark “C-SPAN” or any variation of it.
2. Host only C-SPAN video that is coverage of Congress (including hearings) or government-sponsored events (as we discussed) and leave the C-SPAN logo on screen to identify the source of the video.
You are free to link to www.c-span.org, if you like. You are also free to refer to yourself as a “C-SPAN Junkie” (as so many others do) in the text of your site, so long as the use of that title expresses only your enthusiasm for C-SPAN’s programming and does not suggest an endorsement by C-SPAN of your site or of any particular point of view.
I will call you on Wednesday, February 25th to get a status report from you. Please call or e-mail me in the meantime if you have any questions about any of this.
Cordially,
******** | Corporate Vice President & General Counsel | C-SPAN
I’m Leaving Out His Contact Info: END OF LETTER
~CSJ
February 18, 2009
C-SPAN Says This Domain Must Be Shut Down!
More Coming Soon!
~CSJ
C-span Junkie is fantastic–never say die!
NOOOO!!! I honestly check out C-SPAN Junkie more often than I read cnn.com … I love this website very, very much… I do not have cable and this site helps me stay up to date with the best of political show clips and CSPAN itself. Thank you for the years of great internet. My life won’t be the same without CSPAN Junkie. Thank you for everything. Good luck. Godspeed.
Why???
Trademark holders should be aware that possessing a trademark for a given term does not automatically mean that they have a legitimate legal claim to a domain name. Possession of a valid trademark is only one of three requirements that you need to meet to win ownership of a domain name via ICANN’s Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) [http://www.icann.org/en/udrp/udrp-policy-24oct99.htm], the policy governing ownership disputes for the generic TLDs (.com, .net, .org, .biz, and .info) or the U.S. Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (15 U.S.C. sec. 1125).
I THINK YOU SHOULD CONTACT ICANN AND DISCUSS THIS WITH THEM, CSPANJUNKIE. I understand that you enjoy C-SPAN and do not wish to go against them, but what they are requesting IS pretty ridiculous, especially on the internet. I also find it funny that their content is IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN yet they are trying to control what you do with it.
p.s. their name is C-SPAN, your domain name is cspanjunkie.org. imho they have no legal right to the domain, but i’m not a lawyer! (i just play one online %_____%)
If you want to discuss this further just contact me via the email attached to this username.
I feel bad for you, but trademarks and copyright issues have to be defended even for public non profits.
I am on the board of a community access tv station. We had a guy who began putting our programming on his web site as if it was his own. He didn’t get any permission and had ads on the page. We are not allowed to have ads on our page. we had to defend our “product” against unauthorized use, its as simple as that. Even though we are a public access facility it applies. CSPAN I would imagine is a big deal and you may not have been the first to do this. So they politely, at first ask you to stop then send the legal department after your ass. A correct decision is to take the full length programs off, partial programs, or highlights should be OK and make sure their logo is front and center and thank them if necessary. It will be OK just adjust to the legal method.
The last thing I listened to was Stephanie Millers interview. I like her but you can be sure she would protect her personal Product. In fact she sells her podcasts.
Yeah dude, regardless of what they tell you, there isn’t a goddamned thing they can do to make you shut down your site. Companies always do this, by making it sound like they have a legitimate reason for shutting you down, when in fact there is no legal basis.
So… regardless of how much we all love C-SPAN, don’t let them shove you into doing something you don’t have to do. It’s B.S. through and through.
Wow, I’m really sorry to hear this.
Your clips provide a tremendous service to people w/o cable tv and to the blogosphere. But I guess that’s the point.
Keep your fans updated.
Also, check this out CSJ. http://www.c-spanarchives.org/library/index.php?main_page=specialuse
“All uses of the video of the House and Senate floor proceedings are permitted because it is in the public domain.”
“Individuals are permitted to use C-SPAN video coverage of federal government events on a non-commercial public Internet site so long as C-SPAN is attributed as the source of the video.”
Cspanjunkie.org is not a commercial website at all. You *do* have advertisements on the site but one would assume that those cover the cost to run the website. You aren’t relying on the C-SPAN content to make you money; it’s the visitors that need to see the footage that you are relying on.
The only thing I can see them having a problem with is you posting any non-federal politics or policy events without a license from them. It looks like you can request one here: http://www.c-spanarchives.org/library/index.php?main_page=specialuse
I really appreciate your services here, distilling the video from C-SPAN into the more important items. It is really amazing.
IANAL, however I would also say it’s rather unfair for them to claim that you cannot use the domain. By agreeing to ‘not use’ the domain name are you also agreeing to give up ownership of it?
It you’re still allowed to refer to yourself as a “C-SPAN Junkie” but not own the domain, I think it’s bogus. Perhaps adding a little more “cspanjunkie.org is not affiliated with C-SPAN. C-SPAN does not endorse any view points on this website.”
Unfortunately it appears that you’ve already made certain agreements with them, and I don’t know how much you’ll be backtracking on. In any case, keep us posted. Even if you have to change the domain name we’ll still be following you
I only recently discovered this website, but I love it!!! I can see why you wouldn’t want to tangle with CSPAN re your rights to keep your domain, but hope it won’t be a lot of trouble to move it…
Will you be notifying registered members of the new address or will you set up a site forwarding? I hate to lose track of your great info!!!
dude, you are an internet thing. the CSPAN people don’t like you using their Acronym. An fucking acronym??? Its not even a trademark.
Well i hope you enjoy your sucess!
stand up, be a patriot and hold steadfast to these clowns is my opinion. My main concern is for your youtube account as i would image it draws you a lot of traffic (that’s how i found you), but fear by giving up your domain name they may use your compliance to do so as a precedent to have youtube delete that account. If you do decide to move i hope you inform your register users.
Greetings friends and patriots! Just found this site and I can’t believe there are other CSPAN junkies like myself. Glad I’m not the only nerd. And I mean that it a good, politically aware, want my news direct from the source, not drinking the Kool Aid sort of way. If CSPAN wants it shut down, it must be good! They should be friggin’ thankful that someone is pulling out the best stuff and posting it. They might get more viewers. Besides, this is the internet, baby! It’s not like they can stuff the genie back into the bottle as much as govt would like to. Drives them nuts they can’t tax it. Yet.