MTV Sues Curry
Adam Curry
**************
Last update: May 10 1994
New Jersey, May 10 1994
I had planned to keep the following quiet until more information was available, but since several
journalists have already caught wind of it, I decided to get it out into the open so my side of the
story is heard as well.
The domain I maintain and operate on the Internet, mtv.com was founded approximately one year
ago. At that time I registered mtv.com with the InterNIC, purely because it was a cool address to
have, and it was available. What a great "vanity plate"!
The site quickly became a frequently accessed "hangout" on the net, with an average of 35000
accesses daily from Mosaic clients alone. During the start up months I had many conversations
with executives at MTV Networks about my endeavours, which btw, were all financed out of my
own pocket, and vps from MTV Programming as well as Viacom New Media were aware of what I
was doing on the internet, and although they stated "MTV has no interest in the internet" they gave
me their blessing and supported my efforts.
This was enforced when I set up several email accounts on mtv.com for use in MTV's on-air
programming. Ever sionce the summer of '93, pop...@mtv.com was used for trivia quiz
questions, that were then aired on MTV's "Most Wanted" a program I hosted at the time.
Solicitations were made on the air, and the address was shown on the screen. For MTV's annual
Valentines video dedications, viewers were offered the choice of calling in their dedications, or
sending them via email to el...@mtv.com.
I never charged MTV Networks for this service, I purely saw it as a cool feature to introduce to
MTV's programming, spreading the "gospel", so to speak.
Then I started to get a lot of press about mtv.com, and some people started to wake up at 1515
Broadway (MTV's HQ in New York City). And I was served with a "Cease and desist" on the use of
mtv.com. MTV's attourneys claimed that there could be "confusion" for users of the internet, when
connecting to *anything* that had the letters mtv in the adress, and then receiving music and
entertainment information. I was obviously hurt by this move, but did see what point they were
driving at, an asked if we could settle this matter amicably.
The situation cooled down for a couple of months, but when I resigned on-air from my job as a VJ,
which MTV chose not to air btw, things started to get ugly.
Long story short, MTV Networks has filed a lawsuit against me, for copyright infringement of their
"trademark", that being their "MTV" call letters, as well as having information onlie that was MTVN
"property". In this case they are refferring to several press releases I put up on mtv.com, such a an
announcement about Beavis and Butthead's "experience" cd release. Understand that MTVN sent
me these releases over their own internal computer network for this very purpose!
Again, I was only doing this to promote the channel, not for my own personal gain..after
all...mtv.com is free access for all, no charge.
Throughout all of this I have offered to maintain the site specifically for mtv, but again they said
"we're not interested". Ofcourse I have no problem whatsoever removing all refrences to MTV
Networks and it's projects from mtv.com, no that I don't work there anymore gives me even more
reason to want to do this, but the kicker is they are moving for an injunction to make me stop using
the internet address mtv.com!
This is ofcourse totally unacceptable, I registered the domain name, and I don't plan on giving it
up. Sure MTV and their parent company Viacom have a vast legal team, but david also nailed
goliath, so I have faith. In the long run, everyone knows that the only *true* winners will be the
lawyers.
There are many different viewpoints on this situation, but I feel that the use of mtv in an addressing
scheme can't be seen as an infringement of intellectulal propert laws, and a search of the InterNIC
database shows at least 15 domain names registered with mtv in the address. Irony is that I
incorporated a company called ON RAMP, Inc (tm) and onramp.com was already registered to
someone else, but I'm not suing them :)
It appears to me that MTV has their mind set on the address mtv.com, maybe not for now, but
posibly for future use, and I feel extremely used, in that I built up quite an audience for that
address, and they are basically saying "thank you very much, you may go".
A pre-motion hearing is scheduled for this thursday morning at 11am, wit the honourable Judge
McKenna presiding, in an attemp to get an injunction to make me stop using the address
mtv.com. I will update the situation as it unfolds.
Adam Curry, ad...@mtv.com
sohl,william h
> MTV Sues Curry
> **************
>Last update: May 10 1994
>
>New Jersey, May 10 1994
>
>"trademark", that being their "MTV" call letters, as well as having information onlie that was MTVN
>"property". In this case they are refferring to several press releases I put up on mtv.com, such a an
>announcement about Beavis and Butthead's "experience" cd release. Understand that MTVN sent
>me these releases over their own internal computer network for this very purpose!
>Again, I was only doing this to promote the channel, not for my own personal gain..after
>all...mtv.com is free access for all, no charge.
>
>Throughout all of this I have offered to maintain the site specifically for mtv, but again they said
>"we're not interested". Ofcourse I have no problem whatsoever removing all refrences to MTV
>Networks and it's projects from mtv.com, no that I don't work there anymore gives me even more
>reason to want to do this, but the kicker is they are moving for an injunction to make me stop using
>the internet address mtv.com!
As preparation for your "defense" check to see if any radio or
TV station has been issued the callsign KMTV or WMTV. No one
has, to the best of my knowledge, ever challenged (successfully)
the issuance and use of station call letters by the FCC.
Additionally, there are many amateur radio operators that
likely have MTV as part of their callsigns, such as:
W1MTV, K1MTV, N1MTV
W2MTV, K2MTV, N1MTV
the same continues up
through the numbers
3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9
and ends with: W0MTV, K0MTV and N0MTV.
Additionally, any telephone number that
starts 688-XXXX could be identified by
the "owner" of that telephone number as MTV-XXXX
Good Luck and keep us posted.
>There are many different viewpoints on this situation, but I
>feel that the use of mtv in an addressing
>scheme can't be seen as an infringement of intellectulal
>propert laws, and a search of the InterNIC
>database shows at least 15 domain names registered with mtv
>in the address.
That's certainly similar to the point(s) I offer above relative
to MTV being issued by the FCC as part of callsigns.
>mtv.com. I will update the situation as it unfolds.
I look forward and wish the best.
Standard Disclaimer- Any opinions, etc. are mine and NOT my employer's.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Sohl (K2UNK) BELLCORE (Bell Communications Research, Inc.)
Morristown, NJ email via UUCP bcr!cc!whs70
201-829-2879 Weekdays email via Internet wh...@cc.bellcore.com
Kauto Huopio
MainosTelevisio (MTV) for about 20 years. When it created its own
network, it is nowdays called as MTV3. And I think that in Hungary, they
have Magyar Television (MTV).
--Kauto
--
****************** Kauto Huopio (huo...@kannel.lut.fi) **********************
* Mail: Kauto Huopio, Laserkatu 3 CD 363, SF-53850 Lappeenranta,Finland *
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