Copyright Violations Cost IMSI $2.6 Million.Business Editors/High Tech Writers ASHLAND, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 10, 2000 Imageline, Inc., one of the leading developers of original graphic arts graphic arts: see aquatint; drawing; drypoint; engraving; etching; illustration; linoleum block printing; lithography; mezzotint; niello; pastel; poster; silk-screen printing; silhouette; silverpoint; sketch; stencil; woodcut and wood engraving. content (clip art A set of canned images used to illustrate word processing and desktop publishing documents. illustrations, templates, and animations) for personal computers, today announced it was granted a judgment of $2,605,531.20 against IMSI IMSI International Mobile Subscriber Identity IMSI International Microcomputer Software, Inc. IMSI International Mobile Station Identity (now International Mobile Subscriber Identity) IMSI Idaho Maximum Security Institution (IMSIE.OB) of Novato, CA. The judgment, which was entered in the U.S. District Court of Northern California Northern California, sometimes referred to as NorCal, is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The region contains the San Francisco Bay Area, the state capital, Sacramento; as well as the substantial natural beauty of the redwood forests, the northern on February 29, 2000, stemmed from a wide variety of contract and copyright violations by IMSI, most notably IMSI's continued misidentification and distribution after notice of 1090 Imageline clip art illustrations on IMSI's popular ArtToday.com Internet clip art service. Wilson, Sonsini of Palo Alto, California “Palo Alto” redirects here. For other uses, see Palo Alto (disambiguation). Palo Alto (IPA: /ˌpæloʊˈʔæltoʊ/, from Spanish: palo: "stick" and alto: "high", i.e. represented Imageline in the case. IMSI was represented by Tobey Marsouk of Washington D.C. All of the Imageline clip art illustrations found on ArtToday.com were licensed to the IMSI subsidiary by Xoom.com (NBCi) of San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden , CA., in violation of Imageline's exclusive copyright and ownership rights. Imageline has also filed a $60,000,000.00 copyright infringement claim against Xoom.com, who, according to court documents filed by Imageline, has willfully willfully adv. referring to doing something intentionally, purposefully and stubbornly. Examples: "He drove the car willfully into the crowd on the sidewalk." "She willfully left the dangerous substances on the property." (See: willful) infringed Imageline's copyrights for over two years, and has illegally licensed thousands of Imageline clip art illustrations to at least 70 other major software publishers and web site operators, in addition to ArtToday.com. "Perhaps when some of these larger publishers start to realize that software piracy and willful copyright infringement is a crime in this country," states George Riddick, President and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of Imageline, "punishable by not only civil remedies and fines, but significant jail time as well, we'll start to see this cascading infringement activity over the Internet start to diminish. For the sake of thousands of small software developers, designers, and publishers just like Imageline, let's hope they get the message soon." Digital piracy and copyright infringement are major concerns to all U.S. copyright industries, costing the software industry, alone, billions of dollars in lost revenues, and hundreds of thousands of lost jobs, each year. Now with high speed, broadband capabilities an affordable reality for almost anyone connected to the Internet, similar losses are also now starting to affect the music, television, and motion picture industries. "Awards like this should send a clear signal to all users of intellectual property," adds Peter Beruk, Vice President of Anti-Piracy at the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA (Software & Information Industry Association, Washington, DC, www.siia.net) A trade organization devoted to the health and welfare of the software and digital content industry by providing support in government relations, business development, education and intellectual property ). "Intellectual property rights holders must vigorously protect their works from unauthorized use. Users of such works must respect those rights." For a complete listing of all currently infringing IMSI software products, file names of the infringing illustrations from ArtToday.com, as well as the other U.S. and international software publishers, products, and web sites associated with the Xoom.com/NBCi copyright infringement network, click on the XOOM.COM PIRACY link at http://www.imagelineinc.com, or contact Imageline by e-mail at griddick@imagelineinc.com. |
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