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ShellNews.net: ASIA PULSE THREATENING LETTER

Dear Mr Donovan,

My name is Caroline Buckingham and I am the Sales Executive with Asia Pulse Pty Ltd. I have noticed a large volume of Asia Pulse material on your web site www.shell2004.com/blog & have also noticed that you are offering free redistribution of our material via your web log.

I wish to draw your attention to the fact that Asia Pulse Pty Ltd reserves all rights including copyright in relation to services provided by it and that retransmission, dissemination or publication, whether in print, electronic or other means, is expressly forbidden without written authorisation from Asia Pulse Pty Ltd.

I am unable to find any record of any redistribution licence between Asia Pulse & your website or with anyone under the name of Alfred Donovan. Please let me know how you are accessing our material & of any agreements or authorisation that you have received to use Asia Pulse content.

Yours faithfully,
Caroline Buckingham
Asia Pulse Pty Ltd
www.asiapulse.com
Tel: +61-2-9322-8634
Fax: +61-2-9322-8639
Email: [email protected]

RESPONSE EMAIL FROM ALFRED DONOVAN DATED 27 FEBRUARY 2006

Dear Ms Buckingham

I acknowledge receipt of your email dated 27 February. The articles have been obtained from the Internet. Our use of them is limited to articles mentioning Shell. They have been appearing for some time (since 2004) on my original website www.shellnews.net

My websites display a “Fair Use Notice” in regard to copyrighted material. I would draw your attention to the legal notice which states: “THERE ARE NO SUBSCRIPTION FEES OR ANY OTHER CHARGES: This is a non-commercial, non-profit website with no advertising.”

In this connection an illustrious three person panel of the World Intellectual Property Organisation reached a unanimous verdict in my favour in respect of the domain name royaldutchshellplc.com and the other Shell related domain names which were the subject of proceedings brought by Royal Dutch Shell. The panel consisted of (1) Mr Michael Cover, a British solicitor who specialises in Intellectual Property law; passing off, copyright etc; (2) Ms Diane Cabell, an eminent American lawyer, currently Corporate Counsel of Creative Commons and previously a senior lawyer at The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Havard Law School. Daniel J Gervais is a Canadian Professor of Technology Law. Professor Gervais held senior legal positions at the WIPO in Geneva for several years and is the author of a host of major publications relating to the Internet and associated law. He acted as the presiding panellist in the WIPO Shell case.

Having read my submission, the panel accepted “there is no evidence that Respondent’s actions are for “commercial gain”.

In other words, the expert panel decision in August 2005 accepted the fact that my website is operated entirely on a non-profit making.

Hence the “Fair Use Notice” has been validated by the WIPO panel decision.

Yours sincerely
Alfred Donovan

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

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