Formerly Barney Jokes

  There used to be roughly one page of jokes about that
asinine purple Dinosaur 'Barney' here. (out of several
thousand pages of jokes in the joke archive) The general
tone of the humour presented here was in the vein of 
parody, that Barney may rot young children's brains and 
should meet an early demise, preferably violently.
  Apparantly the folks at Lyons Partnership were unhappy
about my making jokes about Barney. (See the warning
from their lawyers below)
  I guess that despite dinosaurs having generally thick 
skins, this dinosaur is not among them.  While webpages 
have existed for years where you can physically do harm 
to an image of Barney, making jokes about doing so somehow 
crosses the line. The fact that anyone would be that anal 
retentive is truly more amusing than the jokes that used 
to be here anyways.
  So rather than a protracted and costly legal battle 
protecting the right of freedom of speech to make jokes 
about famous dinosaurs we have removed the jokes...
it's just not worth the hassle of being bullied by a 
billion dollar a year enterprise over one page of jokes
about a well known cartoon character on a webpage that 
has probably been seen by less than 100 people.

Date: Tue, 02 Jan 2001 11:12:47 -0500
From: Gibney, Anthony & Flaherty, LLP
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Unauthorized Use of Intellectual Property

            January 2, 2001

BY E-MAIL: [email protected]

    Re: Unauthorized Use of Intellectual Property

Dear [email protected]:

    This firm is counsel to Lyons Partnership, L.P. (Lyons
Partnership), the owners of the exclusive right to use the 
copyrighted children�s dinosaur character Barney� as well 
as the federally registered and famous trademark and service
mark Barney.

    It has come to the attention of Lyons Partnership that you 
are operating a website found at URL: yuksrus.com/barney.html. 
We have reviewed your website and have concluded that it 
incorporates the use and threat of violence towards the children�s 
character Barney without permission from Lyons Partnership.

    As a result of Lyons Partnership's continuous promotion of the
Barney character, Barney has come to be recognized as a distinctive
and famous trademark and service mark. Lyons Partnership vigorously 
objects to the unsavory and unwholesome content that you have 
associated with its trademark and service mark Barney.  The content 
that you have placed on your website, used in conjunction with the 
federally registered and famous trademark and service mark Barney, 
including all relevant hyperlinks to third-party websites, 
constitutes a violation of the Federal Trademark Dilution Act 
pursuant to 15 U.S.C. 1125(c)(1). By associating the Barney 
trademark with violence, your website tarnishes the distinctive 
qualities of the trademark and service mark Barney. Remedies 
available to Lyons Partnership based upon a violation of the 
Federal Trademark Dilution Act include a permanent injunction,
damages, costs and attorneys' fees.

    Your actions also constitute direct copyright infringement, 
and make you subject to injunction and liable to Lyons Partnership 
for its damages, costs and attorneys� fees. Pursuant to 17 U.S.C. 
� 501(a), "anyone who violates any of the exclusive rights of the 
copyright owner as provided by sections 106 through 118, or of the 
author as provided in 106(a), is an infringer of the copyright or 
right of the author".  Lyons Partnership hereby demands that you 
immediately cease and desist from diluting its trademark Barney, 
as well as reproducing, distributing, performing by means of 
digital audio transmission, displaying, or in any other way 
infringing upon Lyons Partnership�s copyrights.

    Lyons Partnership is prepared to pursue all available remedies 
to protect its intellectual property rights. However, Lyons 
Partnership will refrain from taking immediate legal action upon 
condition that you provide written assurances by January 23, 2001, 
that you have ceased and desisted from diluting the trademark and 
service mark Barney, as well as reproducing, distributing, 
performing by means of digital audio transmission, or displaying 
the copyrighted character Barney.  Your written assurances must 
also state that you have removed all web page content relating to 
the unlawful use of the Barney trademarks or copyrights as well 
as any links to the official Barney website.

    We await an immediate response from you or your counsel.

            Sincerely,

            GIBNEY, ANTHONY & FLAHERTY, LLP

            By: ________________________________
                 Matthew W. Carlin

cc: Angelo Mazza, Esq.