Reply to Helena Kobrin's first e-mail
September 25 1995

Hello Ms. Kobrin

First of all, let me thank you for your mail.

You wrote informing me that you are the legal representative of RTC. But as you may know, anyone can claim to be anybody on the net; therefore I would like to have some evidence that you are indeed who you claim to be. A more particular reason is that, during the past few weeks, I have seen quite a lot of illegal cancel-messages that originated from the provider you are mailing from, netcom. I would very much like to be sure that you are indeed Helena Kobrin and the legal representative of RTC.

> I have been informed that you have uploaded a file containing some
> of these copyrighted, unpublished materials, at the World Wide Web
> site http://www.pi.net/~kspaink without the authorization of my
> client, who, of course, would not have given such authorization had it
> been requested. This action violates my client's legal rights in that
> it is the unauthorized making of an electronic copy of the copyrighted
> materials and the unauthorized disclosure of trade secrets materials.

I have reviewed both your request and the material contained in my homepage at pi.net. To the best of my knowledge, the file contains nothing but a court-document. Indeed it does include some material that is copyrighted by RTC; but as they were included in that document, they may be published as part of that document. Would you please be so kind to forward me any material that proves me wrong? In that case I would most certainly remove the uploaded material, whether you are Helena Kobrin or not.

Of course I will never publish copyrighted material of RTC other than that made public by the court. I am a writer, and am thoroughly aware of the importance of copyright and copyright laws.

> These actions constitute violations of the United States Copyright
> laws entitling my client to damages and injunction. We have also been
> informed by our colleagues in Holland that this is a copyright violation
> which is punishable under Dutch laws.

It is not. Dutch law states, as I think laws in your country do, that court-transcripts and court documents are public material.

> If you are unwilling to remove these materials, please provide your
$gt; mailing address and/or telefacsimile (fax) number so I can follow up
> this notification with a letter.

Under Dutch law I am not obliged to give you such information. But again, if you show me that parts of the file uploaded at my homepage were not part of the original Fishman Affidavit (the copy I have may of course have been tampered with before) I will immediately remove them, whoever you are.

It would be a great help to me if you would send me the orginal copy. That would enable me to compare both files and see if any of the material on my homepage is out of bounds.

> My client is prepared to take all necessary legal actions to
> protect its rights in these materials. We would however, much prefer to
> resolve this matter with you amicably if you are willing to do so.

I am indeed willing to discuss this amicably, as I hope I have showed in the above.

There's just one point left that I would like to discuss. I would appreciate it very much if you would direct all correspondence only to me. My provider is in no way responsible for what I upload on my homepage, nor do they have the right to interfere with my postings (unless it is a spam or a chainletter); only I am.

For that reason, I was not much pleased to hear from Planet Internet that you - or anyway, somebody claiming to be you - wrote them e-mail asking them to both cancel the message in which I announced my homepage and asked them to stop my account. I think it is very bad manners, and an infringement on both my copyright to the message and my freedom of speech.

I can only say that I hope that the e-mail received by Planet Internet was indeed a forgery. Such actions are a testimony to poor legal knowledge.

regards,
Karin Spaink

Copyright Karin Spaink.
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