October 5, 2001 A.D.
Mr. Joseph Farah, Editor
WorldNetDaily.com, Inc. (“WND”)
P.O. Box 409
Cave Junction 97523-0409
OREGON, USA
Subject: Copyright and Lanham Act Violations
Dear Mr. Farah,
Attached please find a copy of the title page from The Law That Never Was ‑‑ The fraud of the 16th Amendment and personal Income Tax, by Bill Benson and M.J. “Red” Beckman (Volume I).
In a previous email message to you, I explained that your advertisement of this book at the WND website appears to violate the federal Copyright Act and the Lanham Act, for falsely designating the true origins of Volume I. M. J. “Red” Beckman is not even mentioned in your ad promoting this book.
As you can plainly see from the attached cover page, there are two authors of this book, not one.
Moreover, M. J. “Red” Beckman is also listed in the legal Copyright notice on the title page, which also states: “No material in this book may be copied, or used in any way without written permission.”
I would like to know why you haven’t responded to my email message in this matter. I would also like to know if you have, or do not have, the written permission of Martin J. “Red” Beckman to promote Volume I at your website.
I am now asking these questions for several related reasons.
It recently came to my attention that you are also promoting “The F Zone” videotape at the WND website. This videotape is a known infringement of my exclusive copyrights in “The Federal Zone: Cracking the Code of Internal Revenue” (all editions). A segment of dialogue in that movie is lifted almost verbatim from a Chapter in my book. It is also clear from other dialogue that the letter “F” stands for “federal”.
Please be advised that we are, as I write this, serving a formal SUMMONS and COMPLAINT upon a total of 129 named defendants in Mitchell v. AOL Time Warner, Inc. et al., for criminal copyright infringement, Lanham Act violations, and related federal offenses.
We are also contemplating an amended complaint which will charge all named defendants with interstate racketeering in counterfeits. Congress added criminal copyright infringement to the list of racketeering predicate acts in 1996. See recent amendments to 18 U.S.C. 1961, specifically the Anticounterfeiting Consumer Protection Act of 1996.
Both the Lanham Act and the RICO statutes authorize triple damages to be assessed against proven violators. This means that in the case against AOL Time Warner, Inc. et al., the damages will be multiplied seven-fold (1+3+3).
Formal demand is hereby made of you immediately to cease and desist from all further marketing, sales, distribution, and/or promotion of the videotape entitled “The F Zone” by THF Pictures, produced and written by William Harrity and directed by Michael Hansel.
Thank you for your immediate cooperation.
Sincerely yours,
/s/ Paul Andrew Mitchell
Author, Damaged Party and Plaintiff,
Mitchell v. AOL Time Warner, Inc. et al.
copy: Martin J. “Red” Beckman, Billings, Montana
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