Sentech threatens to sue me.

I received a takedown fax from Bowman Gilfillan, Sentech's attorneys today, insisting that I "take down" the sites by close of business tomorrow.

I've chatted to a few people, and no precedent has been set for using someones "trademark" in a domain name, so I'm forced to relinquish the sites.

They haven't specified in which "form" they'd like the sites to be take down.

I can transfer, or delete the domains. Or keep em, and put up a blank page. Regardless, this will not stop my lobbying for better service, or a rebate, or an apology, or a proper explanation.

I am going to be moving my sites elsewhere, where the domain names don't "infringe" on their trademarks.

Sigh.


<center><h6> MyWireless <s>Hacks</s> Tweaks & Tech Info || Have you checked the fawking FAQ? <br /> <font color="red">Tired of bad Service? Want to compare speeds? We at least listen...</font id="red"></h6></center>

Will they ask www.sentech.com to take down their site as well, if this is only about trademark issues ? Just wondering.....

Heya.

I take it from your comments they are not accusing you of defamation - only trademark infringement ?

R

************************************************************
The views expressed on this site are my own and NOT those of my employer.

rodent, you've legally purchased sentechsucks.co.za - so therefore the fault if any, lies with whoever sold it to you, not you.

You're quite welcome, to sell the legally purchased domain name, to me, if you like.

Depending on the cost of the initial registration, I'll purchase the domain from you, just tell me how much, and what I need to do, by way of official notification to whoever(Im a newbie as far as domain names go) and then let sentech come chasing after me - if they can find me - and in the interim, go register sentechsucks.com, and a few other sentech variations.

Technically 'take the site down' is a little vague - especially if you've legally purchased the web address - and I would imagine that selling the site to someone else quite effectively 'takes the site down' - at least in terms of your legal liability..?

Sell me the site, and I'll contact a geek-friend in the UK, and sell it to him - screw Sentech's pseudo-legal intimidation - this is about freedom of speech, not 'trademarks' - and saying PRODUCTXSUCKS is fair use of a trademark, irrespective of Sentech's whining to the contrary. By their logic, any mention whatsoever of their product that's by someone other than them, is an infringement of trademark.

That sounds like the malicious litigation techniques that scientology use.

Screw them.

Sell me the site, or sell it tonight to someone outside the borders of SA, and then shrug and advise Sentech in a short note that you were made really scared by their letter, and have sold the site to person X, and could they in future please address all correspondence to that person.

End of problem for you - the beginning of a BIG problem for Sentech - as now they have to begin trying to chase after whoever owns the site.

Its about freedom of speech - NOT copyright or 'trademarks'. Make a plan and sell the site tonight or tomorrow, to someone else, and notify Sentech's lawyers that i its out of your hands and you've effectively complied with their threatening letter - even though it would appear to have little basis in law. They then have to go a hunting to find the new owner..

Screw them.

Yeah or just register a new site (LoneGunman) and make sentechsucks.co.za point to that one.
What a childish bunch wasting money on calling in legal representation instead of addressing the problem.

Rodent...

Have you had a look at : http://www.buys.co.za/casestudies_trademarks.htm There may be some precedent....

http://www.legalbrief.co.za/view_1.php?artnum=3985

Also, maybe Buys would be willing to give this one a go ? .. Chat 2 them

R

************************************************************
The views expressed on this site are my own and NOT those of my employer.

get yourself a good jewish lawyer

Rodent. IMO, don’t back down. An attorney’s letter isn't worth the piece of paper it's written on. If they want to challenge you on the domain, remember that they will only bring attention to themselves and their inferior products. If I was Sentech, I would spend the extra cash on upgrading their network and stop behaving like corporate fools with legal threats. They are in the wrong about their service and they have the most to lose in this case. They could easily make their whole business a complete flop by challenging the public. I for one are going to steer clear from Sentech. They have proved that they are no better than Telkom with their idiotic corporate policies of no public participation. Haven’t they heard its the 21st century and consumerism is the name of the game. Hiding behind corporate curtains will only help in the short term.
But it's your decision and life. Go for what your heart says boet. It's your life and it’s very short. Make the most of it. Don’t let people tread all over you. Have you any idea how long litigation can take. In the mean time they could go out of business pursuing paying customers.
Perhaps you can ask them for a extension to their deadline and ask for a round table discussion. And then report back to the forum.

Rodent, if you need legal fees, I am willing to help you. I will donate R500 to your cause if push comes to shove even given the fact I use ADSL. I hate corporate bullies.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"> Will they ask www.sentech.com to take down their site as well, if this is only about trademark issues ? Just wondering.....<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote"> They are just as guilty. I think their case is very weak. They feeling you out. All lawyers do.


<b><hr noshade size="1"></b><font size="2"><font color="red"><b>You can take Telkom out of the Post Office but you can't take the Post Office out of Telkom.</b></font id="red"></font id="size2">

My advice:

1] TRUST account.

Set up an audited trust account the disbursements of which can only go to the payments of legal fees.

If you are transparent about this then you will find sympathetic donors in this forum to that account number.I publicly offer to contribute.And you can publicly hold me to that on this forum


2] TALKING TO YOUR SPIRIT

I know its easy for us to talk big when you are the one bearing the risk,but i can only suggest that YOU so bravely and so publicly doing this noble thing will not only lift you in your own eyes but it will as they say "LIFT YOUR GAME."

What follows from that obviously are job opps,business opps,money and of course beautiful zest woman

Nice work Rodent, if you need any help mail me [email protected]

Fantasy is what people want, reality is what they need.

*Sigh* .. my (and others) speeds still suck, and Sentech's idea of solving the problem is sue anyone who complains, rather than just fix the problem? That proves they are not committed to solving the problem, just to making the "bad PR" go away.

Anyone have an estimate roughly how much a legal defence could cost?

Hee hee

sentechsucks.co.za is already #20 on google if you do a search on "sentech"

And #1 if you search for "mywireless" !!! []

Well done Rodent

All the legal mambo-jumbo is just moving the attention away from the real problem... you know... the speed that sucks...

IMO: far more simple than all that is that Me. Potgieter has an agreement with you about
1) the service restored (nearly 2 weeks ago) and then
2) handover the sucks domain

Suddenly another story from them... disappointing...

So- is your speed back to normal? yes- great for you. Now sell me the domain, cause my speed is not fixed.

Hi Roelf,

Lawyers sending people nasty letters is standard practice and, in itself, meaningless. Until summons is issued or an injunction granted against you by a court you have incured no liability.

This whole situation is actually a god send to us because it can be used to garner lots of press coverage.

I suggest the following. Take a once off fixed fee legal advice session with a competant lawyer. This shouldn't cost more than R1000 at most.

I will contribute R500 to your expenses. More later if required. I dont need to pay it into a trust fund. I know you and would certainly trust you with the money.

We need the press in on this ASAP. LoneGunMan can you advise as to the the best method for doing this?

We also need to contact local civil liberties groups. Anyone know of any off hand?

Please post a scan off the full letter, I will run it by a laywer who is a personal friend of mine. Also we can then link to this when contacting the press. We need something solid to provide to the press.

If you dont want to do this please pass on the domain to LGM.

[email protected]

PRIVET IS RIGHT

See Rodent ,there are many ways to skin this cat

1]Keep transferring site before they serve each subsequent set of papers
2]Transfer it to foreign resident



oh also contact
www.fedup.co.za
they have 6500 thousand members in their banking lobby and 17000 members in one of their buying groups

those guys are always looking for consumer causes and are extremely gutsy. eg they have been successfully flouting the health professional council for ages selling contact lenses door to doorat a discount.This could be just the cause that gives them the publicity .

They have also been on 702 for taking on the banks to bring down interest rates and fees.

possibly

Take Harth's advice. With his R500.00 and my R500.00 you will have a sitting with a Attorney. But do it first thing in the morning. Dont wait. Make sure Bowfillan get a reply before the end of the day and as Harth said, until summons is issued, you have occured no legal costs.
Put up that paper for download. I would also like to read what they said.

<b><hr noshade size="1"></b><font size="2"><font color="red"><b>You can take Telkom out of the Post Office but you can't take the Post Office out of Telkom.</b></font id="red"></font id="size2">

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Tower110guy</i>
<br />PRIVET IS RIGHT

See Rodent ,there are many ways to skin this cat

1]Keep transferring site before they serve each subsequent set of papers
2]Transfer it to foreign resident



oh also contact
www.fedup.co.za
they have 6500 thousand members in their banking lobby and 17000 members in one of their buying groups

those guys are always looking for consumer causes and are extremely gutsy. eg they have been successfully flouting the health professional council for ages selling contact lenses door to doorat a discount.This could be just the cause that gives them the publicity .

They have also been on 702 for taking on the banks to bring down interest rates and fees.

possibly
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Rodent cant do everthing. We need to organise. Rodent would you be willing to delegate tasks? I'm waiting to help...

Disclaimer:

Got to http://www.hellkom.co.za/ and click on "Merchandise", Read the Disclaimer at the bottom of there website. If they can get away with it then so can you, Fluck then!!!

Disclaimer : I hereby give notice that I am merely
exercising my right to freedom of speech, that the
above is my opinion and that I am protected by the
constitution from any legal action that may occur
as a direct or indirect result of my opinion. This
constitutes an opinion on the current status quo
and not an attack on a person/s. "

There is no need whatsoever to take th site down by tommorow.

You should contact them though, if nothing else.

State: "I am in the process of taking legal advice. I'll get back to you". Phone or fax, both are good. This should be done by your attorney prefrably ...

You can also add:

"I am not to be held liable for any proceedings against you or others resulting from the viewing of this website. It's existence is purely as a public service and I am protected by the Freedom of Expression Act under Paragraph 16 of the Constitution of South Africa from any legal action being taken as a result of the use of any information on this website as this is my personal opinion and that of others who peruse this website. Please go to http://www.info.gov.za/constitution/1996/96cons2.htm#16 for more information on the Freedom of Expression Act."

That should sort it. Don't worry boet, they can't do anything.

<font color="navy"><font size="1"><b>Where others have progress, we have Telkom.</b>
Hellkom website - www.hellkom.co.za</font id="size1"></font id="navy">