On Thursday, January 27, 2000, an outside firm hired by software giant Autodesk sent a threatening letter to The3DStudio.com webmaster Matthew Anderson demanding that he relinquish the domain within fifteen (15) days or face an expensive and agonizing lawsuit.
During the subsequent week, Anderson attempted to resolve the problem, and he and many users of The3DStudio.com wrote to Autodesk and the outside firm, explaining the situation and begging them to lay off; no one received so much as a word of reply. (See here for some of those letters.)
Finally, a user of The3DStudio.com alerted WTO/GATT to the situation. Here is a blow-by-blow of what happened next; see also these articles for well-written summaries:
Fri, 4 Feb 2000: A user of The3DStudio.com alerts WTO/GATT to Autodesk's aggression against The3DStudio.com
Fri, 4 Feb 2000: The3DStudio.com webmaster Anderson also writes to WTO/GATT
Mon, 7 Feb 2000: The Autodesk lawyer responds and instantly agrees to the disclaimer and says he is glad they "were able to work things out so quickly"
Mon, 7 Feb 2000: Anderson, having posted the disclaimer, asks for formal resolution, plus free software as token apology for so much annoyance by Autodesk
Mon, 7 Feb 2000: The Autodesk lawyer grants resolution, but refuses token gesture
Mon, 7 Feb 2000: Anderson graciously thanks the Autodesk lawyer anyhow for finally giving him some peace
Mon, 7 Feb 2000: Autodesk informs WTO/GATT of the resolution between Anderson and the Autodesk lawyer,
wants to make sure no campaign is launched
Wed, 9 Feb 2000: The Autodesk lawyer explains Autodesk's position to a third party
Wed, 9 Feb 2000: The Autodesk lawyer explains Autodesk's position to WTO/GATT
Wed, 9 Feb 2000: WTO/GATT thanks the Autodesk lawyer but asks why, between Jan. 27 and Feb. 4, no one responded to hundreds of e-mails to explain
Autodesk's position
Wed, 9 Feb 2000: The Autodesk lawyer says he was out and his e-mail wasn't working
Wed, 9 Feb 2000: WTO/GATT tells the Autodesk lawyer that that's not a good enough excuse, and brings up another point
Wed, 9 Feb 2000: The Autodesk lawyer accuses WTO/GATT of being "polemical," refuses to answer
Thu, 10 Feb 2000: WTO/GATT answers for the Autodesk lawyer, and also for Autodesk
AutoDesk (http://www.autodesk.com/) has joined the ranks of the evil corporations trying to dominate and control the internet by
harassing and threatening domain name holders. Fortunately, since they have a large internet presence, AutoDesk can be brought down
in the same way that WTO/GATT helped bring down Etoys
(http://rtmark.com/etoyprtriumph.html).
Indeed, Steve, this is OUTRAGEOUS. I have spoken with my associates here
at WTO/GATT and we unanimously agree it merits the kind of attention we
poured on eToys--as you know, they just suffered the public relations
disaster of their history, a disaster that has been widely credited with
contributing to the 80% stock market fall (that began the very day our
campaign did). And finally, of course, they had to give in.
We will be assembling the necessary components for a wide-ranging campaign
against Autodesk in the next days. Several of these components should be identical to those we
deployed against eToys. A Virtual Sit-in is of course de rigueur, and
likely to cripple the Autodesk servers even better than it did those of
eToys, which was prepared for enormous traffic. (For more on our effect on
the eToys servers, see the CNN report:
http://cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/9912/17/mlld.00.html (search on word "WTO/GATT" on
the page).)
To: Matthew S. Anderson and WTO/GATT Administrator,
We have received your messages. We think that the proposed actions of
WTO/GATT are premature. The person at Autodesk who is authorized to make
a decision on this issue is back in the office on Monday (Febuary 7th).
We are favorable to the steps taken by Mr. Anderson (removing the 3D model
on the www.the3dstudio.com web site which had the ownership issues
and removing the "3D Studio Max Webring" logo) and may need further
clarification on the remaining issues. We would appreciate you holding
off from a campaign against Autodesk until we can discuss this further
with you. We will respond on Monday.
>We are favorable to the steps taken by Mr. Anderson (removing the 3D
>model on the www.the3dstudio.com web site which had the ownership issues
Funny, this issue was never even mentioned in the letter from your lawyer.
Beyond that, the issue of the model was taken care of the day it was
brought to my attention which was back in December of 1999.
>and removing the "3D Studio Max Webring" logo) and may need further
>clarification on the remaining issues.
Again, the MAX ring is not owned by myself or my website...I was only
following the guidelines set forth by the MAX ring owner. This issue
should have been checked into more before sending me a letter about it. As
for remaining issues, I look forward to talking about them, whatever they
may be.
> We would appreciate you holding
>off from a campaign against Autodesk until we can discuss this further
>with you. We will respond on Monday.
Sounds good, though I don't know why none of my emails ever got a response
until I brought WTO/GATT into it. Funny how that works.
Of course all of these emails and any other information will be posted on
my site for the public to keep an eye on.
I was told you want to talk about the3dstudio.com and Autodesk today
before WTO/GATT rips into Autodesk for bullying me. If so, my number is
below....it is my day time work number, I am here until 2pm AZ time.
After that you can call me at home at XXX-XXX-XXXX.
Check out the attached file, it is the main part of my home page....the
formatting isn't all there because my site is all done in a database not
just HTML so the text will be Arial and will be white on black (not black
on white like it is here). Other than that it will be the same.
Let me know what you think, or if you want any changes made.
Also, if this is good I will make it live shortly, but I also want your
word that ktx.com will add a link to my site on their learning page where
it was before all of this happened. I will be printing the outcome on page
when that link is in place again and will then notify the people at RTM.
Your disclaimer looks fine. Once it's up I'll find out who does the
linking on the ktx.com site here and tell him/her that the link should be restored.
I hope when you describe the resolution of all this you will let people
know that despite the misunderstandings caused by the tone of legal-sounding
language, we're not really bullies but just trying to protect our
reputation. When we started getting flame mail from people who thought
your site was ours and that we had misused their copyrighted work, we got very
concerned. The people flaming us obviously didn't know that we weren't
you, and that you had already fixed the problem.
Thanks for your cooperative attitude about all this--I'm glad we were able
to work things out so quickly.
Regards,
Martin Konopken
Senior Corporate Counsel
Autodesk, Inc.
Okay, updated the site, take a look and let me know what you think. If you
like it please let me know when the link at ktx.com to my site will be
back up.
I am copying RTM on this so they know that the situation between Autodesk
and www.the3dstudio.com has been resolved.
So, you guys wanna float me a copy of MAX 3.1 to show that there are now
hard feelings? How about some site support....I get many satisfied
customers and can only help Autodesk as everything on my site is free, not
many sites give away high quality pre-textured MAX models! A copy of MAX
would be a write off to you guys, and I would be more than happy to let
everyone out there know just how gracious you all have been about
this....what do ya think? Isn't that the least you could do for my
troubles:)
I looked at your updated site and it's as we agreed. The webmaster at
ktx.com tells me he'll be able to have the link to your site back up some
time today. As to the free software, well, we don't think that would be
appropriate but we can't fault a guy for asking.
Martin M. Konopken
Senior Corporate Counsel
Autodesk, Inc.
As for free software, I thought Autodesk would want to turn this WRONG
into a RIGHT. Kind of a like a gesture of your good will, after all
everyone who emailed me in support (a few hundred mind you) all thought
that would be the only way to turn this around.
Beyond that I would be supporting your product and your company, consider
it a marketing expense.
I actually thought you guys would jump at the chance to get off that easy
and come out of this whole mess looking good.
One of the Autodesk lawyers spoke with Matthew Anderson
this morning (Monday 02/07) and we believe that they have
come to an agreement which is acceptable to both parties.
Matthew said that he would contact WTO/GATT to request that no
campaign is launched against Autodesk.
I've noticed your site contains an e-mail trail about the the3dstudio.com
matter but doesn't include the e-mail below [this one]. I'd like to state for the
record that we reached agreement with Mr. Anderson because after talking
with him it was clear that he was acting in good faith and shared our
interest in reaching a reasonable solution. I made clear to him that the
reason we took action was because we were being accused by numerous people
of wrongfully using their copyrighted images on our website, that site being
the3dstudio.com which of course is Mr. Andersons, not ours. Mr. Anderson
explained that the images were put up inadvertently and that he had long
since corrected the error, and I responded that apparently quite a few
people had not yet learned of his corrective action and were confusing his
site with ours. When that was cleared up we reached an agreement to resolve
the matter in a way that will avoid this kind of confusion in the future. It
would be a mistake to assume that Autodesk would respond favorably to
threats to shut down its website if we believed that someone was dealing
with us maliciously or in bad faith.
Thank you,
Martin M. Konopken
Senior Corporate Counsel
Autodesk, Inc.
> I'd like to state for the
> record that we reached agreement with Mr. Anderson because after talking
> with him it was clear that he was acting in good faith and shared our
> interest in reaching a reasonable solution.
Was your first contact with Mr. Anderson Monday, February 7? If so, why
wasn't contact made sooner? If you were indeed open to "a reasonable
solution," wouldn't the normal thing have been to write to him, rather
than wait to be threatened by WTO/GATT?
In the subsequent days Mr. Anderson tells us that he, as well as many
users of The3DStudio.com who were immediately made aware of this very
frightening situation, wrote "you" (Hickman and Autodesk) many urgent
e-mails explaining the situation in detail and begging you to lay off.
Apparently neither he nor any of the other writers received the slightest
response from anyone at Hickman or Autodesk as the day-count rose
towards 15.
When a corporation like Autodesk demands that a person like Mr. Anderson
give up within 15 days a big part of what he has worked very hard to build
during the last several months, and then the corporation maintains a stony
silence as the days creep towards the declared execution date, can you be
surprised when it is taken as a declaration of war, to be taken quite
seriously and acted upon with immediacy?
I do not think your excuses for not responding ("I was out of town until
the night of February 5, my remote e-mail was not working, and I didn't
know he had responded to the earlier letter") are valid, given the very
intense, aggressive and frightening wording of "your" threat, nor given
the fact that there are many, many employees at Autodesk who could have
responded--like the one ("The Super-user <rootcsh2@autodesk.com>") who
finally did, Saturday, when WTO/GATT came into the picture. Why did that
person, whoever he or she is, not respond sooner to earlier pleas?
And why did "your" initial letter demand that Mr. Anderson relinquish the
domain and identity, The3DStudio.com, whereas the very conciliatory note
from "The Super-user" said the issue was a "3D model on the
www.the3dstudio.com web site"--an issue that Mr. Anderson says he took
care of the very day it was brought to his attention two months ago?
Why does "The Super-user" refer to "the 3D model," whereas you make it
seem like there were a swarm?
"The Super-user" [here]:
>We are favorable to the steps taken by Mr. Anderson (removing the 3D
>model on the www.the3dstudio.com web site which had the ownership
>issues
You [here]:
>We had been bombarded with flame mails accusing
>us of copyright infringement on our website, which
>actually wasn't ours but Mr. Anderson's. Because of
>the name confusion our reputation was being severely
>damaged. Hence the letter from the outside lawyer.
Was it "the 3D model," and were you "favorable to the steps" (taken months
before "your" legal threat of January 27)... or were you being
"bombarded," still, on January 27, so that your "reputation was being
severely damaged"? There seem to be two rather different versions here.
If there was only "the 3D model" and you were "favorable to the steps"
(taken months before), as "The Super-user" says, why the threat from
Hickman et al?
Is "The Super-user" a lawyer? Or is he or she
telling the story from a different point of view, with a different
audience in mind? Seeing this as a "story," with "audiences," would
explain the different versions, at least.
Sometimes we demand a lot more than we think we could get if it got really legal and made it to court. We do this because there's a kind of bargaining that happens in court, where your demands and your opponent's demands are sort of evened out. Also, most "little people" who get these letters just really freak out and lose it and maybe start to go crazy, and then they buckle and just give us exactly what we're asking for right away. That's because it's super, super, super expensive to actually fight things all the way through a court case, and everyone knows that, and hardly anyone's willing to risk their life's savings and more--even for years of hard work or whatever it is we're trying to take.
(etoy was eventually paid the $40,000 it cost to defend their domain against eToys, but who can front that kind of money? So that's the second reason we threaten as if we were bastards: it's a kind of feint, a fake punch, a jousting little SLAPP.)
So listen, you big ornery not-open terrorists: we're just following the law, just doing as much as the good people of the U.S.A., human and corporate, have said we're allowed to, while we do what we have to, which is making a buck to feed the husband/wife/lover and pay off the car and the house and the kids' education. What's wrong with that?
Is that right, Mr. Konopken? All you have to do is nod or shake your head. Then we will answer that last question there.
(Oh, and please specify which head is being shaken/nodded, so we know who our audience is.)