URGENT - Support injuncted activists and their web site

[Paul Mobbs]

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Paul Mobbs, 3 Grosvenor Road, Banbury OX16 5HN.
Email - mobbsey at gn.apc.org

2nd February, 2003.



 
              **Request for support**

              --Please forward freely--


         FRIENDS OF THE EARTH INJUNCT
       VIRTUAL NETWORKING TOUR IN WALES:

         FREE RANGE ACTIVISM WEB SITE
         CENSORED BY THEIR INJUNCTION

         **Please help lobby over the unjust prohibition**
                 **on grassroots activists in Wales**


For months members of an organisation -- which for legal reasons I will call 
"The Committee" -- in Wales have been organising a tour of Wales to promote 
virtual networking as part of grassroots campaigning in Wales. This used a 
mobile Linux-based training system (see http://www.fraw.org.uk/cltc/) to 
demonstrate the potential of electronic networking at 10 workshops, in ten 
different venues across Wales over two weeks. In the end, we only managed to 
do the first in Pontypridd before Friends of the Earth blocked the tour.

There had been some problems with Friends of the Earth in relation to another 
organisation -- which I must call "The Company" -- we were associated with 
which Friends of the Earth are taking legal action against for infringement 
of their trademark rights. However, it appears that Friends of the Earth's 
solicitors, because they can't be bothered to have an open dialogue, and 
regard these organisations as the same entity. On the first day of the tour, 
Monday 27th January, we received a warning of legal action over the 
commencement of the tour. We declined to accept their terms as we did not 
consider the name of "The Committee" was in any way infringing Friends of the 
Earth's trademark rights. On Tuesday 28th, we received an injunction 
preventing the use of a name, or 'anything colorably similar'. At that stage, 
we had to abandon the whole two week tour.

What has happened is that Friends of the Earth have injuncted one 
organisation, for something it was not organising, to stop the actions of 
another, separate organisation. In our view this is wholly incorrect, but for 
the time being we must accept the terms of the injunction until we can 
contest them in court. However, in a recent letter it would appear that 
Friends of the Earth may have understood their mistake, and are now claiming 
that they did not intend this outcome.

In accordance with the injunction, content of the Free Range Activism Website 
has now been amended. The website of "The Committee" has been taken down, but 
I have decided to censor it and repost it as part of my own web pages. For 
further information see:

General information: http://www.fraw.org.uk/mobbsey/index.html 

"Committee" site: http://www.fraw.org.uk/mobbsey/injunction.html

Previous detailed statement: http://www.fraw.org.uk/mobbsey/statement.html


As with my previous postings of January 30th, I am asking for people to lobby 
friends of the Earth to stop this senseless legal action. Please contact 
Friends of the Earth personally via:

Post: Sam Clarke, Chair of the Board, Friends of the Earth,
             26-28 Underwood Street, London N1 7JQ.

Email: Friends of the Earth staff involved, philm at foe.co.uk,
             charless at foe.co.uk, julianr at foe.co.uk

Phone: Donald Ritchie, 020 7566 1675 (during office hours)



Thanks for the help.


P.


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"We are not for names, nor men, nor titles of Government, nor are we for
this party nor against the other but we are for justice and mercy and
truth and peace and true freedom, that these may be exalted in our nation,
and that goodness, righteousness, meekness, temperance, peace and unity
with God, and with one another, that these things may abound."
(Edward Burroughs, 1659 - from 'Quaker Faith and Practice')


Paul Mobbs, Mobbs' Environmental Investigations,
3 Grosvenor Road, Banbury OX16 5HN, England
tel./fax (+44/0)1295 261864

email - mobbsey at gn.apc.org
website - http://www.fraw.org.uk/mobbsey.html
public key - http://www.fraw.org.uk/keylist.html

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