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Mixx to Kodocha: CEASE & DESIST
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As promised by C.E.O. Stuart Levy, Kodocha Anime today received a cease and desist letter from Mixx Entertainment's lawyer, James A. Carroll. The complete contents of the letter are below.
Kodocha has already prepared a response and has made it public.
Dear Mr. Sevakis:
I am corporate counsel for Mixx Entertainment, Inc. (hereinafter referred to as "Mixx") It has come to our attention that you and your company are marketing a pirate video of Kenji: Spring & Chaos (originally Japanese title: Kenji no Haru) (hereinafter referred to as "Spring & Chaos").
Mixx owns the exclusive rights throughout the world outside of Japan to the Spring & Chaos screenplay, picture, and all characters, literary and artistic material contained therein including all rights to theatrical, non-theatrical, television, home video, videogram, laser disc, digital CD and DVD, film clip, computer and interactive, merchandising, print publication, novelization, music publishing, soundtrack album, theme park, prequel, remake, television program, episode, spin-off and long form, advertising and publicity. We own these rights irrevocably and in perpetuity persuant to a written license agreement.
On behalf of Mixx, we demand that you, individually, and each and every person, agent, and company associated or affiliated with you, IMMEDIATELY AND PERMANENTLY CEASE AND DESIST from any further use of Spring & Chaos. We further demand that you cease any advertising, marketing and promoting of the unlicensed sale of Spring & Chaos via all media including, but not limited to, your current website (http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/kodocha) and other websites.
You and Kodocha Anime have been placed on notice of your infringement. You should be aware that once you have been placed on actual notice of a copyright and exclusive license thereto, you must immediately stop all infringing activities. Under 17 United States Code Section 504(b)(2), Mixx may recover up to $100,000 in statutory damages per infringement in a case of willful infringement. Each copy of the pirate videotape constitutes a separate infringement. Mixx also may also [sic] seek to recovery [sic] from you all of its attorneys' fees and costs incurred in an infringement lawsuit.
We sincerely trust that you will understand the concern of Mixx regarding the infringement of its rights and that you will immediately and fully cooperate with us. I expect to receive WRITTEN ASSURANCE FROM YOU WITHING TEN (10) BUSINESS DAYS FROM THE DATE OF THIS LETTER [10/15/98] expressing your willingness to comply with our "cease and desist" demands.
This letter is written without prejudice to any claim for damages or other relief, which Mixx may have in the event that litigation against you proves necessary.
Sincerely,
James A. Carroll
Kodocha has already prepared a response and has made it public.
Dear Mr. Carroll:
I have received your letter on 10/22 regarding our possible copyright infringement on what is allegedly property of Mixx Entertainment, Inc. (hereinafter referred to as "Mixx")
In this letter, you claim that Mixx currently owns the rights to the title you call "Spring and Chaos" (hereinafter referred to as "Kenji's Spring"). This is inconsistent with the information we have obtained from Bandai Visual Co.,Ltd (hereinafter referred to as "Bandai") who claims that Mixx currently owns no rights.
Since Mr. Levy has chosen to settle this with lawyers, I have no choice but to pull Kenji's Spring from circulation immediately. In the mean time, we will resume our investigation, which will include, but not be restricted to, contact with the current Japanese copyright holder and licenser, Group TAC. If it is found that the rights you claim to hold on Mixx's behalf are indeed not property of Mixx, the correspondence I have had with you as well as Mr. Levy and Bandai will be forwarded to the following organizations:
Group TAC Bandai Visual, Co., Ltd. California Bar Association Eye on Mixx Anime News Network Fansubs.net
...As well as other organizations at our discretion. Thank you for you attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Justin Sevakis,
Co-founder, Kodocha Anime
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