Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 02:25:15 -0400
From: mike castleman <m@mlcastle.net>
To: support@linode.com, caker@linode.com
Cc: legal@theplanet.com
Subject: Re: Linode Support Ticket 4899 Updated

I have reviewed the notice attached below, and the letter appears to
allege that the website in question violates German, Swiss, and EU
law. There is no indication that anything posted violates US law.

Covance is, in fact, an American company with headquarters in
Princeton, New Jersey. The very fact that a Dutch lawyer is sending
out the letter referenced below indicates to me their lack of a case
in the US courts.

Regardless of the merits of the case, as you know, section 230(c) of
the Communications Decency Act of 1996 exempts service providers from
liability for their customers' and users' statements and
postings. In cases such as Zeran v. America Online and Blumenthal
v. Drudge, the courts have held that this holds even when the ISP is
notified of the allegedly offending material. (The Digital Millennium
Copyright Act of 1998 created special notification, take-down,
counter-notification, and put-back procedures in the case of alleged
copyright violations, but I do not see any allegations of copyright
violations and in any event Mr. de Weerd's letter does not follow the
proper form for a DMCA notification letter.)

Because (a) I have yet to see any evidence that there is anything
illegal on my website, and (b) The Planet and Linode would not be
liable even if I did, I urge you not to disable access to my server.

If you wish to contact me to discuss this further, please feel free to
call me at [phone number removed from web version]. You may also feel free to forward this
message, my name, my email address, and/or my phone number to Mr. de
Weerd, if you like.

Sincerely,
Michael Castleman