At 09:14 AM 3/25/2004 -0800, Katie Wadell wrote:

>Then, we got a letter from the patron's lawyer, threatening to sue us with
>libel. He said that, even through he had signed the one-time use agreement,
>that the image was out of copyright and that we had no right to restrict its
>use.   Moreover, we were hurting his good name in the community.  Finally,
>the lawyer's letter said that we were hurting the cause of local history, by
>restricting people's access to our collection.


Ah, the infamous "lawyer letter."  First, you are wise to seek legal
counsel.  These days, that needs to be the first step, unfortunately.

Second, you are not at this time being sued.  The patron's lawyer is
dangling the threat of lawsuit in order to force some concessions (exactly
what these concessions are is not entirely clear to me--the ability to use
your museum's images to promote his book, it sounds like.)  And the slander
charge sounds specious to my non-lawyerly ears, unless there is a lot more
to this story.  Anyone can (try to) sue anyone for just about anything in
this country, but that doesn't mean you have necessarily done anything
wrong, or that the person would prevail.

Rather than beat yourself up about this, use it as an opportunity to
reexamine all of your organization's procedures in regard to copyright,
reproduction, etc.  Something went awry, but no unfixable damage has yet
been done, so seize the opportunity to tighten procedures, investigate D&O
insurance, etc.

Let us know how it resolves if you can.

Susan Ruderman
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Susan Cronin Ruderman, Ed.M., Vice President
VERITAS INFORMATION SERVICES, 9 Alton St., Arlington, MA  02474
(781) 643-7811; (781) 643-1136 (fax) mailto:[log in to unmask]
Fundraising Research Consulting http://www.veritasinfo.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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