Syndicate: Leonardo Defense / Cultural Resistan

["Joseph Nechvatal" <jnech@hotmail.com>]

From: "Miklos Legrady" <design@myna.com>

FOR ANYONE WHO RECEIVES THE POST FOR THE FIRST TIME,

This is a project in support of an art org attacked by a major French
finance company,
where net artists are uniting, once again, to fight against large 
corporations.
You can read about the lawsuit at this url

http://mitpress.mit.edu/e-journals/Leonardo/isast/pres1220.html

_______________________________
TO EVERYONE ON THE LISTS;

Maybe we should start the emails on Sunday, Feb. 20, so that on Monday they
are swamped.
Email addresses below.  Emails should also be sent to other French finance
institutions, as well as
French media, and North American media.  Those email addresses will follow
this week.  If anyone has email addresses to add, please post.

Any other ideas very welcome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I thought Hellekin O. Wolf's idea of spamming Leonardo Finance
 would clog up their system forever,
even if they filter it, the filters will be busy all day.
we can send them the French and English versions
of the emails detailing the case.  If anyone needs copies, included below.

Also, Roger F Malina is looking for emails of support;

1)we are also putting on our web site a list of names of people
in support of our case, and also statements of support- there
can be emailed in to leo@mitpress.mit.edu
________________________________________________________
LEONARDO FINANCE EMAIL ADDRESSES;

Yves Delacour : yves.delacour@leonardofinance.fr
Franck Monnot : fmonnot@leonardofinance.fr
Valérie Virlouvet : valerie.virlouvet@leonardofinance.fr


_____________

English Version below

       LEONARDO
       Fondé en 1967 en France et présent depuis 1994 sur le Web
       Attaqué en justice pour l'utilisation du mot " Leonardo "

       L'assignation porte atteinte à l'existence
       d'une organisation à but non lucratif dévolue depuis 30 ans
       au développement des relations entre les artistes et les
nouvelles technologies

       LES FAITS

       Le 3 novembre 1999, un huissier de justice et huit policiers
procèdent à une intervention auprès de l'Association LEONARDO en
       France, investissant sans préavis un domicile privé. Pour le
moins inhabituelle, cette visite est suivie de l'assignation en justice
de
       l'Association par la société TRANSASIA Corporation et deux
co-plaignants.

       TRANSASIA, qui vient très récemment de déposer en France les noms
Leonardo, Leonardo Finance, Leonardo Partners, Leonardo
       Invest et Leonardo Experts, réclame à LEONARDO un million $ de
dommages et intérêts (six millions FF) pour contrefaçon de
       marque.

       Fondement de l'argumentation: les moteurs de recherche utilisant
le mot " Leonardo " mènent non seulement aux sites Web de
       TRANSASIA, mais aussi aux sites de l'univers LEONARDO.

       Dans le cadre de cette assignation, TRANSASIA demande que
LEONARDO se voit interdire l'utilisation du mot " Leonardo " sur
       ses sites Web, mais aussi pour l'ensemble de ses activités
(publications, etc.) - ce qui revient de fait à porter atteinte à 
       l'existence même de LEONARDO.

       LEONARDO : depuis 30 ans, le premier espace d'information,
d'échanges
       et de réflexions entre le monde des arts et celui des sciences et
des technologies

       L'Association française LEONARDO (loi 1901) et LEONARDO/ISAST
(International Society for the Arts, Sciences and
       Technology) (loi US 501C3) sont des organisations pédagogiques et
artistiques à but non lucratif, travaillant pour le compte d'une
       communauté internationale d'artistes, scientifiques et étudiants.

       John Cage, Franck Popper, R. Buckminster Fuller ont participé à 
LEONARDO, réseau artistique et universitaire fondé à Paris dans
       les années 60 par Frank Malina, éminent pionnier de
l'astronautique et artiste cinétique. L'ambition de LEONARDO depuis 30
ans
       : promouvoir le travail des artistes utilisant sciences et
nouvelles technologies dans leur ?uvre, Ã  travers des publications sur
       papier et aujourd'hui online.

       De par ses implications juridiques, le cas TRANSASIA / LEONARDO
intéresse tous les acteurs de l'Internet. L'Association,
       consciente du caractère emblématique de son assignation, prépare
une réponse légale fondée à ce jour sur trois principaux
       arguments.

       > L'Internet, espace démocratique de communication :
l'interdiction de l'utilisation d'un mot-clé revient à privilégier
l'accès à 
       certains sites, dans une démarche inégalitaire contraire à 
l'esprit du Web.

       > Le principe d'antériorité : la revue LEONARDO existe depuis 30
ans avec une diffusion et un rayonnement internationaux, et
       depuis 1994 sur le Web
(<http://mitpress.mit.edu/Leonardo>http://mitpress.mit.edu/Leonardo).

       > La partialité de l'assignation : à partir du mot-clé " LEONARDO
", les moteurs de recherche sélectionnent plusieurs pages de
       sites Web, certains dédiés à Leonardo da Vinci, d'autres à 
Leonardo DiCaprio !




       L'UNIVERS LEONARDO



       © OLATS, Observatoire LEONARDO des Arts et des Techno-Sciences
       <http://www.olats.org/>http://www.olats.org

       L'Observatoire Leonardo des Arts et des Techno-Sciences est un
groupe de recherches, dont les activités sont présentées sur un
       site Web à dominante francophone. Il propose des informations,
des repères et des liens dans le champ de l'art et des
       techno-sciences : productions de l'art technologiques, mais aussi
rencontres entre des scientifiques et des artistes. Ce site
       s'inscrit dans " l'univers Leonardo " qui, depuis 30 ans, s'est
imposé comme espace d'informations, d'échanges et de réflexions
       entre le monde des arts et celui des sciences.

       > Le Projet AFRIQUE VIRTUELLE
       Le projet Afrique Virtuelle est là pour témoigner de l'importance
d'un travail de coopération et d'échanges entre les intellectuels et
       les artistes d'Afrique et d'ailleurs.

       En janvier 2000, OLATS/AFRIQUE VIRTUELLE accueillait " Le
Festival de l'Eau " : un groupe d'artistes internationaux dont la
       plupart utilisent les nouvelles technologies, se réunit pour
descendre le fleuve Mouhoun au Burkina Faso et rencontrer des artistes
       Burkinabés. Ensemble, ils vont réaliser des créations dans les
villages et animer des ateliers avec les artistes locaux, les enfants
       de la rue, dans les écoles? En nov-déc. 2000 et mai-juin 2001,
tous ces artistes feront une tournée en Europe.
       > Le Projet PIONNIERS & PRECURSEURS
       L'art technologique a un passé, mais a-t-il une mémoire ? A
travers une documentation en ligne rigoureuse, le projet PIONNIERS
       & PRECURSEURS vise à resituer dans l'histoire de la création
contemporaine le travail des artistes dont les ?uvres et la pensée
       ont été déterminantes pour l'art technologique, à l'image de
Nicolas Schöffer, Nam June Paik, Rauschenberg, Stockhausen, Takis,
       Tinguely.

       © LES PUBLICATIONS
       Les publications LEONARDO sont produites par LEONARDO/ISAST Ã  San
Francisco et éditées par le prestigieux MIT
       (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Press of Cambridge,
Massachusetts.

       > La Revue Leonardo - Journal of the International Society for
the Arts, Sciences and Technology
       Editée six fois par an en langue anglaise, la revue Leonardo est
la publication de référence dans le domaine de l'art et des nouveaux
       médias. Elle est disponible dans toutes les grandes bibliothèques
et dispose d'un site web depuis 1994

(<http://mitpress.mit.edu/Leonardo>http://mitpress.mit.edu/Leonardo). La
revue s'intéresse à toutes les pratiques artistiques :
       nouveaux médias, musique, performances, art conceptuel et land
art, intelligence artificielle etc. En mettant l'accent sur la
       publication d'écrits par les artistes eux-mêmes, elle contribue à 
ce que leurs voix soient entendues et intégrées au développement
       des nouvelles technologies.

       > Leonardo Music Journal (LMJ)
       Accompagné d'un disque compact audio, LMJ est un forum ouvert aux
compositeurs, artistes, chercheurs, musiciens, facteurs
       d'instruments et musicologues - tous ceux dont le travail
repousse les frontières des disciplines musicales et artistiques,
       favorisant de nouvelles perspectives.


       > Leonardo Book Series
       Sept volumes ont été publiés à ce jour :
       The Leonardo Almanac: International Resources in Art, Sciences
and Technology
       The Visual Mind: Art and Mathematics
       Designing Information Technology in the Postmodern Age: from
Method to Metaphor
       Immersed in Technology: Art and Virtual Environments
       Art and Innovation, The Xerox Parc artist-in-Residence Program
       Technoromaticism, digital narrative, holism, and the romance of
the real
       The Digital Dialectic, New Essays on New Media

       > Leonardo Electronic Almanach
(<http://mitpress.mit.edu/LEA>http://mitpress.mit.edu/LEA)
       Distribué par abonnement via Internet, ce magazine anglophone
offre un forum à tous ceux qui s'intéressent à l'usage des
       nouveaux médias dans l'expression artistique contemporaine, liée
aux sciences et aux technologies. Les artistes sont invités à 
       présenter leur travail en cours, auquel chacun peut réagir.

       Pour toute information complémentaire, veuillez contacter :
       CorporArt Communication
       20, rue du Cirque, 75008 Paris
       Tél. 01 47 42 56 51/52/48 ; fax : 01 47 42 56 49
       e-mail : beatrice@corporart.com

____________________________________________________________________
Lawsuit Against Leonardo

Background information on the lawsuit against
the Leonardo art network, 20 December 1999

 For further information contact Roger Malina :
leo@mitpress.mit.edu.

 Or see one of the Leonardo family of web sites at:

 Leonardo On-Line: http://mitpress.mit.edu/Leonardo
Leonardo Electronic Almanac:
 http://mitpress.mit.edu/LEA, user i.d.: lea; password:
animich)
Observatoire Leonardo: http://www.olats.org

Association Leonardo and Leonardo/ISAST

 Association Leonardo is a non-profit arts organization (loi
1901) based in France. Leonardo/The International Society for
 the Arts, Sciences and Technology is a 501(c)(3) non-profit
 organization based in San Francisco. These two collaborating
organizations represent the Leonardo network of artists,
 scientists, engineers and scholars. They seek to make visible and
 promote the work of artists involved with science and the new
technologies. Some 2,000 artists, scientists, engineers and
 scholars are involved in the network and its various projects
worldwide.

 Founding of the Leonardo Network by Frank
 Malina in the 1960s

The Leonardo Network was originally founded in the
 mid-1960s by Frank Malina, an eminent astronautical pioneer
and kinetic artist. Members and founders of the network have
included Jacob Bronowski, R. Buckminster Fuller, C.P Snow,
C.H Waddington, Frank Oppenheimer, John Cage. Current
members include Roy Ascott, Richard Gregory, Lynn
Hershman, Annick Bureaud. The network was founded by an
earlier generation interested in the use of new media and the
sciences in the arts. Other efforts at this time included the
E.A.T. in New York, for instance.

Further information on Frank Malina can be found in the
Leonardo Pioneers and Pathbreakers web site at:
 http://www.olats.org

The Leonardo Journal

The print journal Leonardo was the first project of the network.
Publication of Leonardo began in 1968; it was originally
distributed internationally by Pergamon Press, Oxford, Paris
and New York. Leonardo, and its more recent sister publication
Leonardo Music Journal (Editor Nic Collins), are now
published for Leonardo by the MIT Press. Leonardo is in the
collections of major libraries worldwide. Leonardo is a
scholarly, peer-reviewed journal that seeks to document the
work of artists involved with the sciences and technology, and of
scientists and scholars interested in the implications of
techno-science on the arts and culture. It now appears 6 times a
year, including the annual Digital Salon issue in collaboration
with the New York School for Visual Arts. Over more than 30
years, Leonardo has documented the work of some 3,000 artists,
scientists and scholars. Each issue is now published both in
print and simultaneously on-line with access via the Leonardo
Electronic Almanac web site (http:///mitpress.mit.edu/LEA).

Other Publications

Other publications include the Leonardo Book Series at MIT
Press. Forthcoming books include in 2000 Ken Goldberg's
book The Robot in the Garden on Telepistemology. The
Leonardo Network produces numerous web sites including
Leonardo On-Line, Leonardo Electronic Almanac and Archive
(Craig Harris, editor) and Leonardo Digital Reviews (Michael
Punt, editor). The OLATS web site is produced by the
Association Leonardo with grant support from the French
Ministry of Culture. It is mostly in French and hosts the Virtual
Africa Project, the Pioneers and Pathbreakers art-history project
and the Leonardo Space Art Working Group projects. Leonardo
created some of the first arts-related Internet publications
including distribution of FineArt Forum (Paul Brown, current
editor) from 1988-1992) and Leonardo Electronic Almanac and
web site beginning in 1994 under editor Craig Harris, now
based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Other Projects of the Leonardo Network

The Leonardo Network is involved in a number of other
publications, conferences and projects, and issues prizes and
awards. These include:

the Leonardo Virtual Africa project (Jocelyne Rotily,
coordinator), which collaborates with artists and
scientists in the African context (see
http://www.olats.org). The Leonardo Virtual Africa
project will host a webcast from the Mouhoun river in
Burkina Faso in January 2000 under artist Camel
Zekri.
The Leonardo Art and Biology project (George
Gessert, guest editor), documents the ways
contemporary biology and genetics can be explored in
the arts and music.
The Leonardo Synesthesia and Intersenses project
(Jack Ox and Jacques Mandlebrojt, guest editors)
explores the ways in which interactions between the
senses are used in the arts and music.
The Leonardo Women, Art and Technology project,
which has resulted in numerous papers published in
print on on-line, will also result in a Leonardo book
edited by Judy Malloy in 2000.
"A Radical Intervention" special project, documenting
the work of Brazilian pioneers in the electronic arts
(Eduardo Kac, Guest Editor).
And others: see our Special Projects page for a full list.

Leonardo also awards a number of prizes including the
Leonardo Prize, Leonardo New Horizons Award, Leonardo
Award for Excellence. and the Leonardo Award for Innovation
in New Media. Recipients have included Eduardo Kac, Donna
Cox, Kitsou Dubois, Rudolf Arnheim, Otto Piene , Gyorgy
Kepes and Nicolas Schoffer, Takis, I Wayan Sadra, and Janet
Saad-Cook.

The Law Suit

On the 18th of November 1999, the Paris-based company
Transasia Corporation with co-complainants filed a law suit
against the Leonardo Association in Paris, claiming trademark
infringement and loss of business. Transasia in their filing
claims to have recently trademarked the names Leonardo,
Leonardo Finance, Leonardo Partners, Leonardo Experts and
Leonardo Angels. They are claiming over a million dollars in
damages based on their argument that a search engine search on
the word "Leonardo" brings up not only their web sites but
those of our Association Leonardo. They claim that this results
in lost business. (We cannot refrain to make the editorial
comment that the Leonardo offices often get fan mail addressed
to Leonardo DiCaprio because in many search engines there is
confusion between this actor's fan sites and those of the
Leonardo arts organization as well as Leonardo da Vinci
museums, not to mention numerous restaurants, beaches,
hairdressers, etc.).

Their law suits asks that we be restrained from using the word
Leonardo in any of our activities and ask for penalties.

The Search Warrant

Following the filing of the law suit, Transasia obtained a search
warrant for the home of my mother, the 80-year-old widow of
artist Frank Malina; her home in Boulogne Billancourt, a suburb
of Paris, was formerly the editorial offices of the Leonardo
Journal as well as Frank Malina's art studio prior to his death in
1981. It contains some of the 30-year-old archives of the journal
and network. It no longer houses the Leonardo editorial offices,
which are now located at Leonardo/ISAST in San Francisco.

The search warrant was served by a squad of eight French
policemen accompanied by a locksmith. They had instructions
to copy all papers with the word "Leonardo" on them. More
absurdly, they had instructions to log into the Internet from my
mother's home, presumably to show that the Leonardo web sites
could be accessed from this location. They left with copies of
papers dating back to the 1960s. (I regret to say that my mother
has never intended to use the Internet, and her home has never
been used for web site creation). Unfortunately they chose not
to removal all papers with the word "Leonardo" on them. This
would have resolved a long-standing dispute between my
mother, my brother and I on how we are going to dispose of the
old archives that fill the garage, closets and storage space of my
mother's home. All humor aside, this raid by the French police,
with no warning, was very, very frightening for our family,
including my 8-year-old son, who was present at the time of the
"raid."

Next Steps

The Association Leonardo has retained the services of Maitre
Jocelyne Granger in Paris and we are preparing a legal
response. A Leonardo Legal Defense Fund has been set up.
Leonardo/ISAST is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization;
Tax-deductible cheques and donations may be sent to
Leonardo/ISAST, 425 Market Street, 2nd Floor, San Francisco,
California, 94105, U.S.A. In early December we informed
members of the Leonardo Governing Board and Editorial
Boards of the legal dispute. We are asking for help on the legal
team and plan to collaborate with other cultural groups currently
being attacked.

                                      Roger Malina, December 20, 1999


Miklos Legrady
1086.5 Queen st. w.
Toronto, Ont. M6J 1H8
(416) 516-6127
______________________________
design@myna.com
http://www.myna.com/~design/
____________

Kapy Utca 1B
Budapest 1025
Hungary
011-36-1-176-4698
____________
itmiklos@c3.hu
http://www.c3.hu/~itmiklos/




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