Church and State blog: DACS checks out without prejudice to their rights! But has the Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's once again created case notes against Declan without his approval and authorisation?

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

DACS checks out without prejudice to their rights! But has the Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's once again created case notes against Declan without his approval and authorisation?

This quote is in reference to the prospect of a pro bono lawyer to take on DACS (see update below):

9/20/19

Really good news for you and for all concerned about use of public info.

Donald A. Collins
Founder, International Services Assistance Fund

The Design and Artists Copyright Society is the UK's premier rights management organisation for visual artists.

It looks today like St Mungo's may have again compromised our tenancy by creating more case notes against Declan that he has not approved or authorised. If so, this would be nothing short of spectacular in the circumstances; see my post of 21 August, St Mungo's: Pleadings for filing with the Central London County Court. No response from this Mayor of London-commissioned charity's Chief Executive to Declan's letter before action on Monday of last week (WITH UPDATE 24/9/2019). We cannot see how we will not be taking proceedings against this taxpayer-funded charity before our fixed term tenancy expires next May; that is, if Declan does not file pleadings against them within the next few weeks. But at least DACS checked out this evening:

Without prejudice

Dear Declan,

I write further to our correspondence regarding the use of work by Emile Loreaux. Thank you for confirming that the work has been permanently removed from your website. I can confirm that no fee will be due for the past use of the work on the Church and State website. We reserve all rights on behalf of the member.

Kind regards,

Ciara

Ciara Dowling
Legal and Copyright Executive
ciara.dowling@dacs.org.uk

DACS, 33 Old Bethnal Green Road, London, E2 6AA
T: +44 (0) 20 7336 8811
F: +44 (0) 20 7336 8822
dacs.org.uk

I had no way of knowing that the image in question was copyright protected. It is currently being used in dozens of websites and on social media without permission. A google search for the image reveals that it is all over the place.

https://www.google.com/search?newwindow=1&sxsrf=ACYBGNS8vmnRXeUq6SF_sxWh-RAi2u67Kg:1568733320810&q=national+science+fiction+day+2019&tbm=isch&tbs=simg:CAQSkwEJdR0idxBHzOAahwELEKjU2AQaAAwLELCMpwgaYgpgCAMSKLcOlheUC7gOlxe-DpUEsAzpFZkX4iimN_1EjqzfhKPMjqCSlN6Q3hycaMCSDS8H03HgITfCmoZzNS_1WLzAKeUFJJwUNd-eCF9y1uCYhs-LO3g0LbrP77zOJEPyAEDAsQjq7-CBoKCggIARIE0G3Urww&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj-6NWCk9jkAhXcSxUIHYzYBN0Q2A4ILygB

From My Picks

24 September: DACS's attempt last week to retrieve a fee from us for copyright infringement reminds us of the last time Declan took the Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's to court

UPDATE 24 September (11.25am): We believe that defending this case is in the public interest. On 19 January, Declan wrote a strongly worded email to DACS to this effect. The next day he was advised by a top copyright lawyer here in London that if DACS is so aggressive that they actually take proceedings against us, then he should "dig in", contact the Law Society pro bono unit, and at the first opportunity have this case transferred to the small claims part of the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court to limit our liability. The lawyer Declan finally spoke to was a referral from another firm of solicitors. Twice that day copyright lawyers sincerely wished him the very best of luck. Don Collins, Founder of the Washington DC-based International Services Assistance Fund, responded to the prospect of a pro bono lawyer to take on DACS: "Really good news for you and for all concerned about use of public info." This situation reminds me of the last time Declan took St Mungo's to court. On that occasion, two working days before the trial, we were informed by Newham Council that they had suspended our housing benefit. It was reinstated the day after the trial. According to the Council, they had been informed by the Department for Work and Pensions that we had vacated. We had absolutely no dealings whatsoever with the DWP for over three years before that. This in fact will be the second time Declan has taken proceedings against St Mungo's in three years.

'Let me recommend an important web site churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting web site covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out.' Edd Doerr, President, Americans for Religious Liberty

http://churchandstate.org.uk/about/

Church and State

MAYOR OF LONDON RSI PROPERTY
DAY 406 IN A WEEKLY PERIODIC TENANCY
SUBJECT TO A SECTION 21 NOTICE

(SEE PARA. 3 BELOW)

1. Our 308 Honorary Associates include 20 Nobel Prize laureates. Declan and I are engaged in a project that deals with the publication of issues significant to social policy in a number of key areas, e.g., climate change, population, futurism, atheism, and free speech. Established as Network for Church Monitoring, a non-profit company limited by guarantee, our main publication, found at the website, Church and State, calls attention to subjects, not the least which have been critical of the interaction between religious and secular institutions. We have been the target of numerous threats and actions, e.g., the former resulting in threats to Declan's life, and the latter, which have led to vandalism. The various incidents are on record with the police and other official agencies.

2. There are no less than 63 Nobel Prize laureates on the Church and State website from 20 Honorary Associates, eight articles, nine book excerpts and 33 petition signatories. (For example, one Nobel laureate signed our Nobel petition in support of human embryonic stem cell research and gave us permission to excerpt from one of his books.) Our list of associates also includes 18 US National Medal laureates, and six Turing Award laureates (the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in computer science). We have published one article and excerpted from the books of seven members of the British House of Lords. And there are 31 knighted professors on the site from 13 Honorary Associates, one book excerpt and 21 petition signatories. These figures are despite the never-ending assault on our email (this link reveals the targeting of our emails to, among others, a close colleague in Washington, DC as well as space advocates and Nobel laureates).

3. This is Day 406 for us living under the threat to life of a 'no fault' eviction by Peabody Trust.[1] We live in a Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative (RSI) property. Peabody's appalling new terms of tenancy have forced us into an unstable weekly periodic tenancy that poses a threat to Declan's life and inhibits our ability to exercise our rights. Declan accumulated quite a history with the Housing Ombudsman Service before he received the Ombudsman's decision not to investigate a referral from Lyn Brown MP on jurisdictional grounds. The Ombudsman was asked to consider whether or not our tenancy has been renewed like for like; and whether, if not, it should be in light of the landlord having accused us of not signing a like-for-like agreement. The Equality and Human Rights Commission will not accept a referral of discrimination from Ms Brown, the Commission's helpline (EASS) having grossly distorted the complaint against Peabody. We no longer have pro se access to the courts (see next paragraph).

4. This eviction matter came before District Judge Ruth Fine at the Central London County Court on 30 June 2020, when both counsel for St Mungo's (the charity in effective control of our tenancy) and Declan presented their positions. Declan lost the case and was ordered to pay £1,850 in costs. A publishing colleague in America cleared these costs within 24 hours of my blog post about this hearing for strike out on a related issue that was the essence of the claim, i.e., that St Mungo's would take a phone call to confirm that we are clients of the Mayor of London's RSI programme. Within a week of the hearing, St Mungo's had agreed to take this phone call for us both, the Court having ruled that they were not obliged to do so despite our circumstances. This time we escaped bankruptcy (counsel for St Mungo's asked for £3,407.50 in costs), but consider that to seek pro se access to justice in the courts has become far too dangerous for us. Declan currently has before the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman the decision of the Information Commissioner that allows St Mungo's to continue processing coercive support plans without our knowledge or consent and that also poses a threat to his life.

5. When it comes to traffic, we have had 10.7 million hits in the past three years on Facebook; however, I left the platform on 13 March 2021 for one year rather than risk being banned for life. It is indisputable that with any sort of level playing field Church and State would have far exceeded 2.5 million hits last year. In addition to a large variety of blocks without explanation, Facebook had so severely restricted our Page's distribution by October 2020 that it was almost as good as an unpublished page.[2] Currently, we are up to their 85th block since 1 December 2015, and as usual without an explanation. This block records as one half of their 3rd double block in the first five weeks of this year that lasted 60 days. Our traffic has also been curtailed by over 2.5K blocks on access to Church and State since 26 July 2016, including 29 full distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks since 17 May 2019 that have lasted for as long as 54 hours at a time.[3] About 70% of our hits are from Americans.

"This is precisely the hard hitting kind of response needed to clarify the unfair way Facebook is treating your highly reputable site." Don Collins, Founder, International Services Assistance Fund, Washington DC

Last updated: 26/06/21

_________________________

[1] Once a fixed term has elapsed, the landlord has the option to seek eviction even if the tenant has upheld their obligations in full (though of course the landlord must still apply for and obtain a county court order).

[2] 17/10/20: We have permission to publish this ISAF letter of 30 September to Facebook COO Sheryl Samberg. Facebook has so severely restricted our Page's distribution since 4 September that it's almost as good as an unpublished page

[3] Since October 2019, we have been defining a full DDoS attack as having such a high volume of up to 4-minute blocks on access to Church and State that we don't bother recording them all.

Church and State blog

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

DACS checks out without prejudice to their rights! But has the Mayor of London-commissioned St Mungo's once again created case notes against Declan without his approval and authorisation?

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