Newspaper Sues Filmmaker for Web Site ‘Infringement'


The New York Post Co. is suing a German filmmaker for stealing the newspaper's trademark Web site and logos, allegedly to "get back" at the Post for publishing an article critical of his movie.

The filmmaker, Uwe Boll, is accused of creating two Web sites that are direct copies of the New York Post's Web site, ny-postal.tk and postal-themovie.com/mag, to promote his movie, "Postal."

The Post is asking a federal judge to enjoin Mr. Boll from using the Web site and to transfer the domain names of the Web sites to the Post. It is also asking for unspecified damages.

The Web site for "Postal" represents "brazen and unlawful infringement of the New York Post's valuable intellectual property," the Post claims in its lawsuit, which was filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

According to Mr. Boll's Web site and published accounts, the movie parodies the events of September 11, 2001, and other controversial topics. The film is based on a computer game of the same name. The conflict between the Post and the filmmaker apparently started on April 15, when the Post published an article announcing the movie's release.

The article called the movie "the first mass-marketed film to mock the tragedy of 9/11."

Mr. Boll was quoted in the article defending the film, including the use of footage depicting planes crashing into the World Trade Center: "We did it to show the unbelievable stupidity of suicide bombers."

The lawsuit claims the filmmaker set up the "Postal" Web sites after the article appeared in an "effort to Â'get back' at the New York Post."

The suit also names Freestyle Releasing, an independent movie studio that is releasing the film in America, as a defendant.

Freestyle did not return a request for comment and Mr. Boll was unreachable.

A spokesman for the Post, Steven Rubenstein, said, "We are confident in the merits of our case."

Source: http://www.nysun.com/article/59463


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