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Pastimes : Business Wire Falls for April Fools Prank, Sues FBNers -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jeffrey S. Mitchell who wrote (3290)	7/27/1999 1:35:00 AM
From: Jeffrey S. Mitchell	Respond to of 3795

There are so many parts that made me burst out laughing, but this one was particularly funny: In short, defendants misused Business Wire's trademark to perpetrate a hoax and a fraud on the public. When defendants subsequently revealed they had deceived Business Wire and used its trademark to give credence to a bogus press release, they said nothing about engaging in this conduct to educate the public about its susceptibility to investment scams (that came later, after they were looking for a way to avoid legal liability). Instead, defendants at the time touted their clever "3rd annual April Hoax" and used their phony website for the commercial purpose of advertising Magnetic Diary Studios, which is the Website Design firm of defendant Bill Ulrich. See Ulrich Decl., Exh. F; see also Sitkin Decl., Exh. 1. BW claims we concocted the educational claim and tossed in the links to past April Fools Days to avoid legal liability. Are they insane! On April 1 (yes, the same day) we gave interviews to Dow Jones and the Tampa Tribune about our intent. The Dow Jones story appeared on April 2nd in the Wall Street Journal! BW didn't even contact us until the 5th! Even better, BW is claiming Webnode was all a publicity stunt to promote Magnetic Diary! Aha Ahahahahahahaha! Whoever thought this up should rethink their career. - Jeff