Copyright Violation in Action: The Case of the Paul Kopeikin Gallery


The Kopeikin "Apology"

What follows is what Paul Kopeikin and his attorney consider to be a full and sufficient "formal apology" for his behavior. I received it as an email, with no letterhead, and reproduce it here in full. I have appended to it my own analysis of its inadequacies and consequent unacceptability in that regard.

Like the letter from his attorney, Marc J. Kopeikin, it proves useful in its admission that my copyrighted material was indeed posted at the website, since it could not otherwise have been "removed . . . as soon as possible" after I found it there and notified him of my discovery.

-- A. D. C.

August 2, 2001

Dear Alan;

Now that I've had a couple of days to think about our e-mails I want to apologize for misunderstanding your intentions. I was unaware of the applicable copyright laws and have begun going over my web site to remove everything to which I do not have permission. As you know I removed your writing as soon as possible after receiving your request to do so.

More importantly I'm sorry for insulting you. I look forward to the opportunity of a more personal apologize the next time we see one another.

I'm sorry that you felt it necessary to make our personal correspondence public but understand that my e-mail must have made you angry. Since I don't know who you've sent our correspondence to please forward this to them as well so that they will know how truly sorry I am about the entire incident.

Sincerely,
Paul Kopeikin

This packs a remarkable amount of evasion into three short paragraphs. Apparently written and sent after consulting with his attorney, its purpose appears primarily self-protective.

First, an email that doesn't even contain the gallery's name and address can hardly be construed as the "formal apology" that Kopeikin and his attorney want others to see it as constituting.

Second, as Mr. Kopeikin's counsel surely knows, ignorance of the law is no excuse -- especially not for someone with a lawyer for a brother.

Third, you'll note that in fact Kopeikin apologizes herein for three specific things, and those only:

• "Misunderstanding your intentions." I have no idea what this means. My "intentions" were made immediately clear to Kopeikin: Having caught him red-handed in unauthorized publication of my business property, I intended to force him to remove it from his website and compensate me for its use.
• "Insulting you." Nothing in my formal complaint to AIPAD, or my invoices to him, or the lawsuit I've filed against him, even mentions this. People have every right to their own assessments of me and my writing. That doesn't entitle them to steal from me. Apparently Kopeikin thinks his opinion of me matters, whereas I assume that anyone reading it will consider the source, as I do.
• "The entire incident" -- whatever that vague generalization means.

Fourth, you'll note that he makes no apology whatsoever for the following specific actions:s

• Violating my copyright by using my writing without permission for commercial purposes -- that is, converting it into promotional material presented at his gallery's website for the primary purpose of flogging his merchandise in the marketplace.
• Violating the copyright of three dozen of my colleagues, and two dozen of the publications in which our work appears, for the same purposes -- pursuing his financial profit at our expense.
• Devaluing my business property -- two essays -- by consuming its first web publication rights without permission or compensation.
• Using my name and professional reputation (through the unauthorized presentation of my work at his gallery's website) in a way that made it appear, implicitly, that I endorsed his commercial venture and did business with him.

All of those actions took place in a public space: the Paul Kopeikin Gallery website. Yet the apology Kopeikin offers here came in an email, not as something posted or intended for posting in the same place where he committed his offensive actions. You will also note that, although Kopeikin inarguably took and posted that material without my permission for the purpose of enhancing his website's attractiveness and thereby profiting from it financially, he makes no offer of -- indeed, no reference whatsoever to -- compensation for his unauthorized two years' usage of my writings at his gallery website. Nor does he give any indication that he intends to apologize to, or compensate in any way, the other authors and publications he subjected to his predations. No offer of restitution to anyone thus victimized by his corporation is even implied therein.

When I was in residence at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas in the early months of 2001, I had the extraordinary privilege of hearing the Nobel Prize-winning playwright Wole Soyinka speak on several occasions. Soyinka, at the time in residence at UNLV's creative writing program, gave a talk on what he called "the politics of reconciliation," concerning some of the trials in Africa of people who had variously slaughtered, maimed, and looted the belongings of others. Soyinka challenged the fashionable notion that confessing and saying you're sorry automatically clears the account and puts the obligation of forgiveness on the victim. "No reconciliation without reparations," Soyinka argued. I couldn't say it better.

Finally, a correction to Kopeikin's claim that what's posted elsewhere via the links above -- our original exchange of emails -- represents "personal correspondence." Paul Kopeikin and I have no personal relationship now, and have never had one. To the best of my knowledge, we've never even had anything more than a passing conversation. He runs a gallery business; I run a writing business. I sent him a series of business letters regarding material he took without permission from my inventory to further his own commercial ends. His responses to those missives I consider business letters in return. Nothing "personal" about any of this, at least not from my standpoint -- strictly business.

-- A. D. Coleman
February 10, 2003

Copyright © 2003 by A. D. Coleman. All rights reserved. For reprint permissions contact Image/World Syndication Services, POB 040078, Staten Island, NY 10304-0002 USA;T/F (718) 447-3091, imageworld@nearbycafe.com