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David Farrant

FAKE COPYRIGHT CLAIM TO YOUTUBE

I am pleased to announce that two of my videos recently suspended on YouTube, In Search of the Highgate Vampire and In Search of the Truth have now been restored following an investigation into a ‘copyright infringement’ claim submitted by one Mr. Sean Manchester – the same person who has gone on public record (both in his self-published books and on the world-wide Web) as having claimed to have ‘staked’ and destroyed the Highgate ‘vampire’ back in 1973, and later its disciple ‘Lusia’ which he also claimed to have ‘staked’ after he had discovered ‘her’ sleeping in a North London graveyard in 1982.  He claimed to have ‘staked’ her after she had turned into a ‘giant spider’.

You can now, as per your legal entitlement to view them, and mine to publish them, watch both videos once more on YouTube as per below:


The ‘copyright infringement’ of which Mr. Manchester was apparently complaining was not precisely specified by YouTube, although they naturally had no choice but to suspend both videos until they had conducted their own investigation in accordance to policy – a policy that Mr. Manchester seems to take full advantage of against any who may care to challenge or dispute his fictional writings.
It is certainly not the first time that Mr. Manchester has brought copyright infringement claims against large companies as a means of employing ‘bullying tactics’- usually involving threatened litigation proceedings – against any that might oppose, or dispute, his somewhat dubious claims . . .

“THE BOOKSELLER,  November 29th 2002″

LIBEL THREAT TO ONLINE BOOKSHOP

Internet bookseller Country-bookshop.co.uk has been threatened with libel action for listing a title on its site.
The writer and self-styled vampire hunter bishop Sean Manchester sent an e-mail to the bookseller warning that legal action would be taken if the site continued to “distribute”  Man, Myth and Manchester, a pamphlet by the occult writer David Farrant.  Mr Manchester claimed that the pamphlet defamed him, but he has not pursued Mr Farrant for libel.
But the Bakewell-based independent bookshop with a substantial online business has never bought, stocked or sold the pamphlet.  Its web listing for the title is taken direct from its bibliographic data feed, supplied by Nielson Book Data.

Other online booksellers listing the book include Amazon.co.uk  and WHSmith.co.uk.
The retailer is vulnerable due to a loophole in the law.  The bookseller’s defence of innocent dissemination, made statutory in the Defamation Act 1996, fails if the bookseller has been given “reason to believe” that the material in question constitutes a libel.

Geraldine Rose, a director of Countrybookshop.co.uk, said: “Anybody could say that about any book – we could be taking books off all the time.”  Ms Rose said she would leave the title there until she received a writ.  David Hooper, libel expert at Pinsent Curtis Biddle, told The Bookseller that while the Countrybookshop had not sold  the title is was at risk as long as a sale was possible.
“All the bookseller is doing up until now is advertising the book’s availability.  It does not ‘publish’ the book until it makes a sale.  If it prevents itself from making a sale there is no claim.  People tend to remove the title from sale unless the publisher offers to indemnify them.”
Sydney Davies, trade and industry at the Booksellers Association, said Mr Farrant had offered to indemnify any bookseller against libel action. But he advised caution:  “Publishers can offer, but it depends how far a case goes – the costs can run very high.”
The Law Commission recommends a revision of the Act, but this is not likely until after the commission completes a study of defamation over the internet.

“This case is just more ammunition for our campaign [to revise defamation law],” Mr Davies said..  Our lawyers will use it as yet another example of abuses of the Act.”
When questioned by The Bookseller, Mr Manchester denied threatening legal action and said “assumptions have been made all round”. [/blockquote_with_author]

The above article (or a similar account) also appeared in The Guardian newspaper who had also reported this case.
Essentially, it seems Mr. Manchester had taken grave exception to the series of booklets Man, Myth and Manchester I had published in the early 2000’s which had been released by the British Psychic and Occult Society to deal with highly malicious and libellous claims being circulated on the world-wide Web by the so-called ‘Vampire Research Society’ (VRS).  These booklets ran into a series of nine, and were not ‘underground’ publications but had been officially listed and sent to the six main Universities as advised by law.  They were widely available in reputable bookshops, Amazon, Nielsens and also by mail order.  (Indeed they still are).
Around this time, the ‘VRS’ also contacted Amazon and demanded that ALL of the nine booklets were removed from their lists (yes, all nine in the publication range, not just one of them!).   ‘They’ were informed in no uncertain terms that none of the booklets would be removed from their Lists unless or until a legitimate complainant first obtained a Court order.

Well Sean, I am STILL waiting!

Yours most sincerely,
David Farrant, President BPOS

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