"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
ups.com...
My impression of his post is that somehow, email is going around
advertising
your hotel by using the aviation video page as a lure.

Dang -- THAT is a pretty loose definition of "Spam".

That's like saying that AvWeb is a spammer because a friend recommends
it to me. After all, AvWeb has advertisers, and stands to gain from my
dropping by their site.

Depends on the email. The implication I saw in Martin's post (not like he's
bothered to be clear about what his point really is or anything) is that the
email he received was sent by you for the sole purpose of advertising.

That's a little different from a word-of-mouth recommendation for AvWeb.

Of course, since he didn't bother to provide any details about the email
he's talking about, there's no real evidence it was sent for the sole
purpose of advertising. In fact, the lack of details suggests he's just
grinding his axe again, and has no valid complaint.

It may well be true that you are in technical violation of copyright law in
some of the cases (I suspect at least some the author made a statement
somewhere along the line granted distribution rights, so even if you are
violating copyright law, I doubt it's 100% of the videos ). However, as
you've pointed out you would take down any video someone complained about.
None of the videos represent a potential loss of income (in contrast to the
music file sharing Martin's comparing you with), and I doubt anyone would be
able to come up with a valid claim of economic damages.

On top of that, very few of the videos on your web site are unavailable
broadly on the Internet. What makes your page unique is that the videos are
collected in one place, and include commentary original to you and your site
(which itself would be protected under copyright law if some *other* web
site "borrowed" for their own use ). The mere presence of the videos is
not unusual, and simply mirrors their similar presence numerous other places
on the Internet (which doesn't necessarily make it legal, but it does
suggest it's not a big deal).

It seems to me that, a long time ago, Martin did occasionally post about
something related to flying. You and I and others are all guilty of
off-topic diversions, but we always come back to flying. Martin's been out
in left field for a while now. I don't know why he's holding such a grudge
against your video page. But as long as he keeps at it, I'll be happy to
reply pointing out how silly he's being.

Pete