FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ---------------------- KELLY SUES WE LOVE COUNTRY DBA MILL STREET DESIGNS FOR COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT Huntington Beach, CA -- (PRnetwire.com) -- Thursday, September 5, 2002 -- Leslie A. Kelly, photographer and publisher, announced today that he has authorized, Steven L. Krongold, Arter & Hadden, Irvine, California, to file a copyright infringement lawsuit in the US District Court, Central District of California, Western Division, Santa Ana, California, against We Love Country, Inc., dba Mill Street Design, 306 Mill Street, Bridgeport, Pennsylvania. Speaking on behalf of himself, Doyle Yoder, Berlin, Ohio, and Carol Highsmith, Tacoma Park, Maryland, Kelly stated that the charges levied in the lawsuit include complaints that Mill Street Design scanned images directly from the pages of America's Amish Country II, which Kelly and Yoder published in May 2000, and The Amish: A Photographic Tour, published by Random House and illustrated by Highsmith, and used the images as graphics on various tapestry products, to include Coverlets, Bell Pulls, Pillows, Tote Bags and Journals. Mill Street Designs used the graphics to create a line of stock products it calls "Amish Life", a derivative term of Amish Lifestyle, which Kelly and Yoder use as a major part of their own marketing strategy for their America's Amish Country books and website marketing programs at http://amish.net and http://ohioamish.com. The "Amish Life" stock products are prominently featured for sale on line at the Mill Street Design website and are being sold by sales representatives to tourism retail outlets throughout America's Amish Country. "We are stunned to learn that our images have been used in such an egregious manner that will irreparably harm their future use! We have not authorized We Love Country, Inc. or Mill Street Design to use any of our images," says Kelly. "These specific images have appeared in our Yoder and Kelly's book, America's Amish Country II, and have not been licensed to anyone. Highsmith has also confirmed that none of her images have appeared other than in her own book, The Amish: A Photographic Tour. Each of the images taken has been scanned from books that have the appropriate copyright notice and is registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. Based on our review, Mill Street Design has made at least forty six different uses of our images within its website and in hard copy sales brochures. Additionally, we have located some sixteen thumbnail references in image search engines to these illegal uses, i.e., Google Image Search, AltaVista Image Search and PicSearch." The lawsuit, Case No. SACV 02-833, has been assigned to Judge David O. Carter. Kelly anticipates that the first hearing in the case will be held within three months. Highsmith, Carol Highsmith is a nationally renowned architectural photographer whose lens has captured landmarks in every state. In addition to The Amish: A Phtographic Tour, she has published, or been published in, more than fifty books. She works mainly with large format 4x5 transparencies, and she has more than 50,000 images in her stock. She also shoots 4x5 and panorama aerial photography. She has been published in Smithsonian, Time, the New York Times, Architecture, Washington Post Magazine and other national publications. Her images of the Library of Congress were featured in Life magazine. She has recently been commissioned to produce a Tribute Remembrance book on the World Trade Center for Random House. See http://carolhighsmith.com for more information. Kelly, Yoder and Highsmith seek as yet undetermined damages for the unauthorized use of their copyright registered images. For further information, contact Leslie A. Kelly (714) 846-0437 or Steven L. Krongold (949) 252-7500. See http://netcopyrightlaw.com for a copy of the lawsuit as filed and certain images which have been used by Mill Street Design. This Press Release has been distributed by Leslie A. Kelly, Les Kelly Enterprises. (714) 846-0437 # # # ref: ftp://www.send2press.com/archive/pr_02_0905-leskelly.txt