Update
Update: June 28, 2002
Ford Motor Company has officially and unconditionally conceded its complete, utter, and perpetual loss on the merits of the FORD v. 2600 "FuckGeneralMotors.com" case. Ford has dismissed its appeal to the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, meaning that Ford has completely given up all attempts to reverse the victory that 2600 Enterprises won on December 20, 2001. The mutually agreed dismissal papers were officially entered by the Sixth Circuit on June 27, 2002.
Click here for the full story.
The caravan was very successful. We'd like to thank everyone who participated and showed their support along the way. We also want to thank the many people who showed up in court and offered moral support, as well as those who have been sending financial contributions to keep our legal efforts going. Finally, a big thanks to the many people we met at the Dayton Hamvention who also showed support and urged us to keep up the fight. (Since Dayton is so close to Detroit, we were able to go this year - thanks Ford!) We were strengthened by the spirit and intelligence of those who have been supporting our cause.
We were quite happy with the way things unfolded in court. (We hope to have a transcript posted soon on the main 2600 site.) Our lawyer presented a strong case while Ford's arguments seemed strained at best and based on an overall lack of understanding of how the net works. They spent an inordinate amount of time focusing on the "F-word" as if that was what the case centered on. It became clear that they would've had the same objections to ANY site that they didn't specifically give permission to and THAT is something that simply flies in the face of the World Wide Web and the entire Internet culture.
It is significant that Ford's request for an injunction was NOT granted at the end of the hearing. This allows our link to remain in existence. We hope that when the judge delivers his decision, it will send a message that such frivolous legal actions are doomed to failure.
Finally, we've received a number of inquiries from people interested in running a permanent FuckGeneralMotors.com site dedicated to criticism of GM. Please continue to send us your ideas and once this whole mess is behind us, we'll hopefully have the opportunity to use this domain for such a purpose.
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