FranklinCovey v. Lycos, Inc. [1]

In December 2007, FranklinCovey Co., the owner of the copyright in the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, filed suit against Lycos and five "John Doe" defendants, alleging copyright infringement. Lycos operates Angelfire [2], a website that offers free space, as well as a paid subscription system, for Internet users to post blogs, photo galleries, and other information. FranklinCovey claimed that unknown Angelfire users posted a full digital copy of The 7 Habits on the website.

In August 2007, the company had sent Lycos two takedown notices pursuant to Section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act [3] (see related database entry [4]), but Lycos allegedly did not respond byremoving or disabling access to the infringing material. FranklinCovey's complaint [5] sought actual or statutory damages (at its election) and an injunction barring the defendants from posting its work. The parties settled before Lycos filed an answer, and FranklinCovey voluntarily dismissed the action. Lycos has taken down [6] the digital copy of The 7 Habits.