summary proceedingsAmnesty International institutes summary proceedings against lawyer Jeroen Pols of the organization Virus Truth for improper use of the design and logo of the human rights organization. Pols reacts surprised to the decision, but does have some posters removed, he tells this news site. It is not enough for Amnesty: they want Pols to remove all tweets in which Amnesty’s image rights are violated.
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In this way, Pols has been sharing an image on social media for some time in which it is written that the opponent of corona measures Willem Engel is a political prisoner. According to the organization, this creates the wrong impression that Amnesty is taking action for Engel.
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Pols is not aware of any harm, but he does comply with Amnesty’s demand, he says. “I find it remarkable that they don’t even give us time to respond to their request, but so be it. We have looked into it legally and are removing the posters on which the disclaimer is not clearly visible.” In its place come new posters with a clearer disclaimer that the message is not coming from Amnesty. Reports in which Pols strongly criticize the human rights organization will remain, the lawyer emphasizes.
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Summatiebrief
If those messages do indeed remain, Amnesty will continue the summary proceedings. “It is a step in the right direction, but we want all messages that violate our image rights to be removed.” Last night, Amnesty International ordered Pols to remove previously shared expressions, including tweets, and not to post new ones. This morning, Pols tweeted such a ‘poster’, a reason for Amnesty ‘to continue initiating summary proceedings against the person concerned’, according to the spokesman. He expects the summary proceedings to take place sometime after the weekend.
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According to Amnesty, Pols’ actions are in violation of the trademark rights to the name and the copyrights of the logo. Pols, who regularly assists Engel as a lawyer, is one of the disseminators of the image online. In small letters at the bottom of the image it can be read that the statement is an appeal to Amnesty International to take action against human rights violations in the Netherlands.
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Parody
According to Amnesty, the image is not a parody, which would make it an exception to copyright. This lacks ‘the required apparent humorous intention’, according to Amnesty.
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Willem Engel, the founder of Virus Truth, is suspected of posting incendiary messages during the corona crisis. He was arrested in mid-March, his pre-trial detention was extended by two weeks last week.
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Jeroen Pols
@JeroenPols
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