Animation Collective’s Larry Schwarz Sends Us Cease and Desist

Animation studio owner Larry Schwarz (pictured above in the sombrero) wasn’t pleased with our story from a couple days ago that reported about a lawsuit against his company Animation Collective. His lawyers sent us a cease and desist letter. Here’s the letter:

(click for larger version; the reason for the black bar is that they sent the letter to the wrong email address)

(click for larger version)

This was Cartoon Brew’s response:

Dear Mr Feldman,

We are using the photo of Larry Schwarz and the republication of information from the Wall Street Journal in the context of news reporting and critical commentary, which are uses that may not be authorized by your client, but which serve the public interest. For this, and other reasons, we believe our use is fair. We further do not accept that we have broken any criminal laws in publishing it, and in any event, there are multiple inaccuracies in your complaint. For example, the image of Larry Schwarz was not private; it was posted in a public, unsecured website and made accessible to everybody.

We therefore believe that we are entirely within our rights to publish the photo and the news, and as such we cannot comply with your removal request.

Sincerely,

Amid Amidi
Owner, Cartoon Brew LLC