Patriarch Nikon had "suggested" we remove the link in question until a later date. Metropolitan Victor had supported this suggestion while other Synod members have stated they disagree with any act to remove the link until its ownership is proven to their satisfaction. We decided to add all links about the abuses by the SCOBA clergy since they have been ongoing for many years and more so since those in the independent have backed down.
Two Priests, one with the Antiochian Church and the other with the OCA have provded their legal opinions on this subject in what we view to be a very unchristian manner.
A Fr. John Schroedel (OCA), who is somehow connected to orthodoxwiki claims the name of our "organization" is deceptive. He failed to state why or deceptive about what but did provide us with his legal expertise on what is and is not infringment, slander and other matters - in his opinion. We might assume that he is stating we are not who we claim to be based on the false and misleading materials written about us on the American Orthodox Catholic Church orthodoxwili site.
He failed to state what is deceptive about our name. Maybe the OCA name is actually deceptive since we have had this name since 1927 and it has been our corporate name since 1928. We are not about to deny who we are for anyone. Since the OCA was "established under this name in 1970 we believe they would prefer we crawled into the woodwork so they could claim to be an extension of the first established Church in the New World - but they are not.
We were advised that the former OCA Metropolitan was only able to meet the Ecumenical Patriarch on his visit, some years ago, to the U.S. after other bishops interceded.
This Orthodox seminary student & Antiochian priest has written much about us in a bad or false light. When I say "us" I include our late clergy like Bishop Sophronius, whose remains were moved from New York to the Antiochian Village cemetery which we do not understand, as well as references to other Bishops of this early Church. Much of the problem arises out of a photo of the gravestone that includes Bp. Sophronius' name which we adapted for use on our page that refutes some of these bogus claims. The page in question does not show a copyright notice on the photo and the copyright information page states basically the site owns the copyright either by default or explicit permission. This is the first time we have ever seen a site with another page that has the photo with copyright info and not attached to the main article. As we understand the copyright law if the copyright notice is not clearly present when you come to the item (web page text, photos, etc) then it has no such copyright and since the site allows fair use of this material, it relates to this Church and is not being used for profit we feel our use was legal and correct.
The claimant of the copyrighted photo states "You may not use my picture" But when we went to the link Fr John sent us it clearly states anyone can use it on that site then has a download link. Not being a computer person all this gets confusing. These "priests" are from 2 different organizations that claim basically to be the present American Church. Thus it could be construed to be infringment and unfair business practices. Time will tell. We have not accepted their "Perry Mason" legal advice since we have gone through worse and had similar questions researched years ago for our previous lawsuits. We have placed the question in the hands of those more familiar with the law that related to such matters. In the meanwhile we are going ahead to obtain a photograph of our own of the headstone and we shall see if anyone else trys to claim they own that.
These same individuals feel its fair game to link to pages on our websites from their site that attacks this Church and her clergy throughout. They claim its their right of "free speech" but this right does not take away rights from the owner of "Registered" copyrights and service marks as they seem to believe. Unfair business practices can apply when one or more members of a church attack a similar church.