MACARTHURAIRPORT.COM
“For us to get a little piece of the action, that’s fine too.”
“We just want our pound of flesh.”
“We could have it built into the contracts and make them
advertise.”
No, these are not dialogue excerpts from an episode of the Sopranos, but actual quotes made by Islip Town representatives, contained in a federal lawsuit involving the Town of Islip. Town representatives made those remarks at meetings with regard to a privately owned and operated website called macarthurairport.com.
The Town of Islip was in federal court yesterday asking for a preliminary injunction and claiming “irreparable harm” if the Honorable Judge Leonard Wexler doesn’t grant them a requested temporary restraining order (TRO) to stop the decade old website- macarthurairport.com from operating, while a lawsuit about the issue plays out in the courts.
Mr. Pizzi, from the lawfirm of Connell Foley LLC (New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York) represented the Town when he argued the Town of Islip is laying claim to 16 Domain names and 3 Twitter Accounts and claimed “irreparable harm” if they are not granted the TRO.
Granting of the TRO as his client requested would switch the domain names over to the Town immediately.
Owners of the website claim that would be a de-facto win for the Town, because if they are prevented from operating the website until they have their day in court, it would mean the end of their private operation of the website. The site is devoted to aiding the travelers going to and from Islip’s Macarthur Airport and has offered ten years of free airport related service to the public with no cost to the taxpayers, according to Black Sheep, the sites owners.
Internet disputes over domain names go to an organization called ICANN for resolution. The NAF or National Arbitration Forum in Denmark is responsible for issuing domain names for websites. Between one and three arbitrators look at papers submitted by both sides and then make a decision. NAF did not allow the tapes or transcripts of the tapes of their meetings, to be entered or considered. The transcripts and the tapes clearly showed the Town had misled them, according to Black Sheep.
When NAF was shown paperwork that the Town owns MacArthur Airport and the Town had (unbeknownst to Black Sheep) copyrighted and registered the name MacArthur Airport, they awarded it to the Town, documents showed.
Black Sheep contends they have never really had their day in court and if the information contained in the audio tapes were admitted, then the NAF decision would have been very different. That is why they sued in Federal Court and in the meantime the Town requested this emergency TRO to prevent what they call “irreparable harm” to the Town while the case goes to court.
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
Apparently, when it is an internet domain name…there’s a lot at stake.
The owners of macarthurairport.com, Jacques Ditte and his wife Jan Hanna bought and registered the domain name along with several others back in 2000, when they realized that the Town of Islips’ MacArthur Airport had no website.
They also registered:
nymcarthurairport.com
islipairport.com
islipmacarthurairport.com.
After purchasing the names, back in 2000, Mr. Ditte and Ms. Hanna, owners of Black Sheep Television Ltd., which has owned and operated the website for nearly ten years, got hundreds of hits with no website yet to go to, so they created and managed the new site with the goal of being helpful to the flying public.
They purchased information from the National Weather Service and provided links to the Transportation Security Administration and Homeland Security for official passenger and security information.
The website also provides useful information to the flying public about airlines, parking, accommodations and airport conditions.
Mr. Ditte, President of Black Sheep Television, Ltd. insists their website is run very professionally and they have a rigorous screening process for businesses to qualify to advertise on the site. They must be travel related and well established businesses in the area to qualify.
The site also links to online travel booking agencies to facilitate booking flights to and from the airport and offers a flight tracking service that allows them to list arrivals and departures and offers a complete weather program tied in with the NOAA.
McGOWAN HAD NO INTEREST IN WEBSITE
In September of 2001, according to court papers, Jacques Ditte said he reached out to the Town of Islip, which owns and runs MacArthur Airport, because he felt the need for more interaction after the events of 9/11.
He wrote to Brad Ringhouse, Administrative Assistant, for Islip Town “for the purposes of fostering a cooperative relationship and for providing enhanced services to the public.” according to court papers.
Mr. Ditte stressed that “At no point whatsoever did I intend to or did I offer the website and domain name for sale to the Defendant (the Town).”
Told by the Town agents that they saw no need for a website and did not want to promote the airport, Mr. Ditte and his wife continued to develop and operate the site privately to “provide a valuable service to the public”.
This all took place under former Supervisor Pete McGowan, who insiders claim had no use for the internet.
{When Mr. McGowen was indicted and resigned, Mr. Hofmeister who subsequently handled the negotiations between the Town of Islip and Black Sheep about the website, was voted in as temporary Supervisor of Islip Town until the vote in November when Phil Nolan was elected. After the election, Mr. Hofmeister was transferred to the airport where he still works.}
Years went by with no action or interaction from the Town and the website thrived and sustained itself without Town involvement of any kind.
NOW THE TOWN WANTS THEIR PIECE OF THE PIE
Then on November 8, 2007 under the authority of newly elected Islip Supervisor Phil Nolan, the Town invited Black Sheep Television, the owners of macarthurairport.com to a meeting at the airport with the pretense of forming and soliciting a cooperative relationship, according to Mr. Ditte. They discussed revenue sharing, enhancement of advertising and promotion of the airport. During the meeting the audio tape reveals Mr. Hofmeister stated “Our goal is to have a good website, and you know, if you are making some money and it’s working for you, that’s great. For us to get a little piece of the action, that’s fine too.”
Unfortunately for the Town and fortunately for Black Sheep Ltd., the meetings were audio taped and so the Town’s current claims that the website is doing irreparable harm appear absurd against the backdrop and tenure and tone of the original meetings and discussions. (A link to the tapes is provided at the end of this article).
The tapes are crisp and clear and there is no doubt that Eric Hofmeister, Nolan’s Deputy Commissioner, Brad Ringhouse, Airport Administrative Supervisor and Steve Siniki, Assistant Airport Administrative Supervisor who were in attendance as well as co-owners of the site Jacques Ditte and his wife Jan Hanna are all attempting to forge a beneficial, contractual and legal partnership with regard to operating the website together.
Mr. Hofmeister broaches the subject of buying the website domain name, but it is clear from the tapes of the meetings that Black Sheep Television was not interested in selling. The remainder of over two hours of taped meetings is about the cooperative partnership the Town is requesting and specifically with regard to information on the website that the Town wants to ensure is accurate. Mr. Hofmeister on several occasions insists the Town does not want to run a website, but just partner with the existing one that has been operating responsibly for over seven years at that point.
However, Eric Hofmeister at one point in the first meeting admits, “Downtown has a different vision of us creating our own website and overtaking you guys. But to me, you are getting 2 to 3 million hits already, we’d rather work together, why are we trying to rebuild the wheel?”
Mr. Hofmeister proposed they all think it over and a second meeting was scheduled for December 19, 2007 where the details of the cooperative contract loosely hashed out in the first meeting were to be more seriously discussed.
"ALL WE WANT IS OUR POUND OF FLESH"
From the second meeting on December 19, 2007, bullet points and a tentative agreement to work together are negotiated and Mr. Hofmeister agrees to have Town staff attorneys “write it up” and he promised to get it together so that it can be voted on by the Town Board.
At that point, Mr. Ditte asks, “Do you need us to go to the Town Board?”
Mr. Hofmeister replies revealing a side of Town politics already known to savvy insiders, “You are certainly welcome to, but we usually have things decided before the meetings. Usually, everyone is on board with it before the meeting happens. It’s read, voted on and we go right to the next question.”
Brad Ringhouse stated at one point in the meeting, “We are in a joint venture. It makes you more legitimate.”
This is the same man who under McGowan had told Mr. Ditte and Ms. Hanna, “We don’t need a website and we don’t want to promote the airport.” according to them.
Negotiations at the meetings included revenue sharing from advertising profits. Mr. Ditte said in court papers that they had not run the website for the purposes of generating revenue, but as more of a service, but they were not averse to expanding the website and increasing airport services.
The Long Island Tourism Board was discussed as a possible option to generate revenue and a possible 5 year contract with a 60-90 day notification period was also discussed.
Mr. Hofmeister stated that they could require anyone looking to negotiate a contract with the Town to advertise on the website. “We could build it into our own agreements that they are required to advertise on the website.”
At the second meeting Mr. Hofmeister bluntly states Black Sheep has a strong base operation and “We just want our pound of flesh.” Adding, they would want input on the look, the content and that the Town would have one of their “investigators” view every single page every week and decide if they see a problem.
Besides operating the website macarthurairport.com Black Sheep Television Ltd. makes television commercials, documentaries and PBS programs like Sesame Street's “Elmo’s World” and “Ageing in America”.
Mr. Ditte’s attorney, Howard E. Greenberg (Smithtown) argued before Judge Wexler yesterday that Black Sheep has yet to get their day in court, because the audiotapes of the meetings where a partnership is discussed were disallowed at the internet “hearings” where their web domain was taken away. What irreparable harm will be caused if the site continues to operate as it has for almost ten years with no issue or complaint from the Town, he asked the Court?
Mr. Pizzi stated that people are confused because their website is not an official website and they don’t know who is really operating it for the Town.
Mr. Greenberg said the Town directly copied codes from their website and acted in bad faith pretending to cooperate with his clients while surreptitiously creating their own website and seizing the domain names behind the scenes while continuing to communicate with Black Sheep as if their arrangement was still ongoing.
After both meetings Mr. Ditte states he maintained contact with Mr. Siniski and Eric Hofmeister continually from December 19, 2007 the date of the second meeting through August 12, 2008. During this time period the Town and Black Sheep “engaged in a campaign of information sharing, such as parking and airline information…the (Town’s) agents continued to provide direction as to the plaintiff’s operation of the website and we worked as a cooperative partnership. When I asked Mr. Hofmeister specifically about the status of the contract agreement that had been discussed in our previous meetings, Mr. Hofmeister’s only response was, “We are working on it.”, according to Mr. Ditte.
E-mails from Mr. Siniski to Black Sheep dated August 12th 2008 show the Town is still acting as if all is well:
From: Steve Siniski
Date: August 12, 20[,8 12:29:36 PM EDT
To: JD@ blacksheeptelevision.com
Subject RE: MacArthur Airport Parking Changes
Reply -To:
Hi Jacques:
Looks good. Could you also remove the Spirit banner on the airlines page. They are no longer flying out of here.
Thanks, Steve
Steve Siniski
Assistant Airport Administrative Supervisor
631-467-3300 (p)
631-467-3348 (f)
___________Original Message _____________
From: jacques[mailto:JD@blacksheeptelevision.com]
Sent 8/6/2008 9:10:47 AM
To:
Cc:
Subject RE: Re: MacArthur Airport Parking Changes
Blogger: Freelance lnvestlgations - Create Post
Date: August 12, 20[,8 12:29:36 PM EDT
To: JD@ blacksheeptelevision.com
Subject RE: MacArthur Airport Parking Changes
Reply -To:
Hi Jacques:
Looks good. Could you also remove the Spirit banner on the airlines page. They ar€ no longer flying out of here.
Thanks, Steve
Steve Siniski
Assistant Airport Administrative Supervisor
631-467-3300 (p)
631-467-3348 (f)
___________Original Message_______________
From: jacques[mailto:JD@blacksheeptelevision.com]
Sent 8/6/2008 9:10:47 AM
To: s.siniski @townofislip-ny.gov
Cc:
Subject RE: Re: MacArthur Airport Parking Changes
Hi Steve,
The changes have been made. Please review and confirm that there are no errors.
httpilwww.macarthurairportcom/pages/parking.shtnl
All the best,
Jacques
Jacques Ditte
Black Sheep Television Ltd.
P.O. Box 1116
Hampton Bays, N.Y. 11946
631-288-5477
Fax 631-288-6075
jd @ blacksheeptelevision.com
On August 6, 2008 at 8:58 AM, Steve Siniski wrote:
Hi Jacques,
How are you? We have some new pricing for the parking lots. They are as follows:
Daily lot $4 per 60 min
$14.00 maximum per 24 hr.
Economy Lot
$4 per 60 min.
$12.50 per 24 hr
Short Term
$3.00 per hour
Max charge $25.00
Thanks,
Steve
Mr. Ditte had argued in court documents that these messages prove that the Town continued to communicate with them even after filing plans for www.flylima.com and that the Town shared information to continue their mutual business operations.
On August 8, 2008, two days after the E Mail from Mr. Siniski, the Town of Islip filed a trademark application for Long Island MacArthur Airport which was granted on March 31, 2009 and an application for an airport design mark incorporating symbols consisting of a bird's wings, a sailboat, stars and horizontal bars, which was granted in April of 2009.
On August 12, 2008, the Town had already filed its application for trademark and was apparently also in the planning stages of www.flylima.com, according to court papers.
At no time did they ever reveal their plans to Black Sheep who were still operating under the verbal agreement and waiting patiently for the Town attorneys to “write it up.”
The Town had subsequently completed its’ own website and was now operating
After a long break in communication Mr. Ditte said he received a cease and desist letter dated May 27, 2009 from the law offices of Galgano & Associates PLLC demanding Black Sheep immediately stop using the domain names macarthurairport.com due to the copyright infringement. He said he was "astonished to see the Town had done a complete turnaround on our months of previous negotiations, discussions, brainstorming and agreements."
It became clear to me the only reason the Town had contacted Black Sheep and I in 2007 and continuing thereafter was for the purpose of investigation into our website and business and to steal the models and plans that we had put into place to provide an informational service to the public. If anyone was operating in bad faith it was the Town and its' agents and representatives in that we discovered that the Town had directly copied the code from our website directly into www.flylima.com
(Jacques Ditte)
An E-Mail with questions about the federal lawsuit and the audiotapes was sent to Mr. Pizzi, but questions were unanswered at time of publication deadline given to him. Mr. Pizzi sent a reply E-Mail directing me to the PACER website where I could purchase copies of the Towns' papers. He also said, "As the matter is in litigation, we have no response to your inquiry at this time."
He was asked when the Town hired his firm and how much has the Town paid them to date?
He was asked if they handled the copyright and logo paperwork for the Town as well and if so, when was that first begun?
He was asked to explain what the actual irreparable harm to the Town, other than as he testified yesterday, people now being confused as to which website is official.
Black Sheep noted if the Town hadn’t gone behind their backs despite their agreements to work together and started another site there would be no confusion in the first place.
The lawfirm of ConnellFoley LLC, hired by the Town has 121 members according to their website and specializes in Antitrust, Banking, Cable Television Law, Patents, Copyrights, Trademarks and Public Contract Law as well as several other specialties.
Mr. Greenberg has a Smithtown office of one…himself.
This David vs. Goliath case plays out at the Alfonse D’Amato Federal Courthouse in Central Islip at 4pm today.
Yesterday, Judge Wexler (whose son W.D. Wexler an attorney, was hired on March 3, 2010 by the Town as the Chairman of the Zoning Board of Appeals) adjourned the case while he listened to the audiotapes. Back in Court at 4pm Friday December 3, 2010.
To be continued…………..
THE DECISION ON THE TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER
Decision on the TRO from Judge Wexler just in: Islip Town wins control of the website while the case winds through the court.
Black Sheep attorney, Howard Greenberg and his clients are assessing their options for appeal.
To hear a copy of the unedited audiotapes cut and paste the link below into your browser and go to:
https://rcpt.yousendit.com/1019882583/b5d08e1912bb4bbbc6bcfff81403e95f
