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[Caspian]

Middian Defense Fund
Saturday, December 23, 2007

Middian may not be dead after all........

As many of you know, Middian received a cease and desist demand in October from Midian of Milwaukee LLC. This demand required Middian to stop using our name completely, stop selling our album, and further demanded that all of our recorded cds and albums be destroyed. Middian was served a cease and desist by a band that has never played outside of Wisconsin, hasn't put out a single record, or had a steady line up in the last 7 years. They hadn't even updated their website since year 2000, as of a few weeks ago. We played Milwaukee in May, and no one there even mentioned a local band Midian of one "d". Nor did one of their "fans" come to the show.

Prior to this demand, we had never heard of them. Upon further research into the group, we discovered they had not used their name or trademark in years or even played outside of Wisconsin, ever. Our initial response was that our bands could peacefully co-exist. Especially since we learned that our usage combined with their non-usage entitled us to the name, rendering their trademark useless. But we felt it would be wasting everyones time and money to send the issue to litigation. Besides, before the name Middian was chosen, a careful online search was done, proving that no other active unit had the same spelling.

Instead of responding or agreeing to our offer of co-existence, they filed a federal suit against the three of us individually, our label (Metal Blade, who dropped us because of the suit), our booking agent Nanotear Booking, and an online merchandiser we had never even heard of until we saw the complaint.

We sent them word that we would give the name up and even agreed to some other demands that seemed unreasonable, simply because we're not in a financial position to fight it.

They refused to accept our settlement, demanding we pay them tens of thousands of dollars. By right of actual usage worlwide, the name Middian is ours. Regardless of that we have no choice but to FIGHT and defend ourselves in court. We intend to strip them of their trademark and deny them their unfair demands of money and of our music.

We're humbly asking for YOUR help. Spread the word far and wide, to wherever you can. If you can afford it, please donate some money to our defense fund. We're going to have A LOT of legal fees and we're simply not in a position to pay for it by ourselves.

We would like to thank everyone that has sent us messages. The underground metal community's love has simply been overwhelming.

With your help and support, Middian will stand triumphant against this truly evil attack on our persons and families.

Mike, Scott, Will, and Nanotear Booking.
MIDDIAN

Now normally I don't get that passionate about stuff, but seriously, this is mega balls. I hope Middian win the case (seems pretty obvious that they will) and that the other bunch of monkey fuckers have to pay court costs, and die in a horrific industrial accident.

Link to donation page is here: http://middian.org/donate/

Check out there music as well, quite good doom, not terrible unique but lots of excellent Neurosis/High on Fire/Electric Wizard-isms. And DONATE!

[Inlander]

Please don't use descriptions of sexual orientation as an insult. Instead of "homos", here are some other insults that you could use:

"Fuckwads";
"Dicktwaddlers";
"Monkey-fuckers";
"Fools".

Thankyou!

[michaelicious]

Hey man, as a monkey-fucker, I find your using my sexual orientation as an insult insulting.

[Caspian]

Hey man, as a monkey-fucker, I find your using my sexual orientation as an insult insulting.

Well sorry, but you're going to have to deal with it, as that is what I've changed it to.

But this is not the time to discuss political correctness, homophobia and various other things, this is a time to bitch about Midian, and a time to give money to Middian. I'm pretty annoyed about this whole thing, not sure why! Anyway, I gave $20. 

I should add that the singer was once in YOB, a really, really good doom metal band that a few people here might know and like.

[calenlass]

Fuck you, man, my bonobo girlfriend and I are in a perfectly healthy and loving relationship.

We've got two dogs, and she drives a subaru. See how serious we are?


Fucking monkeys is Not A Crime. God.

[Misereatur]

Holy shit. Middian's Age Eternal is probably one of the best metal albums out this year. This is ridiculous.

I wish I wasn't broke.

[My Aim Is True]

A few years ago the almost this exact same thng happened to a hardcore band called American Nightmare. They got royally fucked by some crappy fake-blues bar band.

[Dimmukane]

I donated 10$ US.  Even if you don't like the band, you should donate, because quite frankly, that is the most asinine shit I've ever heard of someone doing.  It's like some high school kids' pop-punk band never took off so they're gonna make it big and live the life off of their ill-gotten gains from this completely unnecessary lawsuit.  Fucking ridiculous.  And pathetic.  I'm going to travel to Oregon 10 years from now and punch the lead singer of the offending group in the face.

[a pack of wolves]

This happens with depressing regularity, BYO dropped Four Letter Word after they got sued by some boy band called 4 Letr Word. If I remember rightly from a lengthy interview with them at the time apparently spelling doesn't make much difference so Middian's extra d probably won't help them much unfortunately. The litigious bands are always terrible and this case is no exception as their deeply hideous myspace page proves: www.myspace.com/midianmusic2

[Dimmukane]

I just love how they throw in 'registered trademark Midian of Milwaukee, LLC' at the bottom of their description.

[Inlander]

Not only that:

The convergence of four members, all from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, brought the legal entity of Midian of Milwaukee to a reality

[Johnny C]

Copyright! Copyright!

[Ballard]

Wow this is one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen.

[KharBevNor]

Some would argue naming yourself after a Cradle of Filth album is a pretty good reason to get sued.

[Dimmukane]

But they're the ones suing, not the ones getting sued.

[thehollow]

It's a biblical reference, so it's not necessarily a reference to CoF.

Wait, why the hell am I giving them the benefit of the doubt? They've pretty much established themselves as assholes for starting this lawsuit. so yeah, it probably is a CoF reference.

[De_El]

0.0 This band makes me want to listen to metal again. I'm donating $20.

[amok]

I just love how they throw in 'registered trademark Midian of Milwaukee, LLC' at the bottom of their description.

hahaha that's so pathetic it'd be hilarious if people weren't getting fucked over by this