Afarensis is a 3.5-2.8 million year old hominin from the Kada Hadar member of the Hadar formation in the Middle Awash, Ethiopia. He is approximately 41 inches tall, weighs approximately 60 pounds and has a cranial capacity of a whopping 410 cc (approximately). Afarensis is currently considered to be transitional between apes and humans and displays some traits of both. Since he spends a lot of time on the couch watching monster movies, some observers question whether he is an obligate biped (although no one has observed him climbing a tree). He also has a blog called 
Although PZ has already published the letter I am going to do so as well as I have had a small role in the XVIVO saga. Suffice to say XVIVO is pissed:
Draft of XVIVO letter to Premise Media
April 9, 2008
Chairman
Premise Media Corporation
Suite K
1850 Old Pecos Trail
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505
Re: Copyright infringement in "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed"
Dear ______:
This letter will constitute notice to you, as Chairman of Premise Media Corporation, of the copyright infringement by your corporation, and its subsidiary, Rampant Films, of material produced by XVIVO LLC, in which XVIVO holds a copyright.
It has come to our intention that Premise Media and Rampant Films has produced a film entitled "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed," which is scheduled for commercial release and distribution on April 18, 2008. To our knowledge, this film includes a segment depicting biological cellular activity that was copied by computer-generated means from a video entitled "The Inner Life of a Cell." XVIVO holds the copyright to all the models, processes, and depictions in this video, and has not authorized Premise Media or Rampant Films to make any use of this material.
We have obtained promotional material for the "Expelled" film, presented on a DVD, that clearly shows in the "cell segment" the virtually identical depiction of material from the "Inner Life" video. We particularly refer to the segment of the "Expelled" film purporting to show the "walking" models of kinesic activities in cellular mechanisms. The segments depicting these models in your film are clearly based upon, and copied from, material in the "Inner Life" video.
We have been advised by counsel that this segment in your film constitutes an actionable infringement of XVIVO's intellectual property rights, as protected by federal statutes, including Section 106 of the Copyright Act, the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990, and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act of 1998. Each of these statutes provides for judicial enforcement of their provisions, with substantial civil penalties for their infringement.
We have also obtained legal advice that your copying, in virtually identical form, of material in the "inner Life" video clearly meets the legal test of "substantial similarity" between the copied work and our original work.
This letter will also serve as notice to you that XVIVO intends to vigorously and promptly pursue its legal remedies for your copyright infringement, unless and until Premise Media, Rampant Films, and their officers, employees, and agents comply with the following demands:
1) That Premise Media, Rampant Films, and its officers, employees, and agents remove the infringing segment from all copies of the "Expelled" film prior to its scheduled commercial release on or before April 18, 2008;
2) That all copies of the "Inner Life" video in your possession or under your control be returned to XVIVO;
3) That Premise Media notify XVIVO, on or before April 18, 2008, of its compliance with the above demands.
We have been advised, by a telephone conversation with Mellie Bracewell of Premise Media on April 8, 2008, that an e-mail transmission of this letter to her will be promptly forwarded to you. A hard copy of this letter, on XVIVO stationary, will also be sent to you today by express delivery.
We are sure that you will want to avoid legal action in this matter, and urge you to promptly notify us of your compliance with the above demands. You may do so by return e-mail, directed to ___________, followed by a hard-copied letter indicating your compliance with the above demands.
Sincerely,
Update 1: I have edited out some of the names and emails in the above letter...
Update 2: Erv and Wesley both have interesting posts on the subject.
Comments
Beautiful. I think this means The Designer is PO'd against the DI! Somebody is going to be going to suffer eternal damnation and hellfire... and it couldn't happen to a better bunch of sleazeballs.
Posted by: J-Dog | April 9, 2008 9:54 PM
Haven't we been through this? Didn't they claim to have gotten a new company to whip up something similar to, but not exactly the same as, the XVIVO stuff?
Posted by: pough | April 10, 2008 12:37 AM
pough - I think the situation is that the "something similar to" is a little bit too similar. Basically, they watched Inner Life of a Cell and re-made (i.e. copied) the bits they liked.
Posted by: Bob O'H | April 10, 2008 1:15 AM
Including some of the mistakes...
Posted by: afarensis, FCD | April 10, 2008 9:26 AM
And these are the citizen scientists that are going to revolutionize biology?
I cannot wait for the full story to come out.
Posted by: carlsonjok | April 10, 2008 9:29 AM
You know, if they embraced their true nature and claimed Expelled is a satire, they might get out of the lawsuit!
Posted by: pough | April 10, 2008 3:50 PM
Pough - are you saying they should get Dr. Dr. Dembski to step up and claim it was all just "street theatre"?
Posted by: afarensis, FCD | April 10, 2008 4:13 PM
Yup, and considering my lunch I could probably supply the obligatory fart noises. Hmm... street theatre... Performing the Adventures of Dembski as street theatre would be a fun performance art piece.
Posted by: pough | April 10, 2008 4:59 PM