Cyprus Action Network of America  (CANA)  

URGENT: STOP THE ANTI-HELLENIC HATE! STOP THE ANTI-HELLENIC LOBBY!

For Immediate Release: December 6, 2008

Contact: Nikolaos Taneris, New York, Tel. 1-917-699-9935,

Ioannis Fidanakis, New Jersey, Tel. 1-973-464-0211

NEW YORK--The Cyprus Action Network of America (CANA) has launched the STOP THE ANTI-HELLENIC HATE coalition to STOP THE ANTI-HELLENIC LOBBY. Please act on the action alert to the President of VISA CARD (VISA U.S.A. Inc.) corporation, Mr. William M.  Sheedy below and send on to family, friends and colleagues.

STOP THE ANTI-HELLENIC HATE is a coalition of grass-roots Anti-Racist activists in New York City, joining together in the struggle to save Hellenic people from racial discrimination, racial prejudice and false historical revisionism .Join our informative campaign outside the world headquarters of the CardPartner Visa affinity credit card program to STOP THE “UNITED MACEDONIAN DIASPORA (UMD)” in Manhattan during the Mid-Manhattan lunch hours of 12noon-2PM on Friday, January 02nd, 2009.

Visit our campaign blog, www.stoptheantihelleniclobby.wordpress.com

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URGENT: URGE VISA TO STOP THE “UNITED MACEDONIAN DIASPORA VISA AFFINITY CREDIT CARD PROGRAM”

CURRENT STATUS

The “United Macedonian Diaspora UMD” a Washington DC-based lobby promoting false historical revisionism for the fascistic and irredentist Skopje government in FYROM ,is sponsoring a VISA card with the Star of Vergina symbol  that is copyrighted exclusively in all its forms  by the Hellenic Republic, in violation of Article 6ter of the Paris Convention for the Protection of State Emblems, and Names, Abbreviations and Emblems of International Intergovernmental Organizations under the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization.

The VISA affinity credit card program of CardPartner INC. reportedly designed the VISA card in collaboration with the “United Macedonian Diaspora UMD”; please see the UMD webpage detailing the card, which also offers the credit card of Alexander The Great in this webpage on their website: http://umdiaspora.org/content/view/373/1/

CANA activist Ioannis Fidanakis contacted CardPartner INC, of the copyright issue in regards to the use of the Star of Vergina and its protection under the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization)

The email to CardPartner INC follows below:

-----Original Message-----
From: oarchangelos@aol.com <Ioannis Fidanakis>
To: mark.levitt@cardpartner.com
Sent: Thu, 4 Dec 2008 2:36 pm
Subject: Vergina sun symbol, copyrighted by Greece 1995

Dear Mark,

Hello I’ve attached just some basic information about the Star of Vergina and the copyright below from the WIPO web site. The last 3 links shows the 3 different designs based on the number of star bursts that are copyrighted by the Greek state. Also the flag is the official flag of the Macedonia inside the Greek state. So you can see where the problem would be with them having it on their card.

Here it gives info about the copyrights of flags and emblems.

http://www.wipo.int/article6ter/en/

For the bellow link where it says "state", insert Greece, for "objection" insert

The former yugoslav rom.

http://www.wipo.int/ipdl/en/search/6ter/search-struct.jsp

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*WHAT YOU CAN DO

Contact the President of VISA U.S.A. Inc , Mr. William M Sheedy, at VISA corporate headquarters

Please help us send a loud and clear message that the Star of Vergina is protected by the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) and that false historical revisionism by the anti-Hellenic lobby should NEVER be endorsed by VISA, Ask VISA President Mr. William M. Sheedy to call on the CardPartner Visa affinity credit card program to end collaboration with the fascistic and irredentist “United Macedonian Diaspora UMD” lobby:

By Mail: 

Mr. William M.  Sheedy, President of North American Operations

VISA U.S.A. Inc.

900 Metro Center Blvd.

Foster City, CA 94404

By Fax:  1-650-432-3631

By The VISA “Contact Us” webpage:

PLEASE MAKE SURE TO ADDRESS THE LETTER TO VISA PRESIDENT Mr. William M. Sheeny. Please make sure to personalize your letter and to include your name, address and phone number and please don’t forget to “click” the “submit” button on the bottom of the page in the link when you are done:

https://corporate.visa.com/ut/contactus.jsp

** Important: Please maintain a courteous and professional tone.

*** Please forward this web page to five or more friends or colleagues who you believe will act on it -- after five cycles, your e-mail can generate 23,580 letters.
(To avoid ">>>" please copy and paste the entire text onto a new e-mail when forwarding)

For more information visit:

MACEDONIA ON THE WEB: UMD and VISA violated the WIPO Regulations

http://www.macedoniaontheweb.com/forum/anti-greek-macedonia-propaganda/9299-umd-visa-violated-wipo-regulations.html

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Cyprus Action Network of America (CANA)

2578 Broadway #132

New York, NY 10025

New York: Tel. 917-699-9935

Email: cana@cyprusactionnetwork.org

www.cyprusactionnetwork.org

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The Cyprus Action Network of America (CANA) is a grass-roots, not-for-profit movement created to support genuine self-determination and human rights for the people of Cyprus.

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cana@cyprusactionnetwork.org

You are encouraged to forward this action alert to five or more individuals who may have an interest in our e-distributions or in CANA’s mission.



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