Tracking Prison Censorship in the United States

Daniel Burns, Superintendent
SCI Laurel Highlands
5706 Glades Pike
P.O. Box 631
Somerset, PA 15501-0631

27 November 2010

Dear Superintendent Burns,

On 21 September 2010 we were informed by Mr. XXX, a prisoner at SCI Laurel Highlands, that a study group assignment we sent to him was censored due to "copyright infringement." I have included a copy of the material that you mailroom staff allege is in violation of copyright law.

As you can clearly see, at the top of the page is identifying information of the source of the material, which is "MIM Theory - Number 7 - 1995." First, MIM Theory magazines are not copyrighted in any form or fashion. Second, even if they were copyrighted, you can see by our return address and the stationary header, the organization who sent this material to Mr. XXXXXX is MIM Distributors. The organization that runs our prisoner study groups is called MIM(Prisons). Both organizations MIM Distributors and MIM(Prisons) obviously have permission to be copying and distributing MIM Theory materials, even if it isn't clear to mailroom staff that the magazine as a whole is not copyrighted.

Mr. XXX is enrolled in the next study group session which will be using photocopies of MIM Theory as study material. It is imperative that your mailroom staff is properly trained on how to handle suspected copyright infringement. It is also your legal obligation to ensure that your mailroom staff are not arbitrarily denying prisoners or MIM Distributors their First Amendment rights.

I appreciate your effort in investigating this matter and your timely response.

Sincerely,

MIM Distributors

CC: Affected parties