Task Force violates Federal and International Laws April 15, 2003 We have been witness to the Task Force changing policy, not following rules (if there are any rules), not following legalities as to the proper burial of infected birds and now we must report even a more flagrant breaking of the law - the sacred copyright law. Approximately during the week of March 24, 2003, they began showing a new PowerPoint presentation at the Task Force meetings which is entitled BIOSECURITY (PET BIRDS WITH PICTURES).ppt and includes pictures of exotic birds. The file was made available for download via the internet yesterday from an announcement made on the UC END list (LINK). We downloaded that 12 meg file and in an attempt to take it apart and make it smaller so that others might be able to see it, we found that the presentation contains COPYRIGHTED photos by two persons. One is not able to see that these photos are copyrighted in the actual presentation since they are conveniently cropped off as they appear. The uncropped photos do contain a valid copyright notice and the photographers ID. These uncropped photos are included in the PowerPoint distribution file. We directly contacted both of the photographers and found that they had neither given any permission for use of their photos nor had any knowledge of their being used. Needless to say, both photographers are extremely angry about this. The Task Force has spent over $73 million dollars thus far on END yet did not offer to pay for the use of the photos or even ask if they could use them. The PowerPoint file itself shows that it was last edited by Lawrence E. Hawkins, it was revision 123 and total editing time was 3542 minutes. The last page of the presentation contains the following information: Dr. C. Gabriel Sentíes-Cué California Animal Health & Food Safety, Fresno-Branch University of California, Davis One note, a photo of a quaker was contained in the presentation. This bird is illegal to own in the State of California and would have been killed on sight even if it was not a dangerous contact. Was there a subliminal intention behind this? While we have observed the Task Force killing healthy birds, we now have proof that they feel they can flagrantly break any laws they so choose, even the copyright law. This should NOT go unpunished.