Discussion:
What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Arkansas..
Any good advice would be appreciated.
I was working with a person for about a year from 2002 to June 2003 and we agreed to part ways and was not under any form of contract.
I was personally asked in Sept 2003 to write an article for an online newsletter by the webmaster and he published it about a week later. Well, in March and April of 2004 my entire article starts showing up on the internet in the forms of press releases, bulletin board postings and classified ads all pointing to my old' partner's newly created website with him claiming to be the author. I contact the webmasters of the ad postings and some take them down others contact the infringer and say that he was my "boss" and he had hired me to write this article for him...False!
He only uses the infringing ads to point to his website and never puts my article directly on his website so as not to risk shutting down his "real website" I have lost alot of traffic due to this.
My question is what can I do about this? It continues to this day..
Thanks!
Answer:
What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Arkansas..
Any good advice would be appreciated.
I was working with a person for about a year from 2002 to June 2003 and we agreed to part ways and was not under any form of contract.
I was personally asked in Sept 2003 to write an article for an online newsletter by the webmaster and he published it about a week later. Well, in March and April of 2004 my entire article starts showing up on the internet in the forms of press releases, bulletin board postings and classified ads all pointing to my old' partner's newly created website with him claiming to be the author. I contact the webmasters of the ad postings and some take them down others contact the infringer and say that he was my "boss" and he had hired me to write this article for him...False!
He only uses the infringing ads to point to his website and never puts my article directly on his website so as not to risk shutting down his "real website" I have lost alot of traffic due to this.
My question is what can I do about this? It continues to this day..
Thanks! There probably isn't a lot you can do, unfortunately. You could file "DMCA requests" under 17 USC 512(C)(3) -- if you follow the rules in that code section precisely, the ISP's have to remove the offending marterials promptly, or face liability. However, this is not a be-all-end-all solution, because the person who posted the materials originally could protest, and then the ISP can put the materials back up, and it will be up to you to sue the original posters in court for copyright infringement.
You could sue for copyright infringement, although without a registered copyright, you'll have to prove how much you have actually been damaged. You can also get injunctions against those posting the materials. However, you'll have to hire a lawyer, and head to federal court -- this isn't something that can be handled in small claims court. And if the persons posting the material are in different states -- or worse, in different countries -- you may have to consider multiple lawsuits, or filing a lawsuit in their home state, not yours.
Your best be is to look up 17 USC 512(c)(3), follow the instructions, and see which ISP's will remove the materials -- unless you've got significant provable damages accumulated, filing a lawsuit and hiring an attorney will almost certainly cost far more than you could hope to recover.
Maybe postings on your website (and other websites) that you are the real author behind that article would help?
Answer:
I appreciate the information and advice.
I do own the copyrights to the article in question and it has been filed with the library of congress for copyright protection. You would think that it would be eaiser to protect your rights and property other than having to spend alot of money time and effort. it should be up to the guilty party to prove they have a right to use an artilce in question. Thats just my opinion though.
Thanks again for the help.
Answer:
and it has been filed with the library of congress for copyright protection. Library of Congress, of the U.S. Copyright Office? The former provides no extra protections; only registration with the copyright office gives you additional remedies in the event of infringement.
You would think that it would be eaiser to protect your rights and property other than having to spend alot of money time and effort. It's all a balancing act -- patents are generally easier to enforce, and give you more protections than copyrights, but are much more difficult and expensive to obtain in the first place. Copyrights are cheap and easy to get (free and automatic, unless you take the extra step of registration), and therefore the tradeoff is that they are harder to enforce. Chances are, copyright would be stronger and easier to enforce if we made it much more difficult to obtain a copyright, but the congress has not chosen to go that route with copyrights.
it should be up to the guilty party to prove they have a right to use an artilce in question. Of course, that's exactly the opposite of how our system works -- we are "innocent until proven guilty," not "guilty until proven innocent."
Trust me, I know how it feels to have stuff ripped off and used without your permission, or without proper acknowledgement, it's happened to me. But unfortunately, it's not always easy or inexpensive to pursue your rights. Hell, I'm an attorney, and its still not worth it, even with essentially "free" legal help!
Answer:
Thanks again for the reply. Yes I filed for copyright protection through the library of congress-copyright office -TX
Its good that we we are innocent until proven guility in our country, I am proud of the USA and wouldn't have it any other way.
In my case, the infringer is blatant and posts his own name his own website on hundreds of press releases over and over again with my material.
he knows he can use mine or anyone elses ads, articles and material to acheive his number one ranking world wide for his website. He has been ranked number one on google, msn, yahoo, aol, lycos stc, for over a year now with the use of my personally written materials. ( My webmaster and I have had over 50 of his press releases and ad posts taken down by proving I own the materials) This goes on and on..we take down 5 and he puts up 100...I enjoy a high ranking also but do it on my own 2 feet and not at some else expense.
Thanks for letting me "vent" and express my opinion on this bulletin board and
always keep my mind and ears open for advice.