Copyright Troll USCG Violates Copyright 97
omarlittle writes "The US Copyright Group — a company owned by intellectual property lawyers, which has been in the news for threatening downloaders of the movie Hurt Locker — has apparently stolen their site from a competitor. At one point, even the competitor's phone number and copyright statement were copied word for word on USCG's 'settlement' website. The competitor is reportedly going to send a Cease & Desist."
Damn! (Score:5, Funny)
If only there was some group that they could hire to fight copyright violations...
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...you mean like the ones they, err, ripped off? ;)
Comeuppance is gonna be real fun to watch happen... Pity that in the end, some really stupid anti-liberty precedent may come of it (I'm hoping not considering that this particular case is simple plagiarism, but given this crowd, I'm not holding out much hope for sanity...)
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If only there was some group that they could hire to fight copyright violations...
Well first start a multi-national conglomerate so you will have the resources then go sniffing around the united states congress, with enough money you can get whatever you want.
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However, wholesale copying of someone else's work and the act of removing or tampering with their copyright notice can be a separate "offense"
Particularly if there was a written direction form management to remove it... the removal may be evidence of willful infringement
Basically.. since you surgically removed the notices and not much else, it's evidence that you saw the notice...
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Re:Damn! (Score:5, Insightful)
Ironic it is. However, the real story is "copyright lawyers screwed by lazy web site developer." They paid somebody to create their website, and instead of just developing a web site, the lazy developer simply ripped off a site which served a similar business.
It's not as if the firm's lawyers sat around saying "I don't know how to design our site... why don't we just use that one and put our information on it?"
Re:Damn! (Score:5, Informative)
TFA doesn't mention any developers involved. Why don't you add to our knowledge and name them, since you seem to be better-informed?
A wholesale lifting of code (such as would be implied by their leaving their victim's phone number intact) could as easily have been done by a lazy, recklessly indifferent lawyer or lazy, supervised staff worker as by a lazy third-party web developer.
Moreover I really doubt there's a legally viable argument that USCG, filled with state-licensed members of the bar, doesn't ultimately have responsibility for approving and operating a website that collects evidence for use in court.
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It is definitely the responsibility of the law firm, which is why it's ironic.
However, the gleeful interpretation by The Not Very Fine Article and members of this site that these copyright lawyers willfully violated copyright is mere fantasy that's unsupported by any evidence.
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...and leaving the victim's phone number in was just an simple oversight, way too difficult for mere lawyers to grasp or even notice, since web development is so hard .
I'll take your non-answer of my question as indication you don't have any evidence the development was done by an external firm. (Would it make a difference if it was a temp they hired who did it?) But maybe you're right, in which case I'm sure we'll hear about the lawsuit USCG (aka Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver) files against their contractor
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You're right, this is really a nothing-to-see-here story and it is really shameful. I want to destroy copyright trolls, copyright extremism, and software patents as much as the next person, but this is just "spin" at its best.
That being said, I do find it curious that a bunch of IP lawyers did not think to demand of the website developer a manifest of every single piece of copyrightable content on the site and its proof of proper licensing.
This would be like the BSA setting up a branch office without any r
You presume too much... (Score:2)
Consider.
What would happen if the average "Mafiaa" espousing slashdotter (among who number some who do websites for a living) were to actually be hired by the RIAA or the MPAA.
maybe it wasn't sloth- but nefarious and deliberate.
Owned, bitches! (Score:1)
Ultimate Compliment (Score:3, Funny)
Anything for the cause... (Score:3)
(c) (Score:3, Funny)
* copyright 2010 djdbass. Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.
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Except for the part where you can't copyright generic idiom.
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1870, revised by Adrian Room (Millennium Edition). Looks like copyright is expired.
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And fraudulent copyright notices are punishable by fine! Not that I've ever heard of anybody being fined for trying to, for instance, copyright a blank form.
I even once tried to email copyright.gov when I found a fraudulent copyright notice on a public domain work. You know what their response was? If you own the copyright, you can sue them. So basically they don't investigate fraudulent claims, despite this being a possible way to get some extra income.
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Part of the issue is that if they’ve done just about anything at all to it, they can copyright their “creative work” as a whole.
For instance, you cannot copyright information, so the information in the phone book is free for the taking. However the book itself (its graphics, fonts, layout and formatting) is copyrighted, so you cannot just cut the binding, scan the pages, and re-print exact copies of it.
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While the U.K. and other Commonwealth countries have the concept of copyright for "typographical arrangement," the U.S. does not.
Citation needed. In the 1991 ruling on Feist v. Rural Tel. Service Co. you will find statements such as the following:
a compilation of facts may possess the requisite originality because the author typically chooses which facts to include, in what order to place them, and how to arrange the data so that readers may use them effectively, [however] copyright protection extends only to those components of the work that are original to the author, not to the facts themselves.
A compilation is not copyrightable per se, but is copyrightable only if its facts have been “selected, coordinated, or arranged in such a way that the resulting work as a whole constitutes an original work of authorship.”
Rural has a valid copyright in the directory as a whole because it contains some forward text and some original material in the yellow pages
Hence, Feist would have been infringing had they scanned and duplicated Rural’s telephone book, but since they only extracted the listings (facts) they were within the law in so doing.
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Note you are misreading Feist - the "originality" being discussed is in the selection and organization of facts, essentially a work of scholarship. This would not apply to merely typesetting an existing (public domain) text.
Again, "typographical arrangement" is an explicit concept in UK and Commonwealth law, typically with a relatively short term (e.g., 25 years). So far as I k
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Agreed, merely typesetting a public domain text would not be original enough to warrant a copyright. Perhaps you misunderstand me. As we have both reiterated, factual information / public domain works are not copyrightable. However, if a public domain work were to be reprinted with cover art, flyleaf summary, a foreword/preface, new illustrations, et cetera, it is almost certain that the work, as a whole, would be original enough so as to be copyrightable. The copyright would apply only to the originality o
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Pot, meet Kettle*
* copyright 2010 djdbass. Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.
I regret to inform you that I already hold the copyright on your copyright warning, and you now owe me $100,000 and a bag of jelly babies if you don't want investigated by the FBI, sent to prison for 5 years and fined $250,000.
And the jelly babies have to be green.
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I've given up on the courtroom. Now I'm hoping for a group to arise (with no connection to me at all of course) which will do it in back-alley settlements.
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Watching an arsehole being hoist by their own petard is funny. But does not mean I like seeing nice people being blown up*.
(* Petard means explosive. From the French, "to break wind.")
Live by the Pen, Get Bitchslapped by the Pen (Score:2)
Now let's see who you REALLY are! (Score:5, Funny)
*rips off rubber ghost mask*
*gasp* "It's old man copyright troll, the guy who runs the haunted bittorrent tracker site!"
"And I would have gotten away with it, if it wasn't for you meddling kids!"
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*rips off rubber ghost mask*
*gasp* "It's old man copyright troll, the guy who runs the haunted bittorrent tracker site!"
"And I would have gotten away with it, if it wasn't for you meddling kids!..."
"...and that mangy mutt of yours"
"scooby dooby dooooooo"
USCG == Coast Guard (Score:4, Funny)
USCG stole something else as well then, their Acronym. USCG is the US COAST GUARD, not the US Copyright Group. These guys should get a clue.
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USCG stole something else as well then, their Acronym. USCG is the US COAST GUARD, not the US Copyright Group. These guys should get a clue.
Thank you so much for using "their" in the proper context! At last! I have read a slashdot comment with proper grammar!!!
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Thank you so much for using "their" in the proper context! At last! I have read a slashdot comment with proper grammar!!!
Your easy to please.
Ooh, it made me cringe typing that.
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Thank you so much for using "their" in the proper context! At last! I have read a slashdot comment with proper grammar!!!
Your easy to please.
Ooh, it made me cringe typing that.
Hey now: your not being very nice.
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Except, no! Usual american grammar uses the singular for groups such as companies, sports teams, etc.. So in this case, it should be "its", not "their"!
I fully expect someone to point out errors in my post. Such is the fate of anyone who posts ab
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Run! It's the USCG armed with briefcases?
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I thought the same thing. The Coast Guard stole some one's website?
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they should be disbarred (Score:5, Insightful)
This will discourage others from behaving this way, and will make it impossible for some obviously bad actors to earn a living by behaving badly. Perhaps they could consider a new career in fast food? In any case, I have no sympathy for these people.
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Did you look at the screenshots? They didn't even do that much. All they did was change the way it worked. The first site apparently sends you what it calls a case number and a password, while the ripoff sends only a Defendant Record ID. And they don't offer live chat, apparently, since they removed that button too (*snicker*).
What it looks like to me is somebody stole the entire website, includ
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meh (Score:2)
Honor? (Score:1)
Oh sweet irony (Score:1)
and this just in: "Family Values" politicians were caught cheating on their wives. Also, people protesting the American budget deficit support fighting two wars on credit. Where will it end ?
DAMN YOU LOGICAL PRINCIPLES !!!!
They did not steal anything (Score:5, Insightful)
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word nazi != helpful
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The differences between copyright infringement and theft are pretty fundamental to a lot of IP discussions.
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True, but colloquial use of words is pretty fundamental to ALL discussions.
You could rightfully say they 'ripped off' the site, could you not? And wouldn't that simply be a colorful synonym of 'theft'?
Are we genuinely to believe that the author claims the original site owners no longer have that property?? Of course not.
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Are we genuinely to believe that the author claims the original site owners no longer have that property?? Of course not.
Then he needs to find a more descriptive word or term than "theft," since "theft" implies that someone no longer has their property. The very rea
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Then he needs to find a more descriptive word or term than "theft," since "theft" implies that someone no longer has their property.
The need is only exigent if the reader is confused. Not so much the case here, and you well realize it.
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copyright violation != theft
Ha ha! Stole it! Wait... what? You still have it? Crap.
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Wow... (Score:1)
Bullies (Score:2, Insightful)
Site change already..... mostly (Score:3, Interesting)
Looks like the graphics have been replaced. Yet bizarrely they kept some stolen Javascript functions in there that they don't even use.
So... (Score:3, Interesting)
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No, you're a troll if you try and enforce IP rights to IP you don't actually own.
Just like patent trolls are only trolls if they try to enforce patents on products or ideas that they don't actually make or use themselves.
Completely different if you wrote something, then go after people for copyright violations on what you wrote. Or you invented something, got a patent, and actively manufacture things using that patented method, and go after other making stuff that also uses that method without paying you.
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Additionally... (Score:4, Interesting)
The image of the "woman paying a bill online in her kitchen" was not likely owned by the Copyright Enforcement Group either but was licensed stock photography from somewhere else. Not only did they rip off CEG but also the owner of the stock image...
Sentor Hatch and Copyright. (Score:5, Interesting)
This reminds me of Senator Hatch who used unlicensed copyrighted software on his official website but then attempted, believe it or not, to pass legislation that would allowed the recording industry to remotely automatically destroy computers when they discovered that their copyrighted music was being downloaded.
You couldn't invent this stuff...
http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2003/06/59305 [wired.com]
Lawsuit (Score:2)
Since in the eyes of copyright trolls, each download is an infringement deserving the maximum penalty, and each page view is a separate download, the copyright trolls should be sued for $250,000 for each individually copyrighted component of each web page for each page view.
That should bring the penalties into the billions of dollars rather quickly. THAT would be sweet justice.