Well, someone did it to me. Someone took one of my free newsletters,
edited out all my copyright information, added HIS OWN copyright notice,
and posted it on the web as their own work. (He even called his copyright
page copyleft.html, showing total ignorance of what "copyleft" is all
about as well.)
Although I am not at that stage yet, it has crossed my mind that ten,
twenty, or a few hundred e-mails from association members to an infringer
and ISP might make them realize that it is not just in isolated opinion.
It would seem to me that a general agreement amongst us to evaluate such
alleged infringements for ourselves, and comment upon them to the
infringer and his or her ISP, might help all of us in these kinds of
cases. If we have previously known the work of our fellow member, and so
state in our comments, it would likely lend even greater credence to the
complaintant's statements.
Or, in the contrary case, let our member know why it does not appear
to be an infringement, and thus save the complaintant from a counter suit,
etc. etc. (In my case it is simple -- the tables are identical all the
way.)
After all, isn't that one of the things a community does? Defend a
member's rights, buffer a member when he or she is buffeted, and moderate
an individual's occasional tendencies towards excess?
Thus far, I have issued them a cease and desist notice via E-Mail to
the domain owner, the on-page address, and their ISP, stating that once
they have been notified, if they do not take action to insure the page is
removed, they will be named in any legal action along with the infringer.
The owner of record's e-mail bounced, and his phone number of record
is not valid. I will follow up with snail mail if I can get the domain
owner's address out of their ISP.
I had, um, omitted the charge clause some had suggested in the
past... oversight after a long night on the web.
It would seem to me, that we ought to have some stock forms on our
web consultant's resource pages, one of which would be a boilerplate
copyright infringement notice, and instructions on how to serve it for
maximum legal effectiveness.
The infringer does represent a potential client though, albeit only a
few hundred dollars worth at best, so I don't want to swing the
sledgehammer full force at his head yet. However, the second notice will
asses a charge for every day of failure to comply. Since they are
advertising the sale of tickets on the web, I think $500 a day wouldn't be
too far out of line.
Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated, particularly since
I am in California, and he is allegedly in Atlanta Georgia.
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