....for the bleeding Jolly Roger be sailing proud!! That's right, folks. Pirates are among us. And they're flipping all of us the bird. At the end of the comments from the last post was this...
What does everyone think of all this blatant pirating that is going on? I am not a lawyer, but it has to have stepped over some legal lines, right? My husband thinks that the blog sites just dont have the manpower or money to prosecute all these things, but I dont know if I agree with that.
I don't know either. I know that it's TOTALLY stepped over the legal lines. A lot of those blogs & forums are set up for the express purpose of pirating, so to report them does nothing. And when I did try to report one blog, I got this email:Hello,
It is our policy to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the text of which can be found at the U.S. Copyright Office website: http://lcWeb.loc.gov/copyright/ ) and other applicable intellectual property laws, which may include removing or disabling access to material claimed to be the subject of infringing activity.
To file a notice of infringement with us, you must provide a written communication (by fax or regular mail, not by email) that sets forth the items specified below. Please note that pursuant to that Act, you may be liable to the alleged infringer for damages (including costs and attorneys' fees) if you materially misrepresent that you own an item when you in fact do not. Indeed, in a recent case (please see http://www.onlinepolicy.org/action/legpolicy/opg_v_diebold/ for more information), a company that sent an infringement notification seeking removal of online materials that were protected by the fair use doctrine was ordered to pay such costs and attorneys fees. The company agreed to pay over $100,000. Accordingly, if you are not sure whether material available online infringes your copyright, we suggest that you first contact an attorney.
To expedite our ability to process your request, please use the following format (including section numbers):
1. Identify in sufficient detail the copyrighted work that you believe has been infringed upon. This must include identification of specific posts, as opposed to entire sites. Posts must be referenced by either the dates in which they appear or the permalink of the post. For example,
http://example.blogspot.com/archives/2003_01_21_example_archive.html#2104575.
2. Identify the material that you claim is infringing upon the copyrighted work listed in item #1 above.
YOU MUST IDENTIFY EACH POST BY PERMALINK OR DATE THAT ALLEGEDLY CONTAINS INFRINGING MATERIAL. The permalink for a post is usually found by clicking on the timestamp of the post.
3. Provide information reasonably sufficient to permit Blogger to contact you (email address is preferred).
4. Include the following statement: "I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials described above on the allegedly infringing web pages is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law."
5. Include the following statement: "I swear, under penalty of perjury, hat the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of anexclusive right that is allegedly infringed."
6. Sign the paper.
7. Send the written communication to the following address:
Google, Inc.
Attn: Blogger Legal Support, DMCA complaints
1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy
Mountain View, CA 94043
OR Fax to:
(650) 618-2680, Attn: Blogger Legal Support, DMCA complaints
Sincerely,
The Blogger Team
Which I can't do, because I'm not the injured party. I guess each designer has to file for EACH. INDIVIDUAL. POST. Talk about time consuming!! Though all the Blogger powers-that-be would need to do is look at the flagged/reported blog & see that all they're doing is file sharing. Oh well. Because the pirated designers have nothing better to do than mail & fax stuff all over creation to shut this crap down.
I don't know. It totally pisses me off, but it seems futile to fight. I mean, you shut one place down & another will pop up. Plus, it's not like these people would actually buy the products if the sharing were eliminated. I believe that a lot of these people are hoarders. They just want the thrill of getting stuff for free. They're not actually going to use all of it. I know a woman who had a bunch of stuff that, while I couldn't prove it, I think she pirated. Like vBulletin and PS and PSP and other commercial products. She might have used one or 2 of them, but she didn't run a site, so she didn't need vBulletin.
Anyway - I know you either think it's wrong or it's okay, so that discussion is pretty fruitless. Let's talk to the people who believe it's wrong. What, if anything, can we do about it?
And, hey, thanks to those who had my back on the last stuff over on the dish. I took the bait & I shouldn't have, because it doesn't matter WHAT I or any designer does; we're wrong. We're the evil empire bent on sticking it to the little guy - even though most of us ARE the little guy. Even once I prove myself to not be a liar or a thief, then the attack changes to "Well, your stuff sucks anyway. I wouldn't take it if it were free. Naa-nah-naa-nah-boo-boo". I just don't understand how you can make it through the day if you're this stupid. I mean...wouldn't you be constantly setting yourself on fire & stuff??
Whatever.
24 comments:
You know Christy, you're not going to be able to prove to anyone but yourself that you are honest (at least on that blog).
Kudos to you for trying.
I'm not even going to try.
I've fired up PS several times in the last week and then just closed it down without designing a damn thing. Nothing of mine has been pirated this week but I have had stuff pirated before so it sucks big time. I guess I'm laying low (and I'm not the only designer doing this) because if we put our name out there we might be next in the firing line.
I don't think I could handle it right now and my designing income is actually supporting me right now as well until I start my new job and get more regular hours. So yes, it all bites and it really sucks.
I dont understand the piratiing thing. I think it is being instigated by some people who just feel like snubbing the digi-scrapping community, whether they were outcast, not accepted, not paid attention to, or whatever be the case.
It is not even worth the energy to try to explain why this pirating is wrong to these people, because you either think it is wrong, or you just dont plain care 'cause you are getting free stuff. There is real ignorance there and I would imagine that should something be done to them in a similar fashion, they would be the first ones complaining and crying about it all over the place.
Personally, why would you want to share something you paid for yourself with a bunch of people who didn't and don't give two hoots about you anyway? It is inane. For some reason they think this is a game or a battle of sorts. Well, people have fed right into it. It is just like a child who wants attention, any attention at all -- makes them feel good and worthwhile, at least for the moment. I would think that all this stuff is traceable as they are uploading to sharing sites using their home and/or family email addresses. How stupid is that? Now, not only have you shared stuff with the world, but you have given the rest of the world your email address. How do you think hubby would feel if all of a sudden his email crashed or got hung up because now he has thousands of emails telling him to stop this file sharing....hmmmm. I guess hubby doesn't know what little scrappy wife does online. But then again, isnt that part of the problem? They all think this is anonymous and who cares -- well, eventually karma is going to come back and bite them in the butt. Wouldn't it be so ironic if all those files on wifey and hubby's shared computer just all of a sudden start popping up on the internet?????? Gee whiz -- poor little you. I am in no way condoning going this, but if these people are file sharing, why wouldn't it follow that some of the pirates out there, just might go a little farther? Not everyone is computer illiterate -- maybe all their hard drives will crash from all the extra stuff they have stolen and stored and Santa just wont have it in the budget to stop by with a new one.
i'm laying low as well, i dont have any mojo left, and i think family and christmas is much more important than creating stuff for people to give away free anyways. So they can just play with what they have while i take a well needed rest with my family.
I had a few spare minutes and I popped in to the chat at DST last night.
While I missed most of it, Dianne Rigdon was still on and posted a link to her store where she posted a bunch of items she is retiring for free.
I'm not sure how much real conversation there was before I got there but it was mostly..."so where's the freebie?" "what's our prize for coming here?"
I just imagined all those people, while identified with a username at the chat, being the same vultures that are so critical and greedy on the evil blog.
I checked out the stuff at the store and while there was some really nice stuff, I didn't pick up anything. The papers were free but the matching elements weren't. So I didn't bother. But some people said they had 28 items in their shopping carts. Hoarders? I bet they were. I wonder how many people bought coordinating items to go with their free stuff. I hope they did.
Oh and Christy I'm sorry you took the bait with those freaks.
You satisfy them for one thing (by showing the receipt) then they jump on you for something else.
Ridiculous. Greedy. Mean. Cruel. MALICIOUS for NO apparent reason. What a bunch of ugliness.
I missed that chat -- the constant popping in of people in chats asking if they missed the goodies bothers me so much -- no talk of scrapping or techniques and stuff -- just where's the freebie? So depressing. Sorry I missed it though, I do love her stuff.
I wish there would be a chat that walked you through a technique or something. Last year when I found digi and then gotta pixel, they had some chats like that where you actually did a little task and learned something. I loved that. Haven't been there in a while though. I think I have learned all I can on my own, and would so love to learn stuff -- like patterns and textures. I was so entirely bummed, I bought some stuff I thought was overlays to try "texturing" some backgrounds for myself. When I unzipped, the stuff was all pattern files and I have such a hard time with that. Like there is some kind of coding in the files that they are all b&w, and I just want to make them brown. Simple things like that, but now, everyone is so paranoid about stealing and people's intentions, that designers or those skilled at that stuff, just dont want to share their knowledge anymore. It is sad.
I would so much rather know how to do something on my own, than rely on finding those perfect things in kits -- and now, people are just backing away and keeping to themselves because of all this stuff.
Can we ever get back to a place of cooperation and sharing, where people dont have to be afraid of being cut to pieces or pirated or any of that stuff?
Kim Hill's chats are great for that; I learned some awesome stuff by visiting her chats. I wish I had the time to still go. I need to find out if she still does them.
There are still some places like that but you'll never find it at DST. It's better to get comfy at a small community where you actually get to know a nice bunch of people and the nice sharing atmosphere is still there. Much more comfortable and warm-fuzzy-er.
You know, I've been really bummed about everything that has been happening in the digi community of late.
Christy, I have no idea why you gave to those onion heads (I love that name) but I guess you just got heated or caught up in it, like I do sometimes. It's so not worth it. I noticed that when I challenged them to provide a real name for me to provide a real receipt, because I needed validation, everyone just about shut up :)
Anyhow, seeing that poster asking about tuts and techniques has got me to thinking. I'm not one of those designers that feels the need to hide what I do. I've seen it often enough when I've posted techniques in the past, no two people end up doing it the same anyhow, so I don't get this 'I'm not sharing my secrets' mentality at all. Besides, most of the time, it's just wasted on me, I've been doing digi stuff for so long, I can look at something and I know how they did it, or I have a pretty good idea anyway. So, I'm thinking of setting up a techniques blog and giving out weekly lessons and stuff. I'm fed up with designing for so little return.
As to the pirating, I have no idea why it's suddenly become so ferocious and voracious. I know it's been around for a long time but this latest round, it has me shrugging my shoulders and shaking my head, I just don't get it.
I missed the chat with Diane too and was so bummed!Love her stuff and yeah I probably would have bought elemnts to go with the paper:)But I would love to see a blog just for learning new techniques.I'm not a designer just a new scrapper and need to learn the basics like which program is best for using templates and how to do it~things like that.
ScrapperBat,
A weekly lesson would be so awesome. I would certainly take part.
The thing is, I dont want to "design" and I know I dont really have the talent for it. Just little things that I would like to be able to do to tweak my own stuff, or make something if I couldn't find what I had in mind.
I have found some Photoshop tutorial sites, but most of them already assume you know what you are doing, or that you even know all the little shortcuts. I just found the "unsharp mask" and am so ecstatic. I couldn't figure out why all the other layouts were so crisp and sharp, and I know that not everyone is a photographer with an awesome camera/setup.
Hope your idea takes off!
and, I see what you mean about techniques -- people who are digital savvy already know the how to's and I compare it to my sewing -- I watch all the quilting shows just on the chance I get some little tidbit of info that will help me. We all know the great work the experts do, but not all of us would ever be able to achieve it, though we can improve on what we are able to do and the fashion in which we do it. Just think if all the great artisans or philosophers or scientists never passed on their work or ideas, where would we all be?
you go girl :)
dont understand the piratiing thing. I think it is being instigated by some people who just feel like snubbing the digi-scrapping community, whether they were outcast, not accepted, not paid attention to, or whatever be the case.
***********************************
I've thought along these lines for the past week. I know the pirating is always around, but it just got so open, intense and nasty last week. I think it was definitely someone pissed off at someone digi, maybe someone who tried out for a CT and wasn't chosen, who knows. Last week I was still able to be in touch with most of them because they were flaunting it so much, but since the weekend things have either died down or they've gone into hiding. The blogs I knew about are all shut down and that stupid forum has been pretty quiet.
So while it won't stop, and I don't think there's anyway to stop it, at least they've shut up for now and aren't so openly flaunting the whole thing at the moment.
"I just don't understand how you can make it through the day if you're this stupid. I mean...wouldn't you be constantly setting yourself on fire & stuff??"
HILARIOUS! I can't believe all the legalese involved in shutting the pirates down. It seems like the hosts should have some responsibilty to make sure their users are following the copyright laws. I know ebay shuts down auctions all of the time when they are inappropriate.
I hope the designers will pay more attention to the scrappers who love their stuff and purchase it legally. I have read the DD blog, and there is no reasoning going on there. It's a mentality I don't understand to be vicious and cruel like that.
Hang in there. Plenty of us know to stand for what's right.
After a crummy situation at work last week, I see how easy it is to get caught up in the negativity. We had a coworker having separate conversations with a couple employees and creating negative vibes. Then there was a hyuuuge blowout when the two talked about an issue.
So I think that people get hung up on the negativity and the crap just flies, (on the sick blog) and it sinks them down. very. low. Very sad. People need to break away from that funk and give their heads a big shake instead of continuing to hurt and sling horrible insults at nice people that they really know very little about.
Seems nobody even remembers it's Christmas next week! Sad.
I wonder if these same people who are doing the pirating would walk into Wal-mart and steal paper scrapping supplies or anything else. They can't see that pirating is the same thing. Not one of them is bold enough to stand up and give their names.
One person is not going to like everyones designs. But there is someone out there that will like it. You ever walk into a store, see a dress and say to yourself how "Ugly" it is. But yet people are buying it.
Well that is just my two cents on the issues. But if you start up that site with the weekly tuts let me know I sure could use some help.
Happy New Year to everyone!
Hope 2008 is a great year in digi-land!
have you left us? hope you enjoyed your holidays
just wondering where you are?
Ahoy there Christy, did you abandon ship?
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