Not to go into too much detail but an MSN Group (which will remain nameless) took an entire page from my website (graphics too) and failed to put a link to my website AND conveniently left out the fact it was my work. If that’s not enough they did link to my website in the sense that all graphics were linked to my site. (Can you say bandwidth stealing?)
I E-mailed these clowns 3 times and my 3rd E-Mail was something less than pleasant (but no obscenities). The result? They got rid of “borrowing” my webpage (fine with me) but they got all hot and bothered and questioned the fact that 1) was the page really copyrighted (it is) and 2) was I the real author of the page (I sure as Hell am). Then they had the nerve to say they can’t check all the postings, blah, blah, blah. Well, can’t they take the time to right click on graphics postings and see where they point? Is this too much trouble for them?
How did I know they stole my page? Because they were bandwidth stealing. Oh yeah, I check my site stats very carefully. They also had the nerve to throw me out of the very MSN group that stole my work !! The only* reason I had even joined their group was because my site stats led me to it and I had to join just to see what they were doing.
Is there a point to all this? Sure, every story should have a point and this one is - the SDMB (from what I’ve seen) sure takes copyrighted material much more seriously than certain other message boards on the Internet.
Doesn’t sound like anyone actually violated your copyright there: No one actually copied your content, except your own server.
If you don’t like that someone linked to some of your content, then you could simply filter based on referrer. You could even substitute alternative content.
Sure it may be bad form to link someone else’s content without permission, but it’s is a natural risk you accept when you make content available via HTTP with no restrictions.
It’s also poor form to verbally assault list administrators who are providing a public service. It would seem, however, that the list administrators understood the technological measures available to them to get rid of their source of annoyance (they unsubscribed you), while you had to resort to becoming a pest to get what you wanted.
Perhaps this thread needs to be moved to the pit now
They take copyright violations VERY seriously, and will shut down a community there with NO notice, if they think for a minute that anyone’s pirating copyrighted material and hiding it on THEIR servers…
NullC
Why would this have to be moved to the Pit? I have NO gripe with SDMB. Just relating my own story about what happened to me elsewhere. (MSN Group has nothing to do with SDMB). I feel SDMB respects copyrights and expels members for doing so.
My copyright was NOT violated? Someone took my webpage and put it on a message board after removing all references to me. That is NOT copyright violation? It wasn’t as if they were linking to me - only in the sense that the graphics were linked to me to enable bandwidth stealing.
Just relating something that happened to me. I thought the Pit was for personal grievances - not just emptional topics in general. If that were the case a lot of the Sept 11, 2001 topics should start in the Pit if it were just based on emotional content.
And as far as upsetting list administrators, they are in for a rude awakening because the law does NOT end with them. They seem to think they have the final word on everything.
wow my second posting has a mistake - what I meant to say was SDMB respects copyrights and expels members for NOT doing so.
I’m too tired at the moment to make a coherent posting. Also, while I was typing my reply to NullC, it seems Wang-Ka and MamaTiger responded to the posting.
I think NullC misunderstood when you said they were stealing your bandwidth and thought they were linking or framing to your site rather than stealing content but keeping the images on your site and loading to them remotely. (Which is how I interpreted your post – stealing your stuff and remote loading your graphics).
Is that correct? They copied your work but did not put the images on thier own server (taking up their precious bandwidth) but instead loaded them off yours? In any case, they are weasels who evidently need a basic lesson in copyright laws.
If they merely link to your content, rather than stealing a copy and hosting it themselves, there is nothing to stop you renaming your images (and modifying your homepage HTML to use the new images) - this will leave them with little red Xs on their page, or you could upload some ‘other’* images with the same names that the originals had.
*Say, an image consisting of the text “this content stolen from (your site)”, or a picture of your foot, or ‘something like that’.
When people would do outside links to images on a server I once maintained, we would simply quietly replace them with nasty pornography. It was very easy for us to do a simple search and replace on our files to change the real image’s filename, and meanwhile the offending site gets a real eyeful.
Eventually, we wrote an Apache module to log incoming image requests with outside referrers and do the swapping automatically, with randomized shit porn and whatnot.
Eats_Crayons you hit the nail on the head and yes they are weasels. NullC - please read Eats_Crayons posting.
What really bothered me was that I was considered to be the “bad guy” and I got thrown out of their precious message board. I was also accused of not willing to share and didn’t have the “free Internet” mentality.
Hey my site IS free. If these MSN message board folks are so benevolent why don’t they get their OWN websites and domain name as I did AND pay for all of it AND have no advertising AND do 100% of the work for the whole site?
Now do you see why I am something less than happy?
Green_Bladder, that person getting thrown out of this message board gave me the idea to post my own experience at MSN Group and how it was SO different from the way problems are handled here at SDMB.
And thanks to others who made suggestions to vex the bandwidth thieves (and content thieves too).
At MSN Group, they told me to let the whole thing rest. Oh yeah that’s a great suggestion. It’s like someone robbed MY bank I caught them red-handed and then they tell ME to forget the whole thing.
