Aaarrrggghhhh, Piracy Strikes The Rant!
Hello again loyal readers. I hope everyone is doing well.
The title of today's post reflects something that has recently affected this blog. It would seem that someone out there is so mindless, so intellectually deficient, and so mentally enfeebled as to not be able to come up with original posts. So, in an effort to fill a bogus blog with information, they have taken to plagiarising this blog.
If you scroll down to the entry entitled "Updating A Few Things..." and click on the "links to this post" selection at the bottom of the post you will notice a link with the same title as the post. If you click on the link it will take you to a page called "newyork-legal-attorney-lawyer.com". There you will find MY post in its entirety. The page does not provide a reciprocal link to this blog, nor does the page credit me with being the original author of the post. This page has done nothing more than to steal my post outright. The open theft of intellectual materials is not what linking to this blog is about. The intent in providing the option to link to my posts was/is to provide my readers with a convenient way to cite (not wholeheartedly copy) my works and to provide me with some way of tracking the dissemination of my ideas.
But back to the problem at hand, the theft of my post.
When I discovered that the linking website had stolen my post, I was, needless to say, quite angry. As I cooled down, I didn't know whether to be angry or flattered. What I mean is, on one hand they (the website in question) have stolen my material outright, but on the other hand they found it so valuable and so good that they decided to commit a federal crime to obtain it. I decided to be angry rather than flattered. After investigating the website, I used my trusty copy of Sam Spade (an excellent program by Steve Atkins) to convert the page's name to an IP address that I could then put through a whois search. The DNS-to-IP yielded an IP address of 209.126.254.105. I then did an ARIN whois search of the IP. The whois search told me that the website was hosted by California Regional Internet, Inc. The company is out of San Diego, CA. With this information in hand, I decided to write to the system administrator of the company in the hope that he or she could aid me in getting the problem resolved. Here is the letter I wrote [edited to omit my name]:
"Dear Sirs,
My name is [my name here]. I run a small
weblog entitled "Chuck's Occasional Rants (now banned
in 15 countries)". The blog is hosted by Blogger.Com
at the address "http://lobstercigs.blogspot.com".
While recently checking through my weblog, I noticed
that a site called "newyork-legal-attorney-lawyer.com"
had linked to an post entitled "Updating A Few
Things...". Upon further investigation, I found that
the site "newyork-legal-attorney-lawyer.com" had
reprinted my post in its entirety without first
obtaining the necessary permission of the author (me).
The evidence of infringement may be obtained by
following this link:
http://newyork-legal-attorney-lawyer.com/blog/?p=34
As all of the entries/posts on the weblog (Chuck's
Occasional Rants...) are the intellectual property of
myself, and as all of the entries/posts are
copyrighted by me, the owners of
"newyork-legal-attorney-lawyer.com" have committed a
clear violation of current US copyright laws. The
notice that all entries/posts are copyrighted (with
all rights reserved) by me appears at the bottom of my
weblog.
I am requesting that you, as the administrator of
the system hosting
"newyork-legal-attorney-lawyer.com", do a few things.
The first request is that you send me the contact
information for the registered owners of the site
"newyork-legal-attorney-lawyer.com" so that I might
contact them directly concerning this matter.
The second request is that you suspend the webpage
"http://newyork-legal-attorney-lawyer.com/blog/?p=34"
until such time as the copyright infringement can be
resolved.
The last request is that you forward this message to
the parties responsible for the infringing website
(newyork-legal-attorney-lawyer.com) with the notation
that, should they seek permission to reprint my post,
I would be so inclined as to grant a limited
permission to reprint.
Please note that this is not a DMCA takedown notice.
I am requesting these things so that the issue at
hand may be resolved in a timely and amicable fashion.
Your cooperation toward this end is greatly
appreciated.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
[my name here]
Owner, "Chuck's Occasional Rants""
I would have thought that by now I would have heard back from them. Instead, I got a letter (from a mailer daemon) telling me that the letter was being forwarded to a "jlambert@complexdrive.net" and that the forwarding had not yet succeeded.
So, not having heard back from the folks responsible for the page, I decided to lookup the IP for "complexdrive.net". The lookup yielded an IP address of 209.126.254.29. Look familiar? It should, it is part of the block assigned to California Regional Internet, Inc. Hmmm, that's an odd coincidence, don't you think?
Since it is obvious that the person or people responsible for the offending website read this blog, hopefully this post will serve as their notice that I have been trying to contact them regarding this obvious copyright infringement and that they should contact the system administrator at California Regional Internet, Inc concerning my efforts to do so.
As indicated in the letter, I am not adverse to someone republishing my stuff. All I ask is that they ask permission to do so, and give me proper credit (we're not talking about a line or two citation, that falls under fair use). However, should they fail to do so, I will be left with no recourse but to remind them that copyright infringement is a federal crime, and that I will pursue a prosecution of the offender(s) through any means available. No one can claim that they didn't know the material on this blog is copyrighted, a notice of copyright ownership appears at the bottom of each and every page on this blog. Furthermore, that notice also specifies "All rights reserved." What that means is that, outside of a fair usage citation, I own the material here, lock, stock, and barrel! It also means that you need to ask permission before using my stuff (outside of the fair usage exception).
As fair warning to the party or parties responsible for "newyork-legal-attorney-lawyer.com", if I do not hear from you by Monday, 05 December 2005, no later than 12:00 noon EST(1800 hrs UT), I will be forced to contact both the FBI and Federal Prosecutor in my area to pursue legal action against you on the charges of copyright infringement.
If anyone wishes to offer advice, or suggestions on how best to pursue this, please leave your suggestions in the comments. Thanks.
As always, I am Chuck and this has been my rant. (Betcha they don't link to this post!)
The title of today's post reflects something that has recently affected this blog. It would seem that someone out there is so mindless, so intellectually deficient, and so mentally enfeebled as to not be able to come up with original posts. So, in an effort to fill a bogus blog with information, they have taken to plagiarising this blog.
If you scroll down to the entry entitled "Updating A Few Things..." and click on the "links to this post" selection at the bottom of the post you will notice a link with the same title as the post. If you click on the link it will take you to a page called "newyork-legal-attorney-lawyer.com". There you will find MY post in its entirety. The page does not provide a reciprocal link to this blog, nor does the page credit me with being the original author of the post. This page has done nothing more than to steal my post outright. The open theft of intellectual materials is not what linking to this blog is about. The intent in providing the option to link to my posts was/is to provide my readers with a convenient way to cite (not wholeheartedly copy) my works and to provide me with some way of tracking the dissemination of my ideas.
But back to the problem at hand, the theft of my post.
When I discovered that the linking website had stolen my post, I was, needless to say, quite angry. As I cooled down, I didn't know whether to be angry or flattered. What I mean is, on one hand they (the website in question) have stolen my material outright, but on the other hand they found it so valuable and so good that they decided to commit a federal crime to obtain it. I decided to be angry rather than flattered. After investigating the website, I used my trusty copy of Sam Spade (an excellent program by Steve Atkins) to convert the page's name to an IP address that I could then put through a whois search. The DNS-to-IP yielded an IP address of 209.126.254.105. I then did an ARIN whois search of the IP. The whois search told me that the website was hosted by California Regional Internet, Inc. The company is out of San Diego, CA. With this information in hand, I decided to write to the system administrator of the company in the hope that he or she could aid me in getting the problem resolved. Here is the letter I wrote [edited to omit my name]:
"Dear Sirs,
My name is [my name here]. I run a small
weblog entitled "Chuck's Occasional Rants (now banned
in 15 countries)". The blog is hosted by Blogger.Com
at the address "http://lobstercigs.blogspot.com".
While recently checking through my weblog, I noticed
that a site called "newyork-legal-attorney-lawyer.com"
had linked to an post entitled "Updating A Few
Things...". Upon further investigation, I found that
the site "newyork-legal-attorney-lawyer.com" had
reprinted my post in its entirety without first
obtaining the necessary permission of the author (me).
The evidence of infringement may be obtained by
following this link:
http://newyork-legal-attorney-lawyer.com/blog/?p=34
As all of the entries/posts on the weblog (Chuck's
Occasional Rants...) are the intellectual property of
myself, and as all of the entries/posts are
copyrighted by me, the owners of
"newyork-legal-attorney-lawyer.com" have committed a
clear violation of current US copyright laws. The
notice that all entries/posts are copyrighted (with
all rights reserved) by me appears at the bottom of my
weblog.
I am requesting that you, as the administrator of
the system hosting
"newyork-legal-attorney-lawyer.com", do a few things.
The first request is that you send me the contact
information for the registered owners of the site
"newyork-legal-attorney-lawyer.com" so that I might
contact them directly concerning this matter.
The second request is that you suspend the webpage
"http://newyork-legal-attorney-lawyer.com/blog/?p=34"
until such time as the copyright infringement can be
resolved.
The last request is that you forward this message to
the parties responsible for the infringing website
(newyork-legal-attorney-lawyer.com) with the notation
that, should they seek permission to reprint my post,
I would be so inclined as to grant a limited
permission to reprint.
Please note that this is not a DMCA takedown notice.
I am requesting these things so that the issue at
hand may be resolved in a timely and amicable fashion.
Your cooperation toward this end is greatly
appreciated.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
[my name here]
Owner, "Chuck's Occasional Rants""
I would have thought that by now I would have heard back from them. Instead, I got a letter (from a mailer daemon) telling me that the letter was being forwarded to a "jlambert@complexdrive.net" and that the forwarding had not yet succeeded.
So, not having heard back from the folks responsible for the page, I decided to lookup the IP for "complexdrive.net". The lookup yielded an IP address of 209.126.254.29. Look familiar? It should, it is part of the block assigned to California Regional Internet, Inc. Hmmm, that's an odd coincidence, don't you think?
Since it is obvious that the person or people responsible for the offending website read this blog, hopefully this post will serve as their notice that I have been trying to contact them regarding this obvious copyright infringement and that they should contact the system administrator at California Regional Internet, Inc concerning my efforts to do so.
As indicated in the letter, I am not adverse to someone republishing my stuff. All I ask is that they ask permission to do so, and give me proper credit (we're not talking about a line or two citation, that falls under fair use). However, should they fail to do so, I will be left with no recourse but to remind them that copyright infringement is a federal crime, and that I will pursue a prosecution of the offender(s) through any means available. No one can claim that they didn't know the material on this blog is copyrighted, a notice of copyright ownership appears at the bottom of each and every page on this blog. Furthermore, that notice also specifies "All rights reserved." What that means is that, outside of a fair usage citation, I own the material here, lock, stock, and barrel! It also means that you need to ask permission before using my stuff (outside of the fair usage exception).
As fair warning to the party or parties responsible for "newyork-legal-attorney-lawyer.com", if I do not hear from you by Monday, 05 December 2005, no later than 12:00 noon EST(1800 hrs UT), I will be forced to contact both the FBI and Federal Prosecutor in my area to pursue legal action against you on the charges of copyright infringement.
If anyone wishes to offer advice, or suggestions on how best to pursue this, please leave your suggestions in the comments. Thanks.
As always, I am Chuck and this has been my rant. (Betcha they don't link to this post!)
posted by Chuck | 01:51
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