copyright violation by U.S. company website

copyright violation by U.S. company website

Helmut Richter	10/3/2004 4:26:09 PM
I am unsure about how to react to the illegal publication of material by a U.S. company. I am a resident of Germany who is not at all fond of filing a lawsuit in the U.S. because of a little piece of stolen intellectual property. I want to contact the violator and seek the advice of this group about what pitfalls to avoid. The facts: The Web page in question was created by me on 2000-03-20; it is recorded by archive.com since 2001-04-06. I have not granted any permission to anyone (except the obviously implied permission to access the publicly available text); so I am the sole copyright holder for the text. I recently found an excerpt of nine paragraphs (about two screenfuls, depending on screen size) on the Web site of a U.S. company not mentioning my (the author's) name or any other hint to the origin of the text but equipped with a copyright notice in which they claim "copyright 2002-2003 ....". The whole text of my article is now about 5 times as long as the copied section; it may have been shorter when it was copied but it did always contain the copied section. My article contains my name and a link to my email address as well as a copyright notice (albeit not a formally correct one as the year number is missing). With or without the copyright notice, it leaves no doubt that it is copyrighted material, who the author is and how to contact him. Were the copyright violator located in my country, a simple way of settling the issue without a lawsuit would be to send an invoice with a reasonable price for a permitted usage of the material, multiplied by a factor of 2 to 4 regarding the unpermitted usage, the failure to mention the author's name, and the usage for commercial advantage. In addition, the cost of a lawyer could be added if applicable. Such an invoice would be regarded as an offer of a settlement, and if paid, the lawsuit can be avoided. Any further claims (such as refunding the gains made by illegal usage to the author) will typically be made in a lawsuit. In principle, the whole thing is neglegible. I can hardly claim direct financial loss; it is only the infringement of my personal rights. The obvious thing is to write to them demanding the removal of the illegally copied material. Before I do that, I would like to learn a bit more about the normal procedure in such "peanuts" cases, and about what to do if they do not react at all. Thanks to all who are willing to assist me a little. Helmut Richter



"Arthur L. Rubin"	10/6/2004 5:42:16 PM
Helmut Richter wrote: I am unsure about how to react to the illegal publication of material by a U.S. company. Is the compnay "thumbshots.org", by any chance. Just curious. In regard the facts, you might consider filing a DMCA claim against the host of the site. That's the only think I'm sure you can do without possibly being extortion if your copyright claims aren't valid. -- This account is subject to a persistent MS Blaster and SWEN attack. I think I've got the problem resolved, but, if you E-mail me and it bounces, a second try might work. However, please reply in newsgroup.



"Scott Hedrick"	10/6/2004 5:42:30 PM
"Helmut Richter" <Helmut.Richter@lrz-muenchen.de> wrote in message news:eqd0m0lg1csoq114ikdt7olnhop8f1ufq0@4ax.com... I am a resident of Germany who is not at all fond of filing a lawsuit in the U.S. because of a little piece of stolen intellectual property. I am the sole copyright holder for the text. I recently found an excerpt of nine paragraphs (about two screenfuls, depending on screen size) on the Web site of a U.S. company not mentioning my (the author's) name or any other hint to the origin of the text but equipped with a copyright notice in which they claim "copyright 2002-2003 ...". Were the copyright violator located in my country, a simple way of settling the issue without a lawsuit would be to send an invoice with a reasonable price for a permitted usage of the material, multiplied by a factor of 2 to 4 regarding the unpermitted usage, the failure to mention the author's name, and the usage for commercial advantage. In addition, the cost of a lawyer could be added if applicable. Such an invoice would be regarded as an offer of a settlement, and if paid, the lawsuit can be avoided. So, do that now. At the very least, you'd get their attention. The trick would be getting proof of receipt. I used the proper procedure for Canadian registered mail, and still didn't get any return proof, so I'd imagine that it would be more of a challenge from Germany.

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