Copyright

I believe the best thing to do would be to contact the site owner with your complaints. Most of them are quite willing to do something about it if someone is ripping off your material.

This really belongs in the lounge so I''m sending it there.

-fel

Maybe you're right felisandria. Maybe I should take action, but I'm not sure about this. I'm afraid I'll get a response - saying something like "like if your site is important" or "if you do it for free, don't complain about it"

Geez. Sorry about this non-programming angry thread - but I'm really a bit frustrated about this. I just need to let it out.

My site is still growing at the moment. Slowly turning into something usefull I hope. I was feeling good about the way the things are turning out - then this came along.
I don't want to shut down those sites that copy. That would be too extreme. But if I would mail the person who did it - this would probably make it worse...

Where has respect gone to?


(ps: fel: sorry about posting it in your forum, but the Lounge hasn't been itself lately - if you know what I mean)

Edited by - baskuenen on October 26, 2000 7:33:40 PM

If that doesn''t work, contacting their ISP usually works also.

Also, although it may not do anything, you should have some copyright notice in your work.

Copyright Vetinari, 2000


Mike

You have every right to copyright your material, and they have no right to copy it and say it''s theirs. Even in the Open Source commununity, people recognize that credit must be given to the original author; anybody copying your own works and claiming it to be theirs is guilty of plaguarism (sp?). Don''t let "''like if your site is important'' or ''if you do it for free, don''t complain about it''" (baskuenen, a couple of messages ago ) stop you. You can always threaten to take them to court or something (usually, they''ll comply before it''s taken to court, I think -- nobody wants to go to court!). Lay down the law, and remind them that the excuses that they are giving won''t hold in court .

Contacting the ISP is also a good idea; see what reaction you get when they find out their site has been taken down.

You could even try cracking, but that in itself is illegal . . .

This also relates to programming, so IMHO, I think that this is a valid place to post this issue. Programs are protected by copyrights as well as articles.

You have every right to copyright your material, and to take action against anybody who copies your material without permission. If you do not take action, you are giving up your rights to your own materials, and may eventually lose your copyright on those materials.

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"Whoever performs only his duty is not doing his duty." --Bahya ibn Pakuda

Thanks for your support guys (and girl of course ) I''m feeling a little better now.

I put a copyright on every HTML page, but you can download demos, source code and images. Do I need to put an extra copyright on these things too, or are they automaticly copyrighted?

About going to court:
Maybe I should. But in real life I don''t see this happen. I live in The Netherlands and that''s a long way to the copyright violator. Maybe if this work would be for a company, it could be done. But it''s not - I''m also a student with little money.
I also don''t see myself going to court in my free time.

quote:

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Original post by CobraA1
If you do not take action, you are giving up your rights to your own materials, and may eventually lose your copyright on those materials.

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All I can do is send an email. Damn this sucks.


I also wonder if this guy''s ISP knows any C++ and graphics programming! If he doesn''t he wont see the problem.

I feel bad again

quote:

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Original post by baskuenen
I put a copyright on every HTML page, but you can download demos, source code and images. Do I need to put an extra copyright on these things too, or are they automaticly copyrighted?

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Umm, I guess I assumed U.S. I''m not too familiar with copyright laws in the Netherlands. Theoretically, everything you have is "automatically copyrighted"; however, an actual indication of the copyright holds better in the courts. Also, proof that you are the origional owner is best.

You should place the copyright on all of your materials.

This is in the U.S., at least.

quote:

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About going to court:
Maybe I should. But in real life I don''t see this happen. I live in The Netherlands and that''s a long way to the copyright violator. Maybe if this work would be for a company, it could be done. But it''s not - I''m also a student with little money.
I also don''t see myself going to court in my free time.

---

I was thinking just threatening legal action, not doing it . . .

You can still contact the ISP. If they have a head on their shoulders, they''ll take the matter seriously.

quote:

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Original post by CobraA1
If you do not take action, you are giving up your rights to your own materials, and may eventually lose your copyright on those materials.
---------------
All I can do is send an email. Damn this sucks.

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An E-mail would count as an action. At least you can claim you attempted to uphold your rights to your material.

quote:

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I also wonder if this guy''s ISP knows any C++ and graphics programming! If he doesn''t he wont see the problem.

I feel bad again

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Yes, the ISP will, if their heads are screwed in straight. Copying anything like that is an offense; it doesn''t matter if they can read code or not.

Sorry, I can only help you with U.S. laws. And I''m not a lawyer, so you''ll want to do your own research.

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"Whoever performs only his duty is not doing his duty." --Bahya ibn Pakuda

You should definatly take action. The first thing you should do is email the offender. You should be professional and threaten to contact the ISP if he does not remove the content. If no response is given, or he refuses, you should contact the ISP. If they are located in the US, I believe they are required to enforce copyrights (this is why warez sites are shutdown often). Most ISPs respond fairly quickly.


Mike

quote:

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Original post by BasKuenen
I also wonder if this guy''s ISP knows any C++ and graphics programming! If he doesn''t he wont see the problem.

Original post by CobraA1
Yes, the ISP will, if their heads are screwed in straight. Copying anything like that is an offense; it doesn''t matter if they can read code or not.

Sorry, I can only help you with U.S. laws. And I''m not a lawyer, so you''ll want to do your own research.

---

The guy didn''t make an exact copy. He dropped half of my code, and adjusted the rest a bit. So it''s hard to prove to a non-programmer.

I trust the Dutch law. But I also don''t have a clue how it exactly works. Especially with international stuff like this.
Maybe I should investigate this some more, but I''m a programmer, and I''d rather program. Would you devote your life to hunting down copyright violaters? This is just a nasty situation
All I could hope for would be an international commite that would handle this for people like me. But then I wake up

Thanks for your answer.

I looked at the sites again. For one of them it could be questionable if he ripped it from me, but he probably did.

For the other site (100% sure about a copy) - I found a few bugs in his - eh - my code. The things he tried to change. The stupid ass. (pardon my language, but he deserves it)
I can expect a guy that copies my code to at least to keep my code clean from his stupid bugs?

Anyway - I've decided to first get some more information on copyrights, law, court, international stuff etc... before taking action. If I want to do such a thing, I want to do it nice and clean, and I want to know what I'm doing.

I know we are all programmers here, but if you can help me more on this topic - It's always respected

Edited by - baskuenen on October 26, 2000 9:15:52 PM

What are the offending sites, out of curiosity?

----------------------------------------
"Before criticizing someone, walk a mile in their shoes.
Then, when you do criticize them, you will be a mile away and have their shoes." -- Deep Thoughts

I''d rather not say

this sucks your site kicks ass you really should do something about this.

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