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Rampant Franzilbilia
lansirlot
Registered User new member
Registered User new member
I've been writing poetry and fiction for a few years, posting to online boards to get a sense of how people might receive my stuff (positive, negative, neither) and became quite unsettled when I found one of my works on another person's site. Needless to say, I scared that person into thinking they were about to face a lawsuit. However, after reading about Tycho's outrage with Franzibald, etc, I have to ask if anyone here has an idea of copyright laws pertaining to online stuff.
Now, I have had some of my stuff published, via online publishers in the US and UK, and that's how I managed to scare the first plagiarist off. What I want to know is, what measures can I take to prevent further distress? I'm not the only one this has happened to - I've seen entire personalities ripped off. People who literally steal pictures, interests and hobbies, even life stories from others and put it up as their own.
Is this some kind of disease? Has some luminary of the internet told everyone that stealing is a fast-track to fame and glory? It's really quite pathetic, but it's beginning to irritate me. As an independent artist I have no resources to actually fight a legal battle, even though I take steps to copyright my stuff and have it up in more than one place. That's all I can think of to do. If anyone else has had this problem and has any kind of solution I'd love to hear it.
Cheers
Now, I have had some of my stuff published, via online publishers in the US and UK, and that's how I managed to scare the first plagiarist off. What I want to know is, what measures can I take to prevent further distress? I'm not the only one this has happened to - I've seen entire personalities ripped off. People who literally steal pictures, interests and hobbies, even life stories from others and put it up as their own.
Is this some kind of disease? Has some luminary of the internet told everyone that stealing is a fast-track to fame and glory? It's really quite pathetic, but it's beginning to irritate me. As an independent artist I have no resources to actually fight a legal battle, even though I take steps to copyright my stuff and have it up in more than one place. That's all I can think of to do. If anyone else has had this problem and has any kind of solution I'd love to hear it.
Cheers
lansirlot on
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Disclaimer: IANAL. In the US, copyright laws for online material are basically the same as for any other kind of material. I believe there are some small exemptions for caches - that is, when your browser downloads a webpage for viewing and faster retrieval later, it is not committing copyright infringement. If you take material from someone else's site without permission and then post it on your own, unless you have a fair use affirmative defense, you are probably committing infringement.
You cannot allow someone to view your work and also prevent them completely from copy it. This is the same problem the DVD and music people have. Now, you can make it harder. There are several programs out there that will add a shit-ton of Javascript to your webpages that will disable most obvious copying methods (right-click, view-source, print, and so on). However, all of these are just minor annoyances to someone who's slightly determined, since you can just issue an HTTP request directly or turn off Javascript to get the content.
The real remedy is a legal one. If you catch somebody copying your stuff, in the U.S., it's a terribly simple matter to issue a DMCA takedown notice to the hosting ISP, which should get the content taken down immediately. The DMCA has a provision for ISPs that gives them safe harbor against copyright infringement lawsuits, provided they respond in a timely fashion to any notices of infringement. They are then required to take down the offending content until the matter can be resolved. In general, I suppose you could write one of these takedown messages yourself - there are examples online to follow. I doubt that initial step would even require counsel. You can also fire off a nastygram from your favorite lawyer to the infringer for $50 or whatever he/she charges for a letter.
You do not need to "take steps" to copyright your stuff. Once you fix the expression (i.e., write it down), then you automatically get a copyright.
I am familiar with the phenomeon of people ripping other people's lives off wholesale (posting someone else's blog entries as their own, for example). I don't really understand it either, other than to speculate that creation is a far harder thing than duplication.