Pirate software site

[Harvey Birdman]

Check this out. I was perusing my site stats the other day and see referrals from a 'handheld.softpedia.com'. I backtracked and lo and behold, there is my (old) product page from Handango, duplicated on this site, complete with my text, images, etc. I write to these guys asking how my product ended up on their site; partnership with Handango or PocketGear, perhaps? I received a somewhat snooty response telling me that since they don't actually sell the product, they don't need a partnership with either of the legit retailers of my program. Have a nice day.

I've responded with the demand that they remove it immediately. I told them the images, copy on their product page (they'd actually copiedit allfrom Handango) and the program itself can't be distributed/duplicated without my permission. I went on to tell them that their entire business model is based on the flagrant violation of author's copyright. They copy product pages from legit retailers, load the pages with ads and smart tags and make money off the traffic. They may not be selling the software directly, but they're directly profiting from unauthorized duplication of other people's work.

So isn't there some consortium that MS belongs to, intendedto fight software piracy? This seems like a damned good target. (oh, and btw - they're based in Romania.)

[wisemx]

Wow indeed.

The red print on this page speaks rather loud:
http://www.softpedia.com/user/copyright_information.shtml



Most of the CONTENT is original

[Harvey Birdman]

Outrageous, isn't it? Isn't Romania a new, or trying to become a new, member of the EU? If so, you'd think EU regulatory enforcement would apply. It should be possible to bust their asses, I'd think.

[wisemx]

Actually I sympathize with the Romanian people as a whole but...



Romanian President Traian Basescu said...
It is estimated that 70% of the software used in Romania is pirated.http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5961http://community.discountasp.net/emoticons/yeah.gif

[mjp]

It looks like softpedia runs on Peer 1 IPs. Peer 1 is an American company out of Atlanta, Georgia. I would think a formal DMCA notice would get some attention from their abuse department.

mjp
---
DiscountASP.NET

[Harvey Birdman]

Not to show my ignorance off TOO clearly, but errr.. ummm.... what's a 'DMCA notice'?

[wisemx]

Formal stop sign: http://community.discountasp.net/emoticons/wink.gif
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMCA

[Harvey Birdman]

Right.


I knew that.


http://community.discountasp.net/emoticons/smilewinkgrin.gif

[mjp]

Sorry, we deal with it a lot, so I made the classic technojargon blunder and didn't elaborate.


Once a host receives a Digital Millennium Copyright Act notice they have to comply within a pretty short amount of time if they want to avoid liability.


When we get the notices we will warn our customer and tell them what has to be removed (you have to be very specific about what the infringing items are in your complaint) and if they don't comply in 24 hours we have to disable the site. Well, we are obligated to remove the offending content, but since we have a policy against removing files from a customer account, we disable and let the customer remove the relevant files.


You want to make sure your complaint is in the proper format though, or Peer 1 is likely to reject it and that will slow you down. These are the requirements we send to complaining parties when their report is incomplete or doesn't follow DMCA guidelines:


(i) the physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest,
(ii) a description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed,
(iii) a description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the site,
(iv) your contact information, including mailing address, telephone number, and email address,
(v) a statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law,
(vi) a statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your Notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf.


You're supposed to mail that, but most hosts will accept a fax.


mjp
---
DiscountASP.NET

[Harvey Birdman]

They already removed my product. The entire site is pirated material, though, I'm willing to bet. They're trying to play the same game Google tried with the online library project - they seem to think they can copy anything they want at will, and if you don't like it, the burden is on you to tell them to remove it. Google found out pretty quickly that that's not how copyright law works. (As if theydidn't know to begin with; you get the feeling theyhad a slightly inflated idea of their own social importance. 'Well yeah, it's illegal for everybody else, but we're Google!'http://community.discountasp.net/emoticons/rolleyes.gif )I have no doubt these people know precisely what they're doing; they're going to continue to steal material until they're forced off the air.

[wisemx]

I've worked with Federal Court Attorneys onsimilar copyrightissues.
The problem isn't really proving you are the creator/originator.
Problem istheresources needed to prove it in a Federal Court.
Most of these issues are out of a local court's hands.
Once in the Federal Court system, well..You'll need two things:

Patience
Money

[Harvey Birdman]

Both those are in short supply at the moment.

http://community.discountasp.net/emoticons/smilewinkgrin.gif

And having had some experience with civil litigation in the past, experience tells me to leave it to Handango and/or PocketGear. They're the ones who are being massively ripped off, and they have much deeper pockets than I.