I need some help.

Kytt · Post by **Kytt** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 9:36 am

This has me so pissed off. Basically, I need to sue my host for copyright infringement, and so I need someone that knows quite a bit about US copyright laws and such. All will be explained later, just please, someone help.

Rileyrat · Post by **Rileyrat** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 9:38 am

Umm... ok?

Rorschach · Post by **Rorschach** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 11:12 am

Sounds like a job for Dreamer

AzraeL · Post by **AzraeL** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 1:53 pm

i'll ask my brother, he's a lawyer. but basically, you have to prove that you are the sole proprietor of the information in question, and that they stole your idea/used it without your permission. if it is intellectual property, that it will be hard to prove unless you got signed, dated and verified copies of plans and such proving this is a product of your ideas. i'll come back after iv's asked my brother, but i will need more info before proceeding.

Post by **Blaze** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 4:39 pm

You'll need to hire a lawyer. If you really want to go after them, you can't do it on friendly advice.

EvilPanda · Post by **EvilPanda** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 1:35 am

[quote="Blaze";p="451575"]You'll need to hire a lawyer. If you really want to go after them, you can't do it on friendly advice.[/quote]

but before you go off to throw money at a lawyer, its nice to have a general idea of weather or not you have a case.

billf · Post by **billf** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 1:40 am

What they said... need more info before help can be given.

Kytt · Post by **Kytt** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 4:52 am

Here's the story- I wrote a story called "Mercy", I decided to turn it into a comic called "The Mercy Chronicles", but I can't draw. I found an artist, I found a host, and we were in business. The host was a dick, but he was giving us free space so I put up with his shit. Finally I couldn't take it and I told him off, he asked me to leave and I said I was fine with that, but seeing as I hadn't really forseen being removed, I wanted to go copy-paste my old newsposts. They were my intellectual property and I had a right to them. Anyway, things got ugly and he was being a child, saying that since they were on his server they were his property (not true), and I got fed up. Finally I said "forget it". At the same time he was trying to set up a deal with a WoW guild who said they may be looking for a new host and were willing to offer it to him. He got too immature with this whole thing, so they decided to withdraw the offer. He threw a bitchfit, and decided to create a site on the free comic hosting site DrunkDuck.com, to immitate mine. He claims that by altering the art and the text a little bit but still basing it off of the copy of the original story that I had sent him, he could say it is his and it'd be legal (strike two). He even knows my full name because it was in the copyright at the bottom of the comic itself, and so he found my phone number online. He called me at 3 am saturday night. He's harassing me and commiting copyright infringement, so the first step I'm going to take is sending him a cease and desist notice. If he continues, I will take him to court. I just wanted to find out what I'd have to do, or what things I'd have to collect, in order to have a good case.

UrzaPlanezwalker · Post by **UrzaPlanezwalker** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 6:24 am

BEFORE you send the cease and desist, go and download everything he has posted up there. if you use mozilla, download the plugin that allows you to download entire websites and use that (sorry, the name of it escapes me at the moment, i'll post it tommorow if nobody knows it). That way you have hardcopies of the evidence. besides that, yea, get a lawyer. Your gonna need to know what steps to take and in what order. whatever you do, dont flame him and dont sick spammers on his inbox, DOS his site, etc. Dont do anyhting that could even remotely allow him to launch a counter-suit against you.

TopCat · Post by **TopCat** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 6:51 am

Your sites still up? WGET that thing! I know what Urza is talking about, but the plugin he's talking about is for like mozilla 1.4 and it just uses wget anyway.

You can get wget for windows:
http://xoomer.virgilio.it/hherold/#Files

And to save you the time of learning the command line, use this gui:
http://www.jensroesner.de/wgetgui/

I would probably do "Mirror Site" since that gets everything on that site alone, I think... I would really ask someone who knows wget (pc486, MasteR, any help?) for some more info including a leat command line to do this without need for gui.

DorkBoy · Post by **DorkBoy** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 6:58 am

I'm pretty decent with copyright law :

Wget the site like has been suggested.

Get a lawyer if you're really interested in your IP. A decent lawyer. The deal is that he can have claim on your IP if it graced his site, and you have no proof of origination. If you created it, and have PROOF of creation, like original and verifiable source, then you shouldn't have a problem. If you don't, then you're looking at trying to show proof that the content was yours, and not his. That situtation is not a good one.

-- Dave

AzraeL · Post by **AzraeL** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 7:02 am

get both copies: your comic and his comic, like the other forumites told you. also, get any relevant scripts/sketches. any plans or dated drafts will help. witnesses, like the artist or anyone involved is a must aswell. remember, itellectual property cases are ambiguous and hard to prove, so you need anyone or anything which can verify your work was created at a certain date, copyrighted and all. if you got time after that, move through both comics and find all the similarities in point form, much like when white wolf sued the makers of underground. search it on google. thats all i can think of for now.

UrzaPlanezwalker · Post by **UrzaPlanezwalker** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 9:39 am

if you had/have a forum for the comic, ask the members on there if they would be willing to be questioned in a courtroom if int he area, or at least write a testimonial. enough of those would at least build somewhat of a case...

Tomahawk · Post by **Tomahawk** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 9:38 pm

Perhaps tape the conversations when he starts harrassing you again... or is that illegal?

Nitz Walsh · Post by **Nitz Walsh** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 11:51 pm

I think it's only legal to record the conversation if both parties know it's being recorded.

I think your best bet would be to hire a hitman to kill the guy... I'll do it for $5000 USD+expenses.

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