The Whole Kitsch And Kaboodle

Stealing is wrong. Steal from me and you've opened a can of worms.

In my previous post regarding "bloominidiot" and his decision to infringe my copyright, someone said, "woah dude, the person totally gave you credit..."

I would like to say that giving me "credit" is cool as long as you've had permission in the first place. What if I stole your car and drove around and told everyone, "Dude, look at my car. I took it from Eugene. He has others, too." You would be telling everyone that Eugene is your bitch and that you might go get another. Unless Eugene said, "You look like you need a car. Here, take mine." You would say, "Eugene was really cool and gave me his car." Unfortunately, Eugene woke up in the morning and didn't have a choice on which car he was going to drive.

I've been in touch with "bloominidiot." He said, "It would have been nice if you had contacted me first prior to threatening me with litigation..." I see that the shoe is on the other foot. He wanted to be contacted first — what about me? Shouldn't I have been contacted before the image was stolen? I've afforded "bloominidiot" the same courtesy that he afforded me.

Why did I head straight to the attorney? Ha! Imagine waking up one morning and your car is gone. You go searching and you find it a couple streets over in your neighbor's driveway. The doors are open and he's putting luggage in the trunk. Clearly, he has taken your car and he's not giving it back. What do you do? You could fight him (and maybe lose). You could shoot him (and go to prison). Or you could call the police and show that you are the owner of the car and let them recover it.

I sought legal council so that I didn't have to argue with some guy on the Internet.

Here is what my attorney had to say: "...you will be eligible for statutory damages since you timely registered your copyrights... it sounds as though you also have a claim for breach of contract. You may want to pursue this on your own in small claims court.... It technically is a willful infringement... Note that you have three years from the date of infringement to sue for copyright infringement." Hmm.

This site spells out the remedies for infringement. It's the US Copyright Office, so the info is straight from the horse's mouth. I suggest reading to the part about $150,000 for statutory damages.

Sometimes people can be so right that they are wrong. I don't want to be wrong.

If Mr. "...idiot' could find it in his heart to come to this blog, leave a comment (on this post) and admit his mistake, apologize and promise to never download anything without permission, I will call off the dogs. I believe in grace and forgiveness when a mistake has been made. I hope Corby is willing to wave The White Flag.