Saturday, May 16, 2009

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.

3 comments:

  1. I am bloominidiot at LJ.

    First off, I am not a "dude" or guy-I am female, but this is a common mistake.Many people assume because of my name I am a man,so I'm used to it, but wanted to set that particular record straight.

    I have been burglarized in the past myself-my car was stolen and stripped and insurance only paid a small part of it, so the rest was my responsibility. I have also been the victim of identity theft from one of my own neighbours, so I DO know how it feels. It's been a situation that's taken four years out of my life to straighten out and even still I have problems with it, so believe me, Tony, I do understand where you're coming from.

    I apologize sincerely for what I did. As I stated in my previous email to you, I truely did think your photos were the best of the ones I'd seen around the net, and there were many, many from that particular event-just visit the websites of any of the actors involved and you will see that for yourself.

    I should have contacted you first, agreed and I apologize for that as well. I made a mistake and I am sorry for it-I have learned from this, believe me. I have destroyed the files downloaded from you and will not download again without asking permisson first.

    I hope that this will help to resolve the issue.

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  2. Thank you for your sincere apology and your compliments, Corby.

    This matter is closed and I am not longer offended.

    I wish you peace.
    Tony

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  3. aww, that's sweet. now shake hands you two.

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