[Announcement] Copyright Troll Alert

[Dave]

Well, it hasn't happened here yet, but I wouldn't be surprised.

There's a company called BWP Media USA that is targeting forums for C&D shutdown because of pictures that are posted on the site. These are pretty innocuous pictures and there are no rules about where these pictures come from so I can't tell you to be careful.

This is my promise to you. If this happens, I will never - EVER - give out your information. We had that douchebag from Australia a few years ago and I wouldn't give him shit. If a C&D comes in from these assholes I will remove the offending photo(s), but I won't give them your IP or anything like that. I'd shut the site down and erase the DB before I'd do that.

I normally wouldn't have made this announcement, but there have been some XF sites targeted and I'd rather be in the front and ready just in case. I'll probably be forming an LLC to protect myself and my family just in case.

DO NOT CHANGE HOW YOU POST! This has nothing to do with any user of any forum, but is instead a sad commentary of a justice system that allows patent/trademark/copyright trolls to thrive and intimidate almost unfettered.

 

[Covar]

@Dave here is an image of 3 ray casted spheres rendered in web GL that I made a while back. Feel free to replace any offending pictures with this picture of my balls.

 

[Dave]

What's weird is that there are three of them and they are completely hairless.

 

[Covar]

That's eerie, my doctor said the same thing. Some people just don't appreciated computer generated art!

 

[Officer_Charon]

From which we may infer that Dave is Covar's doctor...

 

[GasBandit]

Plus I'm pretty sure that's the color of gingivitis.

 

[Allen who is Quiet]

 

[ThatNickGuy]

Boy, Mickey Mouse isn't looking good these days.

 

[Emrys]

I think we should include a picture of Covar's balls in all of our posts.

 

[Charlie Don't Surf]

DO NOT CHANGE HOW YOU POST!.

I was about to let sexism, racism, and all the other -isms slide for the rest of my posting career, BUT thanks to this encouragement, I will keep fighting the good fight!!!

 

[Azurephoenix]

I was about to let sexism, racism, and all the other -isms slide for the rest of my posting career, BUT thanks to this encouragement, I will keep fighting the good fight!!!

You're a terrible liar.

 

[Officer_Charon]

For all that I feel that you're an obnoxious git most of the time, never change, Charlie. Life just wouldn't be right.

 

[BananaHands]

I was about to let sexism, racism, and all the other -isms slide for the rest of my posting career, BUT thanks to this encouragement, I will keep fighting the good fight!!!

Remember when you were on the vicodin? You let sooooo much slide.

 

[Zappit]

These guys sure are busy.

https://www.google.com/search?q=bwp media lawsuit&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari

Going after Amazon's social network, Salon, IGN...they're just carpet bombing lawsuits.

Yeah, they're just trolls.

http://www.iptrademarkattorney.com/...o-agency-bwp-dmca-17-usc-512-safe-harbor.html

They don't even own some of the shit they're suing over, and it doesn't look like they're sending DMCAs first, which they are legally obligated to do BEFORE filing suit. Just something else to keep in mind.

Key line from that article:

Even after the website operator receives a takedown notice identifying infringing content, it can avoid liability if it “acts expeditiously to remove, or disable access to, the material.” UMG Recordings, Inc. v. Veoh Networks, Inc., 718 F.3d 1006 (9th Cir. 2013).

 

[ThatNickGuy]

Out of curiosity, what pictures are causing the big hullabaloo?

 

[PatrThom]

Out of curiosity, what pictures are causing the big hullabaloo?

None here, not yet. The deal is that our forum allows the uploading of photos without any sort of oversight/approval.
This means that it is possible to upload copyrighted material to our forum.
BeeDubyaPee Media USA is a company which owns the copyright to a large number of images.
Therefore the chance exists that some of their copyrighted material may be uploaded to our forum.
It seems that BeeDubyaPee Media USA is especially aggressive about searching the Web for potentially unauthorized use of their images and then bringing suit to either force payment or removal (presumably they prefer payment over removal).
The DMCA has a pretty straightforward process, and so long as any photos in question are uploaded by a third party (i.e., not Dave or other 'employee' of the forum), removal of the image is generally enough to satisfy the requirement.

IANAL, but I believe they only have a legitimate case when the photos in question are a) Owned by them, and b) not "substantially transformed."
It is unclear whether merely adding captions constitutes a "substantial transformation" of an image.

The sad truth of it is that regardless of how "legitimate" the case may be, anyone can bring suit against the forum for any image posted, because I think that the burden of proof rests with the defendant in these sorts of cases, meaning that they can generally only be dismissed by paying court costs, and so many people just settle or remove rather than mounting an actual defense. The trouble is that as far as the Law is concerned, settling/removing might as well constitute an admission of guilt, i.e. because you didn't fight it, the plaintiff's case must have had merit.

--Patrick

 

[Bubble181]

IANAL, but I believe they only have a legitimate case when the photos in question are a) Owned by them, and b) not "substantially transformed."
It is unclear whether merely adding captions constitutes a "substantial transformation" of an image.

There's been court cases about this before. The Madonna with a 'stache (Duchamps's work) is "substantially different" from the original (the difference being two strokes of a brush). A one-pixel transposition has been deemend not substantially different. As the precedents in the US seem to fall right now, as long as the intention/meaning of ap icture has been altered, it's OK. So if I post a lovely picture of my cat, and you put on a "I CN HAZ CHEEZBURGER" caption on it and say it's a humorous post based on his looks, it should technically be ok.