Copyright Infringement and Me

[illadore]

The tl;dr version of this post: My 2005 Ice Dragon entry, called "A Tale of Two Tarts" was apparently printed without my knowledge or permission in a magazine and I am apparently the victim of copyright infringement

Comments

[esmerel]

You could also entertain yourself by sending letters to their sponsors stating that the magazine they support, supports copyright infringement. :) Some people sorta freak out about that kind of thing.,

[ext_309219]

I'd have to agree with this. At least it will not be accessible online via their site anymore.

[datan0de]

Yes, this is absolutely the way to go. Do this sooner rather than later.

I got here via Twitter, and retweeted it in the hopes that tacit sees it, as he has quite a bit of experience with DMCA takedowns and dealing with people attempting to plagiarize content from his web site. By the way, I predict that the comments on this post will go past 10 pages.

[pierceheart]

Good luck if they offshore their host.

[giza]

What medievalist said. It's clearly time to take the legal route.

If you need help tracking down upstreams of this website for sending the DMCA notice, I'll be happy to help.

No DMCA claim

[breakagepoint]

(I happen to be an IP attorney). The DMCA safe harbor only applies to copyright infringement by someone other than the site host (say, a commenter posting copyrighted material). The magazine itself posted copyrighted material - that's copyright infringement, and you don't need to worry about the "notice and takedown" provisions of the DMCA.

Where are you located? Wherever you are, there's probably a chapter of the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts that could hook you up with a pro-bono attorney. Heck, if you're in NY, I could probably take this case on pro-bono once you go through the VLA (e-mail acohen@foley.com if you really are interested in pursuing it)

RE: No DMCA claim [not correct]

[esmerel]

The offending content is on the magazine's Facebook page. Facebook is the third party host. Facebook Help offers users a DMCA takedown process. And even if the recipes are also posted on the magazine's own website, their website is hosted by a separate ISP, Intuit Small Businesses - which will quite likely also respond to a DMCA takedown claim.

Easy to use in order to get the content removed from the internet and, as far as it goes, no lawyer is necessary. Not to say a lawyer couldn't do more, but unless the copyright in the work at issue was registered, the damages will be minimal.

Re: No DMCA claim [not correct]

[breakagepoint]

Ah - I was referring to the magazine itself. Yes, a DMCA notice to Facebook would work.

[esmerel]

There are not automatic fines for failure to comply with DMCA claims, but the legal risks for failure to comply are substantial.

[esmerel]

that's the ticket.

[zanzjan]

Several of their regular advertisers are local businesses I frequent. I have sent them each email, as an actual customer.

[smokingpigeon]

This is by far the most successful method of response. If you harness every angry friend here to complain to the magazine's SPONSORS, you will get much better results even than you would through a lawyer. And much faster.

[esmerel]

Apparently every angry person on the internets has already done it, so it's probably pretty moot at this point :)

[esmerel]

I agree! I put that on their facebook page, people should write to the advertisers about their illegal and unethical behavior.