Content from Splat Stolen!
It is odd and weird when I see what a minority of people do - act without honor. They say that imitation must be taken as flattery but I do not know how I should be taking this.
This particular series of incidents happened by January end, and here is a summary of the things in a chronological order.
Short version
A person copied a blog post from Splat and used it as his own site without any attribution. When I asked the person to remove the material, I got no response, and hence I intimated Google Adsense on the issue. They were not able to wrestle the content down without a DMCA report. It was a bit of inconvenience for me to file a DMCA and hence I contacted the web-host of that site and was successful in removing the material.
Long version
The 10 step tutorial to create shiny ball vector art was posted on 13th of December.
A person, who identified as www.errorforum.com commented the post on 14th of December.
I am not sure after that when the person copied the post verbatim save for the initial talkative paragraph and posted it at their forum without any attribution link.
I found it out somewhere around mid-January. On 19th of January, I send the administrator of that forum the following mail using their contact forum:
Hi,
This is with regard to the following post at your forum:
http://www.errorforum.com/graphic-tutor...ball-vector-art.html
I created that tutorial and it was posted at my blog. Here is the URL:
As you may notice, it is under my copyright. Could you please remove that content? If you would want your forum member to access to the tutorial, you may do so, by quoting the introduction and giving a direct link to the blog post.
Thank you.
-Mahesh Bhat
I waited for a day and do not get any response. I then looked out for other options, and noticed that they are using Google Adsense. I wrote to Google Adsense intimating them of the copyright infringement.
Hi Google Adsense Team,
This is to notify you that, a particular ErrorForum (http://www.errorforum.com) has stolen my content.
It is published at their forum at:
http://www.errorforum.com/graphic-tutor...ball-vector-art.html
It has been copied from my blog/site, and the URL is:
I tried using ErrorForum's contact forum and contacting the webmaster/admin to remove the stolen content.
I would be filing a DMCA notification as soon as possible - there may be a delay since I live in Chennai, India.
Additionally, on casual browsing, I believe ErrorForum has been using copyright content at: http://www.errorforum.com/graphic-tutorials/ though I do not have verification for the same.
I can only speak for my content. I believe copyright infringement is against the Google Adsense policy, and I hope you can do something about it.
Thank you.
Regards,
Mahesh Bhat K
They replied to me as follows:
Hello Mahesh,
Thank you for your note. It is our policy to respond to notices of alleged infringement that comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the text of which can be found at the U.S. Copyright Office website: http://www.copyright.gov/) and other applicable intellectual property laws. In this case, this means that if we receive proper notice of infringement, we will forward that notice to the responsible web site publisher.
To file a notice of infringement with us, you must provide a written communication (by fax or regular mail, not by email) that sets forth the items specified below. Please note that pursuant to that Act, you may be liable to the alleged infringer for damages (including costs and attorneys' fees) if you materially misrepresent that you own an item when you in fact do not. Accordingly, if you are not sure whether you have the right to request removal from our service, we suggest that you first contact an attorney.
To expedite our ability to process your request, please use the following format (including section numbers):
1. Identify in sufficient detail the copyrighted work that you believe has been infringed upon. For example, "The copyrighted work at issue is the text that appears on http://www.legal.com/legal_page.html."
2. Identify the material that you claim is infringing upon the copyrighted work listed in item #1 above. You must identify each page that allegedly contains infringing material by providing its URL.
3. Provide information reasonably sufficient to permit Google to contact you (email address is preferred).
4. Include the following statement: "I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials described above on the allegedly infringing web pages is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law."
5. Include the following statement: "I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed."
6. Sign the paper.
7. Send the written communication to the following address:
Google, Inc., Attn: AdSense Support, DMCA complaints, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View CA 94043
OR Fax to:
(650) 618-8507, Attn: AdSense Support, DMCA complaints
Regards,
The Google AdSense Team
Now, filing a DMCA is going to take some more effort from and hence I was looking at other options. So I pinged www.errorforum.com and found their server, and in effect I got their web host contact. I raised a ticket and intimated them regarding the issue.
ServerTweak,
It has come to my notice that the website, ErrorForum, hosted on your server is involved in copyright infringement. ErrorForum, has a host IP of 65.19.169.168, and the IP look up shows your server. Hence, I deduced that you are hosting the website or your client is hosting the website.
Links to many of the copyright-violated material can be found at
http://www.errorforum.com/graphic-tutorials/
The particular link that brought this to my notice:
http://www.errorforum.com/graphic-tutor...ball-vector-art.html
I have copyright over that material, and I had published it earlier at:
Please commit to remove the copyright-violating material from that website. I would be filing a DMCA infringement report shortly.
Thank you.
Regards,
Mahesh Bhat
And Steven from ServerTweak gave a prompt reply with in a day.
Hello Mahesh,
We've just informed our client on this matter and in reply he has removed it.
--
Steven W.
Head of Customer Support
ServerTweak Networks, LLC
www.servertweak.com
And thus the objectionable material was removed.
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