I just discovered that the entire website (mathpages.com), which contains a large amount of copyrighted material, has been entirely copied onto another domain: http://mathlectures.net/ The only thing different about the copied version is the logo on the top page. On the "About" page, someone named Ruslan Mirsky claims to have created the lectures.
I have emailed them, requesting that they take down the infringing material, but have gotten no reply.
On Tue, 19 Jun 2007 01:59:30 GMT, fol...@spamlesss.com (Fred Olden) wrote:
>I just discovered that the entire website (mathpages.com), which >contains a large amount of copyrighted material, has been entirely >copied onto another domain: http://mathlectures.net/ The only >thing different about the copied version is the logo on the top page. >On the "About" page, someone named Ruslan Mirsky claims to have >created the lectures.
>I have emailed them, requesting that they take down the infringing >material, but have gotten no reply.
>Is there any remedy for something like this?
Gee, a tough problem. First, BTW, I do not see any contact info on your website for you. Of course, you don't want spam, but what if (unlikely) the other guys had wanted to contact you to ask permission?
Also, on your pages I note that there is no indication of who authored your pages - and, there's no copyright statement, "(c) 2007", for example. This info may not be required, but it would put people on notice, at a minimum. Considering how rampant IP theft is on the Internet in od material that is marked as copyrighted, a lack of a copyright notice is akin to an invitation to do what one will.
OK, they're in Russia and you are in the US. The short answer is I don't know. My longer answer includes the following:
(1) You could contact an intellectual property lawyer. Likely (too) expensive.
The goal would be to have them cancel the registration for mathlectures.net, BUT I have no idea if they would even consider that unless they rec'd a court order. (See answer #1.)
It is possible that if you explain the situation to Verisign and ask if there is even a mechanism in place to deal with this situation -- assuming for the moment that you could prove to them that, indeed, it was your material - Verisign might give you some idea about the possibilities.
Even if this other site's owners were in the US, they could ignore you and it would be costly to MAKE them stop. Since they're in Russia, making them do anything is effectively impossible.
One more idea: Google and the other search engines may have a process whereby you can ask them to not index a site that has ripped off your copyrighted material. At least that way the other site would be harder to find. But again, the fact that your pages do not have any claim of ownership or a notice of prohibition against copying makes it more difficult, as a practical matter, to get others to take action w/o a court order. Good luck. -- Jesse
At Tue, 19 Jun 2007 01:59:30 GMT fol...@spamlesss.com (Fred Olden) wrote:
> I just discovered that the entire website (mathpages.com), which > contains a large amount of copyrighted material, has been entirely > copied onto another domain: http://mathlectures.net/ The only > thing different about the copied version is the logo on the top page. > On the "About" page, someone named Ruslan Mirsky claims to have > created the lectures.
> I have emailed them, requesting that they take down the infringing > material, but have gotten no reply.
> Is there any remedy for something like this?
Nothing technical. One can use 'whois' to find out who owns the domain (mathlectures.net), and then you can have your lawyer send the owner of the domain and/or the ISP/web host that is hosting it a cease and desist letter (possibly backed up by a court order). It is likely that any legit ISP/web hosting company will take the site down, even if the domain owner refuses to. You need to be sure to contact the ISP and/or web hosting company as well as the domain owner. And you might have to go 'up the chain' -- contact the next tier up ISP if the immediate ISP fails to respond. And the contact probably needs to be more 'formal' than a mere E-Mail from you -- you probably need to talk to a lawyer and start the *formal* legal process going. Basicly the same sort of recourse one would have if something along these lines happened in the print media business.
Oh, let the search engines know as well (Google, Yahoo, etc.). If the infringing domain gets 'blacklisted' by the search engines, then they could find themselves 'dead in the water' for all practical purposes.
-- Robert Heller -- Get the Deepwoods Software FireFox Toolbar! Deepwoods Software -- Linux Installation and Administration http://www.deepsoft.com/ -- Web Hosting, with CGI and Database hel...@deepsoft.com -- Contract Programming: C/C++, Tcl/Tk
On Tue, 19 Jun Robert Heller <hel...@deepsoft.com> wrote:
>Nothing technical. One can use 'whois' to find out who owns the domain >(mathlectures.net), and then you can have your lawyer send the owner of >the domain and/or the ISP/web host that is hosting it a cease and >desist letter (possibly backed up by a court order). It is likely that >any legit ISP/web hosting company will take the site down, even if the >domain owner refuses to.
Thanks. Unfortunately, the ISP chosen by Ruslan Mirsky to host his plagiarism is a notorious company called Intercage, which is currently blacklisted for chronic violations of net rules and regulations. They are known to host numerous spamming and phishing concerns. When I contacted them with an official DMCA complaint, they basically flipped me the finger.
>Oh, let the search engines know as well (Google, Yahoo, etc.). If the >infringing domain gets 'blacklisted' by the search engines, then they could >find themselves 'dead in the water' for all practical purposes.
Thanks again. Unfortunately when I carefully prepared a written DMCA complaint, per the guidelines outlined on Google's site, and faxed it to them, per their instructions, they just ignored it.
The plagiarized site at mathlectures.net is still running, and in fact they are now sending out advertisements and starting to build up reciprocal links. The plagiarist and fraud who calls himself "Ruslan Mirsky" and claims to be the author of all my articles apparently wants to make a name for himself in the worst way.
I guess the short answer to the Subject question is: No.
this is not a domain name issue; it's pure copyright infringement ... with this guy being in Russia somewhere, I think your chances of hauling him into a court anywhere lie somewhere between zero and none. Beyond that, if you could get him into a court, it's not clear to me what kind of damages you can claim.
I don't think any registrar or ISP wants to get in the middle of a copyright battle of this sort; you may know you're the author of the work but how would they know?
I'd forget about it, personally ... just compete with him, whatever it is you might be competing for ... for the future, I'd recommend that you do a little "branding" of your site; the way it is now, it just kind of looks ilke public domain material ... there are no indications of ownership
"Fred Olden" <fol...@spamlesss.com> wrote in message
> On Tue, 19 Jun Robert Heller <hel...@deepsoft.com> wrote: >>Nothing technical. One can use 'whois' to find out who owns the domain >>(mathlectures.net), and then you can have your lawyer send the owner of >>the domain and/or the ISP/web host that is hosting it a cease and >>desist letter (possibly backed up by a court order). It is likely that >>any legit ISP/web hosting company will take the site down, even if the >>domain owner refuses to.
> Thanks. Unfortunately, the ISP chosen by Ruslan Mirsky to host his > plagiarism is a notorious company called Intercage, which is currently > blacklisted for chronic violations of net rules and regulations. They > are known to host numerous spamming and phishing concerns. When I > contacted them with an official DMCA complaint, they basically flipped > me the finger.
>>Oh, let the search engines know as well (Google, Yahoo, etc.). If the >>infringing domain gets 'blacklisted' by the search engines, then they >>could >>find themselves 'dead in the water' for all practical purposes.
> Thanks again. Unfortunately when I carefully prepared a written DMCA > complaint, per the guidelines outlined on Google's site, and faxed it > to them, per their instructions, they just ignored it.
> The plagiarized site at mathlectures.net is still running, and in > fact they are now sending out advertisements and starting to build up > reciprocal links. The plagiarist and fraud who calls himself "Ruslan > Mirsky" and claims to be the author of all my articles apparently > wants to make a name for himself in the worst way.
> I guess the short answer to the Subject question is: No.
Barrie Wilson wrote: > for the future, I'd recommend that you do a > little "branding" of your site; the way it > is now, it just kind of looks ilke public > domain material ... there are no indications
> of ownership
Public domain material is burdened by requiring an explicit disclaimer. Copyright is by default:
``Under the Berne Convention, copyrights for creative works do not have to be asserted or declared, as they are automatically in force at creation: an author need not "register" or "apply for" a copyright in countries adhering to the Berne Convention. As soon as a work is "fixed", that is, written or recorded on some physical medium, its author is automatically entitled to all copyrights in the work, and to any derivative works unless and until the author explicitly disclaims them, or until the copyright expires.''
>> for the future, I'd recommend that you do a little "branding" of your >> site; the way it >> is now, it just kind of looks ilke public >> domain material ... there are no indications > > of ownership
> Public domain material is burdened by requiring > an explicit disclaimer. Copyright is by default:
I didn't tell him to put it in the PD .. and I know how copyright arises; the idea was to emblazon the site with some indicia of ownership .. which might -- and might not -- serve to discourage some who would infringe ... yes, it's a very imperfect plan but the alternative in this case seems to be to do nothing at all ... no way in hell is the OP going to be able to get this guy into a court of law
> ``Under the Berne Convention, copyrights for creative works do not have > to be asserted or declared, as they are automatically in force at > creation: an author need not "register" or "apply for" a copyright > in countries adhering to the Berne Convention. As soon as a work is > "fixed", that is, written or recorded on some physical medium, its > author is automatically entitled to all copyrights in the work, > and to any derivative works unless and until the author explicitly > disclaims them, or until the copyright expires.''
