Saturday 21 January 2012

Copyright violation

Just received this email. Must say I am disappointed :( Especially now, just following the recent SOPA blackout:
I am assuming that you are the same person who runs both
http://atheistfeed.blogspot.com/ and http://atheistfeed.tumblr.com/. The
latter is aggregating -- that is, stealing -- all of the content from
Freethought Blogs, a network that I own. You do not have permission to
copy the content from freethoughtblogs.com and I want all posts copied
from our network removed immediately and any use of our copyrighted
material to stop. If this is not done within 72 hours, I will be
referring the matter to my attorney. Please see this:
https://www.eff.org/issues/bloggers/legal/liability/IP
Ed Brayton
Freethought Blogs

47 comments:

  1. This has nothing to do with SOPA. The problem with SOPA is not with copyright, which is good and necessary; the problem is with the draconian measures included in the law to protect copyright, which would cause massive problems for people and sites that have done nothing wrong. This is simply a way for you to distract attention from the issue. This isn't the government coming down on you to shut you down, it's an individual -- a group of individuals, actually -- from whom you are stealing telling you to stop. And your excuses and rationalizations are absurd. I meant what I said. If you do not stop stealing our content, I'll be taking you to court.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was never my intention to upset anyone. I am only trying to promote atheism, skepticism, freethought etc. I might have considered truncating the feeds from my side if I had been approached in a more respectful manner, but now, after receiving threats, I feel less inclined to.

      Delete
  2. Ed is right, asshole. Stop stealing our fucken shitte. You have the right to fair use of our copyrighted material, but copying and republishing entire blogge posts isn't even close to fair use.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, like that's gonna convince me.

      Delete
    2. Perhaps if they offer you a lolly and tell you what a precious little atheist you are? A grown man shouldn't need to be coddled before doing the right thing.

      Delete
    3. I believe that I am doing the right thing.

      Delete
  3. Now that's just funny. If only we were more respectful of you and more appreciative of your efforts to break the law and steal from us. I don't really care what you are inclined to do. You're going to remove the content, either voluntarily or with a court order. I've already spoken to my attorney and he is ready to take action if you refuse to take it down.

    ReplyDelete
  4. You're "disappointed" with what? Our refusal to say "oh certainly go right ahead and publish everything we write in violation of copyright"? Do you think copyright law just doesn't exist, or what?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know that it exists, I'm just not convinced that it is enforceable. If the tumblr site does get taken down someone else could easily just start another.

      Delete
    2. This is absolutely hilarious. Ophelia Benson - who's ENTIRE blog consists of posts with 80-90% of pilfered text from other people's work, peppered with a few added inconsequential one line comments. And she's whining to you about stealing content? Hypocrisy has a name - it is freethoughtblogs.

      Delete
  5. Peter - A brief excerpt, a comment from your perspective, and a LINK to the rest of the content at the content creator's site is what is acceptable fair use.

    You are doing nothing to add value to what can be found at freethoughtblogs.com and if there are ads on this site, or on tumblr you are a parasite on the creative efforts of others.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think that putting all the best atheist content in one place does add value, and I am linking back to the original sites.

      Delete
  6. Can I copy your ATM card and take all your money? It won't be my intention to upset you. I am only trying to promote my own welfare. I might consider only taking 90% of your monthly income, but if you get pissy, I will be more likely to take all of it.

    Halfwit.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Peter
    Really? You think stealing other peoples work, unattributed is somehow OK? Did you notice that many of the post are written in the first person singular and it looks like you are the one doing the writing? I am all for sharing and distributing information, but keep it legal.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Way to completely fail at supporting the atheist community. :/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The atheist community should be clever enough to support itself. I'm only interested in spreading their ideas.

      Delete
    2. No. You're interested in copying their content and monetize it with AdSense.

      Delete
    3. No, I don't like advertising.

      Delete
    4. Unknown here. You are part of the atheist community, right? Then you ARE failing, and now crying about censorship on tumblr I see, hahaha.
      Grow up and write your own content(or, yanno, like what Ed said was perfectly fine to do - you post snippets, not entire articles, and named links back to the original content on their respective websites), if you really want to spread ideas then support the people who have them.

      Delete
  9. Ed's request is entirely reasonable, and your justifications, Peter, are not. As an experiment, perhaps try to come up with a positive argument for why you should continue with the current practice here, and think about whether it comes remotely close to the arguments from Ed (and any other content-provider's) arguments for not doing so? You can 'promote atheism' etc. without infringing on the interests of others, and to not be concerned with that is at least rude, regardless of your view on the legality of doing so.

    ReplyDelete
  10. My reasons are simple. I think the ideas the atheist community generates are too important not to copy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Think of it like this: If people read the articles on your feed and not on FTB, then they're not seeing, clicking, using the ads on FTB. If they're not seeing or using the ads on FTB, then FTB is getting no money from that user for that read. If they're not getting any money for that read, then that devalues the content they produce.

      You're not helping the atheist community by republishing this material in full, you're devaluing it.

      Delete
  11. Atheist Feed has now been blacklisted from my morning romp through the blogosphere. I prefer to get my info from the source, and Peter Grant has been exposed as nothing more than a leech. A self-congratulatory, rationalizing leech. You profit off the intellectual work of others - which is illegal, on so many levels - but, by representing this content as your own...you remind me of the 1% in this country who have gotten rich off of the backs of the ACTUAL working class, and then justify (with temerity) their privileged status with the claim that they create jobs and assume all the risks. Goodbye.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I didn't steal the car: I just felt that it was too important a vehicle not to, erm, share with others by driving it around to show them. Yeah.

    ReplyDelete
  13. The good news is that Peter's bullshit didn't fly with Tumblr, who shut down the site immediately after I informed them that it's just one big copyright violation. The better news is that it didn't require the abominable SOPA to do it. Rationality prevailed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I figured they bowed to your pressure. Hope that others will pick up where I left off.

      Delete
    2. If all you can do to help the atheist community is to copy ipsis litteris what other people have to say, I say "Good riddance with you".

      Delete
  14. Peter Grant 'believes' he's doing nothing wrong by stealing all the content to support atheism.

    Peter doesn't seem to understand the relationship between belief and atheism. His failure to comply despite reason and evidence would indicate a total lack of skepticism too.

    I just see self serving power and greed from him. Like from most religions. Way to support the cause Peter.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I never was, nor do I ever plan to make money off the Atheist Feed.

      Delete
    2. That sound you hear is the point flying right past you. Doesn't matter if you plan on making money off atheist feed, what matters is the devaluing of the content you're providing.

      Let's say you were a content provider. You make x dollars a week off what you produce from click-throughs on the site. Suddenly Peter Grant comes along and starts publishing your content in full in such a way that people can view the content you put time into, yet you get not a single dime for it. Suddenly you're missing 1-5% of your revenue. That's 1-5% less value your revenue has and could spell the difference between a better server, another writer, or god forbid, another incentive for people to actually write stuff.

      You devalue the atheist community.

      Delete
    3. People can already view content any way they like. RSS feeds, plain text, Google cache. They can also use ad-blockers etc.

      Delete
    4. Right. So your site provided no purpose whatsoever, other than to devalue the blogs from which you took content. It seems you apparently haven't figured out yet that you did indeed hinder, rather than help, the freethoughtblogs; that's pretty thick of you.

      Delete
  15. Yes Peter, they can do all that if they chose to, in each case for their own use, hitting the source website, and not rebroadcasting it as if it was their own content the way you are.

    If this page was private, for your own use only, say behind a login to keep everyone else out, you might just be ok with you reasoning, maybe. Instead you make it obvious that this page is for public consumption.

    This really stinks of the work of a Liar for Jesus working to devalue the FTB content.

    ReplyDelete
  16. If I spend time setting up something cool for myself to use I want to share it with others, it's only natural.

    Oh and fuck Jesus.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Like napster did, like limewire did, like (insert any of the long list of shutdown 'cool' copyright infringement tools here) did.

    Getting shutdown for stealing .. It's only natural.

    ReplyDelete
  18. The Pirate Bay is still running:

    http://thepiratebay.org/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The pirate bay doesn't technically host torrents, or any content. You do. Fail.

      Delete
  19. This has nothing to do with SOPA. The problem with SOPA is not with copyright, which is good and necessary; the problem is with the draconian measures included in the law to protect copyright, which would cause massive problems for people and sites that have done nothing wrong. This is simply a way for you to distract attentionswtor gold
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