Copyright Infringement Reports (Review guidelines in post #1 before posting here)

[Aaron Kennedy]

Thread Rules

Stormtrack promotes the lawful use of photographs and videos by its members. If a user discoveres copyright infringement of any member's work, we ask that you please PM that user directly. If the pirated work encompasses multiple users, you may either PM every user seperately, or make a copyright infringement report within this thread. In the case that copyright infringement is suspected, but the work is unidentified, a post may also be made. We ask that discussion in this thread be limited to identifying the copyrighted work.

Reports of copyright infringement should be limited to this thread. These type of discussions should not appear on the rest of ST.

The Stormtrack Mods

 

[Doug_Kiesling]

Hurricane Katrina Copyright Report

I found this video out there that has a ton of my stuff and looks like other chasers and news clips.

http://www.lordchaz.com/katrina/katrinahires.htm

I'm posting this here since they claim that:

"All footage and still images were shot by Lord Chaz, Joshua, and their neighbor Glenn Theriot ( with a bit of help from Lord Chaz' diminutive "side-kick" Daemon ). "

Double check the footage to make sure they are not using your stuff and calling it their own if you have katrina storm or aftermath footage.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=Hellafireleli&page=1

Several chasers stuff posted by that user.

 

[Chris Sokol]

Checked over there tonight, and the video is gone. Did you happen to save a copy Doug?

 

[Doug_Kiesling]

Checked over there tonight, and the video is gone. Did you happen to save a copy Doug?

It is down now. I did save a copy on my hard drive and I think I put the fear of god into the dark lord theater guys for using my footage and saying they shot it.

 

[Doug_Kiesling]

What we need is another topic here about web design and code to protect images and video. A lot of people out there try to use are work to get web traffic for their sites to sell advertising. It is really no different then any other media now where its all about the advertising $$$.

There is a lot of different scripts out there that can be helpful without helping the competition out too much. Tim, can there be a photo video rights protected code only topic?

 

[David Drummond]

Created a thread for copyright protection discussion here:
http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/showthread.php?t=10436

Let's leave this one here for reports of copyright abuse reporting only.

 

[Eric Whitehill]

More of Mike's photos up...

Hey Mike:

Looks like someone else is trying to pass your photos off as their own.

http://www.stormvisionproductions.com/Friends_pics.html


-Eric

 

[David Drummond]

You guys might want to check through here and see if your stuff is there, or if you gave permission. I found several of mine I have had to contact YouTube to get removed. My copyrights were cut off the bottoms of my videos.

http://www.youtube.com/user/directorinthechair

I tried to contact the guy directly, but he has blocked anyone that is not on his friends list. I posted a comment about it on one of my videos he had requesting he remove it and he deleted the comment within 10 min but left the video up.

 

[Dan Robinson]

I tried to contact the guy directly, but he has blocked anyone that is not on his friends list. I posted a comment about it on one of my videos he had requesting he remove it and he deleted the comment within 10 min but left the video up.

Youtube is pretty good about removing stuff quickly, not that it makes it any less of a hassle. Several times users that I've reported for taking my stuff have even been banned.

Also, a quick FYI for anyone who has any trouble with footage/photos taken and posted online: get a lawyer. It's easier than you might think. Find one that doesn't charge fees to you and only takes commission when he gets a settlement or wins a court case. There are many out there. Most cases are slam dunks for the copyright holder, the infringer never has a valid defense.

I got tired of patrolling the net for my stuff getting ripped off for nothing. By the time I find it and demand removal, the site owner has already got his traffic and ad revenue for it. If money changes hands (IE, submission fees or ad revenue), then the DMCA protections are null and void. From now on I'm just handing the cases over to the attorney - the infringer will have to deal with him and work out a settlement. No more free rides for the infringer and no more hassles for me.

 

[George Flickinger]

http://www.stormvisionproductions.com/Friends_pics.html

Hollingshead will not appreciate the efforts of "Heidi C"

 

[David Drummond]

Indeed YouTube works fast. I reported that last night around the time I made the post and I was just informed it was taken down:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1GR_ZfH9-o

 

[J West]

http://www.stormvisionproductions.com/Friends_pics.html

Hollingshead will not appreciate the efforts of "Heidi C"

Most of the pics make note of MH. I guess I'm confused?

 

[David Drummond]

Most of the pics make note of MH. I guess I'm confused?

Seems someone there is a reader of ST. When I looked at it when he posted the link, they definitely had Heidi C. as credited for them.

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

Most of the pics make note of MH. I guess I'm confused?

I sent them a nice email informing them of the situation, and they replied saying they had resolved the issue. Mike is now credited with the photographs.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

lol thanks. I wonder if they'll be on their latest video.

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

I wondered maybe if they contacted you and asked if they could leave them up. I figued they'd take them down all together.

 

[Gene Moore]

my site

Someone has video taped my chaseday site as a video, the stills are used, zoomed in on and put it to music. Actually it's a horrible job and most images are fuzzy at best. Still, I would like to get this removed from youtube. Unfortunately not all the images are copyrighted, but some are all the way back to the 70's.

David said here he reported an infringement and the next day his material was removed. Are you folks going through the written procedure youtube has listed, it seems there are quite a few rigorous requirements, pretty involved?

Here are the links: http://youtube.com/watch?v=ywXiDF8yzDc
http://youtube.com/user/xtornadodudex

Gene Moore

 

[David Drummond]

Gene, all your images are copyrighted from the minute you took them, whether or not you actually filed a formal copyright on them or not. What he has done is create a derivative work from your images, something that is also a copyright violation without your prior approval. I am betting that music was ripped too.

Yeah, when you go to flag it, there is an option there that will take you to that page about how to file a DMCA claim with them. Don't bother with the snail mail, just get the specifics, and a link to the video.

Since I have a formal company for handling my video stuff, I also signed up with them on a more permanent basis for taking care of copyright violations. It required printing and filling out a simple form and faxing it to them. The next day they emailed me the login details for a special account they created for me that has a tool in the search feature where you can tag and report any videos that are copyrighted by me and not have to go through the whole process each time.

Just to help, here is what I sent them via email to get the above mentioned video removed:

Hello persuant to your Copyright Infringemet Notification policy, I am providing you with the following information:

I would like to have the following video removed from this YouTube account as it is violating my copyright.

YouTube user directorinthechair has the following video posted here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1GR_ZfH9-o

I attempted to contact this user directly through email on their YouTube channel, but they have it set to friends only. I left a comment of the video, that it was under my copyright and they needed to remove it and the comment was removed.

I, David Drummond dba Dryline Media am the legal copyright owner, and videographer of all of the video in the contents of the video posted at the link above. The use registered on YouTube as directorinthechair has not been granted permission in any form to use or post this video.

This video was shot by me on June 03, 2003 near Lubbock, Texas and myself dba Dryline Media am the sole copyright owner of this video.

If you have further questions, feel free to contact me. I hereby electronically sign, under penalty of perjury, that the information presented in this email is true and correct to the best of my knowledge and I am authorized to act on my behalf dba Dryline Media.

Electronic Signature: David Drummond dba Dryline Media

Thank you for your assistance with this.

Just as a side note, most if not all of the tornado videos posted on this users channel are being used without permission. I know just about every videographer of the content on there personally. We storm chasers are a close knit community. Copyright violations of tornado video are taken very seriously within the storm chaser community.


David Drummond, Owner
Dryline Media http://drylinemedia.com
(included all my contact info here)

Maybe that will help.

My personal opinion on the "borrowing" of stuff has evolved to where I am allowing it and ok with it as long as my burned in site urls or other such identification isn't tampered with and they haven't modified it in any way. When I find they have blurred out the URL or cut it off somehow, thats when I shut it down.

 

[David Drummond]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=WUrjhCOPKNA

That same dude has a bunch in this video from Melanie and Peggy, Robert Prentice and some others. I couldn't catch the copyright burns from all of them because it's sped up so much, but there are some others in there.

 

[Bill Hamilton]

People like that think because they have stolen videos and show it to their friends that it makes them a chaser. Flag his videos and post comments.

From his website. http://youtube.com/user/xtornadodudex This just proves he has to be a professional stormchaser!

UPDATE: I have a very high quality 200 dollar camera now better videos coming soon.

 

[Danny Neal]

It is pretty funny how you can see some of the original copyright in his work. Like one of Bobby Prentices. It is probably some 15 yr old kid that doesn't know any better.....or someone that will try to push it off on his kids. We have given him heads up, I think 36 hours is sufficient time to get it off and if not, then infringe away.

People like that think because they have stolen videos and show it to their friends that it makes them a chaser. Flag his videos and post comments.

From his website. http://youtube.com/user/xtornadodudex This just proves he has to be a professional stormchaser!

 

[Tarmo Tanilsoo]

If I remember correctly, this thread is for reports only so I will refrain from further comments. However, that xtornadodudex's last description in is profile is rather interesting...

 

[T. Mosley]

Here's how frogsmoke.com handles this touchy issue:

All images on this site are used without prior permission, but with the hope that the copyright owner doesn't get angry.

 

[David Drummond]

Thread Rules
We ask that discussion in this thread be limited to identifying the copyrighted work.

Reports of copyright infringement should be limited to this thread. These type of discussions should not appear on the rest of ST.

The Stormtrack Mods

I believe some limited amounts of discussion would be ok in this thread, since when that was made, they clearly weren't intended to be discussed elsewhere. What was not intended was for it evolve into a huge bashing thread.