Why moderator intervention?

[Mike Mezeul II]

man when will this end? and to think! he's got 9 more yrs of pics to go! wonder who's next to get ripped off? im pissed about this and my photographs havnt even been used (thankfully my photographs are crappy) lol :lol: anyways, Billy man, I don't know what to tell ya...your digging yourself deeper and deeper

~just curious what the status of his membership is?

 

[Craig Maire II]

Wow

As a fellow storm chaser/spotter I too have been captivated by the recent posts/threads that have come about due to copyright infringement etc. that Billy is SUSPECTED of committing and think that if proven 100% true in a court of law that he should lose all respect in the chase community and be banned from Storm Track that aside I seriously hope too that noone has threatened his family, property etc. with violence and that his truck/equippment was not really damaged/stolen, any of those acts would be foolish/just as bad if not worse than what he is SUSPECTED of doing. I do agree with what the moderator did by locking the other thread because the people who own/operate Storm Track may be legally responsible for any liable etc. that is posted on this site if they don't try and stop it. I would hate to see something happen to this site because of what is currently going on, there are many, many awsome people on here and I love comming in here every day to see whats happening in the "storm chase world", seeing all the cool pics from real chasers, posting my pics etc. This site has put me in contact with many excellent nowcasters, people that I consider to be friends (even if they do live 1000 miles away etc. and I never see them in person) etc. I have even made a few $$ from people who have seen my posts on this site and asked to chase with me/give hail damage reports etc. I do feel a sense of community/fellowship in here and would like this wonderful website to continue to be apart of my life for years to come.

Note:
I personally (my opinion) do think that Billy has committed some copyright infringement/"borrowed" other persons pics and do in the above article use the word SUSPECTED very loosely, I am definitely not defending him nor am I condoning any violence/criminal behavior that may have already or might be in the future committed against him, his family or his property. I hope that if he is found guilty in a COURT OF LAW that he is punished accordingly and that if anyone does any criminal damage to him, his property, or god forbid his family that they too are punished to the fullest extent of the law.

 

[nickgrillo]

LMAO, Billy! Somebody smashed out your vechile and your awake through all of that? You have to be kidding me... Because you have either lied or framed somebody.

I am in the process of finding lawyers in the OKC area, and can guarantee you haven't heard the end of this. Yeah, and by the way, I don't care how many of the "same" things are uttered towards this guy, and it doesn't matter is this thread gets 400 posts to it... I want everybody to air their comments about this. I cannot believe what is going on, man, you are a blatent liar and a thief and will be punished to the full extent of the law...

We have the proof...

 

[Kiel Ortega]

Originally posted by nickgrillo
LMAO, Billy! Somebody smashed out your vechile and your awake through all of that? You have to be kidding me... Because you have either lied or framed somebody.

I am in the process of finding lawyers in the OKC area, and can guarantee you haven't heard the end of this. Yeah, and by the way, I don't care how many of the \"same\" things are uttered towards this guy, and it doesn't matter is this thread gets 400 posts to it... I want everybody to air their comments about this. I cannot believe what is going on, man, you are a blatent liar and a thief and will be punished to the full extent of the law...

We have the proof...

Well, since some people don't care if people post the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over....

 

[nickgrillo]

Re: Wow

Originally posted by Craig Maire II


I personally (my opinion) do think that Billy has committed some copyright infringement/\"borrowed\" other persons pics

No way would it be considered "borrowing", because not only did he use my photography without permission, but actually put HIS name on it and said it was his. Those are both TWO DIFFERERENT copyright violations!

 

[Anthony Petito]

Originally posted by Gayla Drummond
May I offer a possible way to resolve this?


Mr. Griffen...post your original, uncropped images. If you are able to do so, then that will prove those are just amazingly coincidental, exactly the same photos.

If you can't, as has been said, the evidence is in, and those that choose to take further steps will do so. (And please, don't resort to the \"I have nothing to prove\" stance....it's obvious there is something to prove.)

Then we can all get on with our regularly scheduled programming.

Looks like I'm a little late to the party here, but here are a few of my burning questions.

I agree with Gayla. The burdon of proof has now fallen solely on you, Billy. There are now 5 pages of evidence that show extreme coincidences between the photos on your website and the other members of this board. If this were a court of law, you would need to show more proof than simply saying you were there. Moreover, you would need to provide witnesses, preferably someone other than your son.

Let's start with the obvious.
1. Do you own the cameras and camcorders that are listed in the image properties?
-- If not, we can stop right there. Cameras and camcorders don't arbitrarily enter another camera information in the image properties. If that information was purposely changed, explain why?

2. Why are the dates of the events EXACTLY the same? Even down to the second. I will give you the benefit of the doubt that during a tornado, everyone is snapping as many pictures as possible, however, I find it even less of a chance that during that same time you snapped it with the same camera and that camera had ALL of the same settings as yours. This explanation would be MORE explainable if you could find someone to back up your claim that you were atleast around the same area when the photo was taken.

3. I would attempt to find credit card reciepts, gas station reciepts or SOMETHING that also proves you were somewhere near the area when the photos were taken. Atleast it provides a reasonable doubt that you COULD have taken the photo.

Without any of this, you will not get any sympothy form anyone on this board or in the court of law.

 

[nickgrillo]

Originally posted by Kiel Ortega
Well, since some people don't care if people post the same thing over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over....

Nope, and if it was your work being used by this little thief you would feel the same way. I don't want any threads being "locked" on this matter...

 

[Aaron Kennedy]

Eh... I still stand by my original lock despite finding out afterwards that one of my pictures was lifted. The original thread was getting out of control. At least now, conversation has shifted to this thread and has stayed civil. I'm not convinced that would of happened keeping the other thread open, and it saved us (the mods) the hassle of deleting plenty of "colorful" posts.

Aaron

 

[Craig Maire II]

wow

Nick, notice the " " around the word borrowed, I'll let that speak for its self....lol

 

[Jeff Wear]

Has anybody complained to Billy's web host yet? There's been a lot of evidence presented here against him, seems like it would be best to present that evidence to his host so they can make a decision on whether or not to keep hosting his page.

If there is anyone out there who is threatening or causing harm to Billy, his family, or his property - I suggest you cut it out, let it go, and move on. It is understandable to be upset at him for his actions but there is NO need to resort to criminal behavior.

 

[nickgrillo]

Originally posted by Jeff Wear
If there is anyone out there who is threatening or causing harm to Billy, his family, or his property - I suggest you cut it out, let it go, and move on. It is understandable to be upset at him for his actions but there is NO need to resort to criminal behavior.

Exactly. Not only is this totally uncalled for, but this could ALSO do damages to all of our cases, and will make US look like possible criminals as well. I know that either he is lying about the whole matter, or he bashed out the windows himself and framed us...

Where's the pics of that incident, Billy?

 

[Mike Mezeul II]

Originally posted by Jeff Wear
If there is anyone out there who is threatening or causing harm to Billy, his family, or his property - I suggest you cut it out, let it go, and move on. It is understandable to be upset at him for his actions but there is NO need to resort to criminal behavior.

I agree...not only is that taking this too far and probably scaring the heck out of his family, but as Nick said, it's making everyone that was truly affected by this whole deal, look as potential suspects. It'll be interesting to see if he is able to provide pictures of this "incident".

EDIT: By the way, it looks as of now Billy has removed Aaron Kennedy's picture. Could this be the start of resolving this matter?

 

[Jay Cazel]

This is what happends when I don't check things for a few days.....One thing I don't understand on all this. Billy seems to have spent a sum of money in chase equiment....i.e Sat, ham radios...etc...Is the guy THAT bad of a chaser to NOT got any pics or video or not very many at all? I mean stealing someones eles stuff is not cool at all. From what I can see on what eveyone has posted it does LOOK real bad for him. I mean it has been a bad year but that happens. I know most people are very upset about this...I mean we are VERY lucky people to get to see video and pictures of storms really before everyone else, for that I want to thank EVERYONE who posts videos and pictures for us to see. I just hope we can get past this.

 

[Glen Romine]

Well, not real interested in joining the pile on per se - but since Billy is here now, and is removing images from his web site as they are pointed out who the rightful owners are - is anyone able to claim this one?

http://www.billygriffin.com/35.jpg

If you watch the video that Billy was generous enough to provide - you can find the moment where this image occurs, and see that Billy is in the wrong location (different foreground and horizon) to have been able to take the picture. The exif information is as follows:



Make - SONY
Model - DCR-TRV33
DateTime - 2005:06:13 18:05:19
YCbCrPositioning - 2 (datum point)
ExifOffset - 110
ExifVersion - 220
DateTimeOriginal - 2005:06:13 16:39:57
DateTimeDigitized - 2005:06:13 16:39:57
ComponentsConfiguration - 1 2 3 (YCbCr)
CompressedBitsPerPixel - 2 (average)
FlashPixVersion - 100
ColorSpace - 1 (sRGB)
ExifImageWidth - 640
ExifImageHeight - 480

Also, he notes in the video that his still camera isn't working...... why he didn't just make a capture from his own video I have no clue.

By the way - if you watch the video - it is pretty clear that Billy doesn't have much business being out around storms - so I'd give that vehicle a wide berth on chase days. Best of luck to those affected by this incident.

Glen

 

[Nic Wilson]

Here's a moment of sanity for this thread...

I can understand everyone's frustration that has had their images unlawfully taken. Although this is no court of law, it is evident from the imbedded photo information that he has indeed taken the photos/vid caps of other chasers and claimed them as his own. His credibility as a chaser has now been infinitely tarnished, but it is obvious that he by no means has been attempting to profit off of the stolen photos/vid caps. Unfortunately, it just appears that he was trying to show off to family, friends and possibly to KOCO for whatever benefits they provide as far as being one of their Fast Unit storm trackers. If the images or anyone's video was used by him for KOCO's benefit then I can foresee some troubling legal times for Billy -- but I am pretty confident this hasn't taken place. Legal actions against Billy will mandate that the website be shutdown and everyone's images protected, but other than that I don't see how much of a monetary win can be had considering the stolen images/vid caps weren't used for any sort of personal profit on his part.

In conclusion, I don't think we'll see Billy out chasing again any time soon, but the personal threats that many are making are uncalled for. The fact that he has been called out on this is embarrassment enough, especially within the most respected forum for storm chasers across the world. Hopefully, he unlinks the rest of the other chase reports from prior years soon...other than that I can't really see what else there is to gain -- I would foresee that attourney costs would negate any financial victory in court for this matter unless other evidence is found.