Do we need SOPA for this?
I think not. Here is a classic example of copyright infringement, but I still don’t think SOPA or its twin PIPA should be the answer to it. As it happened, in this case my own copyrighted work has been stolen: the Profit Crushing WordPress Mistakes that is sold here.
The story:
1. Last night I got a Google alert for “wordpress mistakes“. (Yes, I set up such alerts to track where my products are mentioned.) The alert said this site
http://www.libanonchat.org/socialnetwork/view/post:1576
is mentioning “wordpress mistakes”… And it does, indeed.
2. By a closer look it was clear the site is just subscribing to the RSS feed of another site where the real mentioning of my work happened:
http://www.sub-url.eu/?p=1351
It is a blog providing hundreds of links to stolen, copyrighted works. Many of them solod at tyhe same place, in the Warrior Forum WSO section where my work is also available for a discounted price for fellow forum members.
The domain was registered on August 8, 2009 in Germany by an individual having the email address: ali.fawaz@gmx.de at Cronon AG (cronon.net)
The domain is hosted by STRATO Berlin at the IP address: 85.214.24.127
Just with a few quick search queries you can learn all the above data about domains and their owners: use whois databases; whois hosting type searches etc.
2a. Strato has their own terms and conditions for host clients here:
http://www.strato.de/agb/
Thanks to my German-speaking friend I now know that section 2.2 deals with copyright infringement:
2.2 Der Kunde ist dafür verantwortlich, dass seine Domain(s) und seine Inhalte weder gesetzliche Vorschriften noch Rechte Dritter verletzen. STRATO weist darauf hin, dass gegebenenfalls – insbesondere bei internationalen Domains – andere nationale Rechtsordnungen zu beachten sind.
DMCA type notice sent to STRATO.
Here comes the twist: that “clever” domain owner at sub-url.eu (Ali?) is providing a link to both the sales pages and to direct downloads. However, both links are “shortened” by a short URL service offered by
http://finanz-partnerweb.de/shorturl/
The way it works: clicking on the link you see the finanz-partnerweb.de website for 16 seconds and then you are redirected to a shabby business domain: uploading.com
At this moment I am not sure the URL shortener’s owner and the sub-url.eu owner are the same… However, they use the same WordPress theme on their sites and they are both hosted at the same host under the same IP address: STRATO Berlin at 85.214.24.127 — Coincidence?
After further digging: the shortener guy is located in Hammeln, Germany:
Name: Carsten Ulrichs
Organisation: Internet Service e.K.
Address: Linkworth 5
PostalCode: 31789
City: Hameln
CountryCode: DE
Phone: +495159810310
Fax: +495159810319
Email: cu@ulrichs.de
On the stolen-material-promoter sub-url.eu site there is a Facebook link to its FB page under “Find Us on Facebook” title… Pretty lame, if you want to remain anonymous!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Business-Tips/218228814912274
Location info from that FB page:
Basberg Str, 31785 Hameln, Germany
About: Web Sevice info busines & tips Seo Marketing Make Mones Online
Description seo marketing free web service submit url business & tips free download programe softwear make money online
Email: ali.fawaz@gmx.de
Phone: 05151-500500
Website: http://www.sub-url.eu
Ali lives very close to Carsten and they seem to work together!
3. Believe it or not, these German guys could all claim they are innocent, they just discovered a “great resource” website and pointed to it. (In a SOPA world just because they link to a site that is distributing illegally copyrighted material, i.e. my ebook, they could be shut down, too, together with the real criminal.)
The real criminal in this case is the domain uploading.com – they permit to upload stolen material to their server! Although they have an abuse report page:
http://uploading.com/contactus/abuse/
… no matter what you do, the form will never be submitted, just goes into a perpetual “loading, loading, loading…”
Of course, they have a section in their Terms of Use referring to copyright:
“8.5 Proprietary rights and trademark legislation
Uploading.com Service can be used with lawful purposes only. Transfer, distribution or storage of any materials breaking laws or lawful acts, including laws on export regulation, are forbidden. This includes materials protected by patents, laws on copyright, trademarks, service marks, trade secrets and other intellectual property rights. The client is obliged to receive the preliminary consent of the author in cases when such materials are to be used. By using the Service, you declare and guarantee that you are the author and owner of copyright and/or the owner of due licenses for the represented information. You also declare and guarantee that your information does not break trademark laws and other rights of the third parties. Uploading.com reserves the right to suspend or terminate the transaction that breaks or is thought to be breaking the Agreement or any of the laws described above.”
As it seems nobody is really eager to enforce it because the site is full of stolen copyrighted material!
This domain is registered with namecheap.com and is using their famous privacy protection option: you need to be some kind of law enforcement agent to make them to reveal the real identity of the site/domain owner.
However, based on their IP address, they are hosted by LinkShop and I am sure they are hiding behind the following info (the abuse report address for their domain/IP)
person: LinkShop Abuse Team
address: Room 606, Fook Cheong Bldg, 63 Hoi Yuen Rd
address: Kwun Tong, Hong Kong
phone: +852 8170 1439
Today I was sending take down notices to everybody: registrars, hosts for ALL the websites and domains mentioned in this post. Including Google – because the sites are using G. ads.
Yes, it is annoying to deal with imbecile thieves and jerks. But this site would not be the first that went down because I went after them. In all my correspondence with the registrars and host services I made them aware: their answers would be made public in this blog.
Now I am just waiting… If you have similar stories, please share them in your comments!
Despite all this – I am still against SOPA!
UPDATE (one day later)
The illegal copy of my ebook has been removed from uploading.com. However, if you have a good product, chances are it has been uploaded to that thief site – so check it out!
