Have Luck :thumbsup

Good law info on copyrights
http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-infringement.html

This thread delivers FUN in Fukkin' Big Quantities! :pimp

Have you ever heard the word PRECEDENT?

You have totally failed to understand that this sham of a lawsuit WILL ONLY HELP assholes like match.com continue their shady shit...the JOKE of asking for 4.5 billion is so fucking ludacris that it reeks of shakedown - ANY Judge is going to laugh it out of court and the Plaintiffs will be lucky to go away without serious penalties against THEM.

Personally I would LOVE to see Match taken down for fake profiles but this "suit" is tailor made to HELP Match and other dating scammers never have to worry again...

match is going to laugh at this just like everyone else is.

and if they even give you the time of day, it will be gfy.

Wow, crazy numbers...

Hi Everybody,

Thanks for having me in your forum.

I host a radio show called Davin's Den. The original named plaintiff in this lawsuit was Yuliana Avalos. She was a former model and published her own nude pictures on her website. Problem is she was not what the lawyer Evan Spencer portrayed her as. She was not some innocent victim of identity theft. We outed her and after threatening me Spencer buried her in the lawsuit and reached out to Melissa Midwest. All the shows where we have covered Avalos since 2012 are online for free. Here is the page we put up on my website explaining it all.

davinsden.com/busted/

My question is this for Midwest Shane or anybody actually. If you are worried about the models' pictures being stolen and used for nefarious things why not watermark the pictures? Professional photographers do that. Then if somebody edits it out you have a real case. Especially if you know your pictures are being used to hurt people and you are genuinely concerned and not just going for the money.

The lawsuit has some valid points but there are plenty of holes as well. Here is perhaps a no-brainer in my mind. If you are truly trying to end this practice by Match and others why would you make a porn star the face of your lawsuit? No disrespect but we all know the adult entertainment industry is controversial for many and taboo for others. It is polarizing. There are soldiers who have had their identity stolen. I deal with this all the time on my show. Our military is the one thing this country can all rally around. If this wasn't about headlines and glitz why wouldn't you try and use a soldier who are allegedly included in this lawsuit? Certainly would be better for public opinion than an admitted scammer like Avalos and an arrested porn star like Melissa Midwest.

Thanks for your time.

Davin

Oh god... Someone just failed hard at the Internet.

http://www.rochardsbunnyranch.com/rock/bitch.jpg

To answer your question... Anyone can crop a watermark out and then use the photos for whatever.

He isn't trying to protect his intellectual rights. If he was, he would be going after the people that committed the crime. The problem is the person committing the crime is a young African that is impossible to trace and doesn't have a dime to his name, and there are thousands of them.

I think the point of that "question" was that if you can show that the watermark was edited out it strengthens you case. I don't know about Mellisa Midwest, but I am aware of others such as Raven Riley and Anne Angel, both catfisher favorites who have a lot of watermark free materials circulating that, if they were intended to be used by catfishers, could not possible be more appropriate for THAT task.

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

Of course anybody can crop watermarks out but when you originally release them on the site you own when they are still under your control why wouldn't have watermarks on them? Sure would make it at least seem like you were trying to protect yourself instead of just putting out pictures with your children and other people's children so scammers can use it to build a story to make a victim fall for it.

Except if the scammer is not a young African but instead an American model who is selling her pictures to the African's like Avalos' boyfriend has repeatedly admitted to doing. Avalos was the original named plaintiff.

Thing is, and this is just devil's advocate, why should anyone be able to hide behind loopholes that transfer any and all blame? 'user generated' has gotten out of control, let's face it. It's a cop-out to knowingly benefit from a loophole, by hiding behind the 'user generated' line, plain and simple. Let's not pretend it isn't :)

And yes of course I'm aware it's the law currently, and many have made millions, and continue to do so while the current laws are in place, and good luck to them - I'm all for exploiting loopholes. If anyone thinks it'll last though, well, I wouldn't like to bet on it :2 cents:

Maybe I'm just being a conspiracy theorist here because I'm right now wasting my time getting deposed in a drawn out lawsuit that has nothing to do with the law and everything to do with spite, but you don't have to win a lawsuit to win a lawsuit. To win a lawsuit you'd have to prove that Match.com either didn't honor DMCA requests, or that their business model itself is built around copyright infringement.

To get your judgement you have to prove that you've got damages. Damages doesn't mean some poor guy thought he was talking to someone, it means you were unable to sell your bitches to men for masturbatory purposes because said men knew that finding those pictures on match.com was a free alternative. In what fucking universe?

To be honest, Match.com loses money from catfishing, the models and producers lose absolutely nothing. Catfishing hurts the consumer trust in match.com, why would they be somehow involved in making it happen? And why wouldn't they just use pictures of regular bitches? Those work better anyway.

Now class action lawsuits happen all the time. The lawyer usually gets half while the other half is distributed as chump change among a ton of people. What will also happen is one person kind of acts as the main defendant and it's 1/3 them, 1/3 the lawyer and 1/3 distributed to the other 100 "victims". (Fair right?). They're easy for a lawyer to take a gamble on because it's easy to round up people to get involved and that provides a lot of leverage.

Now I'm not accusing anybody of anything, but I think any reasonable person can see that Match.com is squeaky clean here. I think they could also see that Match.com has a financial stake in not having anything in the news that will highlight the small portion of their users who have fake profiles. They're not at all in the wrong, but it may very well be in their best interest to settle quietly ASAP.

I'm not saying I have any proof that this particular case is a form of extortion, or that the people involved are cunts, but it's really easy to do. Some lawyers just kick back and wait for innocents to shake down.

Identity Theft of Images
 

Nothing is fool proof but if my livelihood depended on my image and I had a website like Midwest and these other girls and I knew I was a target for theft why wouldn't I try these?

Pretty basic stuff for somebody that was really concerned about their images being used to break hearts and fleece marks. Unless of course these are just crocodile tears and dare I say a money grab and publicity stunt.

.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/protect-online-photos

I think you are correct with what you say in your last sentence but the more you talk the more you make yourself sound like you don't really have a clue.

I do not know about the pornography industry. I know plenty about identity theft and this particular case.

Fact of the matter is scammers are looking for easy pictures to steal. They are not going to waste time with an image that is difficult.

So what do you suggest is done to stop someone stealing an image? The things in that link from cambridgeincolour? The only thing in that link that might slow someone down is the dirty big watermark across the centre of the image - whilst somewhat effective, it is completely impractical for this or any industry where they are selling the content of the image - use your brain.

are those tables rofl http://www.melissamidwest.com/

I agree the dirty watermark is ineffective for your industry. If somebody really wants to steal an image then there is no fool proof way at this point to stop them. That is a real problem. The models are public figures and they do need a visible online presence. That can't be argued.

My point is this, the lawsuit removes all personal responsibility from the plaintiffs. We all have a duty to protect ourselves from people stealing our intellectual property if we care about it. I know for a fact Avalos puts all of her pictures out on the internet for the whole world to see. Including pictures of her children and other people's children. That is why I initially contacted her in 2012.

The pictures that have already been released are gone. They will be circulated again and again. I see it with porn stars and I see it with soldiers.

For the new girls coming into the industry I think the suggestions made by the site in regards to protecting your image are valid. A scammer is not going to want to waste time playing with settings and editing pictures when they can get images of somebody who takes no precautions.

Same reasoning goes behind locking down our Facebook settings so strangers can't see our pictures.

It's odd that you came in here asking questions of the industry and in a few short posts, are now giving business advice to an industry.

All of their suggestions can easily be defeated in a matter of 2-3 seconds. It won't stop anyone from taking them if they want them.

Of course it can be defeated BUT these scammers are not looking to have a hassle because there are plenty of people who will do nothing to protect themselves.

I think the public will be more sympathetic to a plaintiff who comes in and says I took the precautions available to me and still they were stolen vs I put all my stuff on the internet and did nothing to slow the criminals down and surprise, surprise my pictures were stolen.

Really the key is diplomatic relations with the countries where the criminals reside. If we have that then we can provide incentives for the governments to crack down on the crime. These countries have 30% unemployment and the government has no answers. So they look the other way or actually help facilitate the crimes.

He's a journalist/blogger interested in online fraud, not the adult industry specifically. He came here because hes looking for insight on that angle and offering his own, not because he knows how to run a business, as far as I can tell he doesn't claim to.

Thank you Pompous John. I wish I would have done a better job of explaining that myself but yes you are exactly right on my intentions.

This is the same guy who just suggested treaties with other countries is the solution.

:1orglaugh

pardon me, not even treaties, simply a good convo would do it.

lolz.

There are conversations but they have no incentive to cooperate with western officials as it stands now. Money is what they need and money is what the West has to offer.

Unfortunately I see quite a bit of throw up our hands and do nothing on this site. If that is your answer then fine. Nothing will change your mind and I do not intend to try. Fortunately, I have the privilege of working with people who do want to try and help victims of identity theft and those who get scammed. People who are making a difference.

If we could work with folks in your industry then perhaps we could get even more accomplished. If not so be it.

I'm the last person to characterize as a "throw up your hands/do nothing" business person.

Your idea of working with people and working for change is the position that a farcical lawsuit for Billions of dollars to claim what really amounts to non-existent and fabricated damages?... the very point of which is actually a uber transparent attempt at cheap publicity for a 3rd rate ambulance chasing attorney and a known sociopath who's been shameless in his quest for attention which dates back over a decade in this biz, is about getting results?


:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

Dyna Mo,

What do you suggest to protect the workers in this business from having their identity stolen? They and our military are the prime targets for this type of theft and therefore unwilling tools in fraud.

When his cunt model is trespassing on Catholic Church property and masturbating with a cross... with the sole purpose of upsetting people and offending them to drive traffic to her website and generate sales, who exactly needs to be protected? Who is the victim?

Glass houses... and all that...

Squealer,

I am not talking about this lawsuit. I have already done a lot to derail this farce. Go to davinsden.com/busted

That being said the suit does have some points of merit and our economy loses millions of dollars every year to western Africa, Malaysia, & Eastern Europe and some of that money is funneled to terrorist groups affiliated with Al Qaeda. That is the issue. I care not about a glory seeking ambulance chaser and his cadre of almost famous porn stars looking to get one final score at the bank. Only reason I ever got involved in this case is because the first plaintiff's boyfriend on several ocassions admitted they take money from Nigerian scammers for Avalos' picture.

People die over this, people go broke over this, lives are ruined over this, and money goes to terrorism over this. I do not care for one minute if you believe it or not. You can check out my show and see who we are endorsed by and what we have done to try and slow this down. You can research the facts for yourself. Only the government and law agencies can stop this. We can help slow it down. If there are people here with some good ideas or issues I am unaware of I welcome your input. I don't have all the answers. I came to tell you what I know about this as this is an issue that effects your performers and I came to learn from you.

I never claimed to be the go-to guy for that. I did claim I found it interesting you came here asking questions and within a few posts were giving sweeping answers to complex and difficult problems.

Decent attempt to flip it around though. :1orglaugh

owner: my car was stolen

criminal: he left his car unlocked

police: you are free to go


==============================

owner: I distribute things I own

criminal: he distributed things he owns, so I'll take those, distribute them too, and earn cash monies

police: you are free to go

=================================

what a fucking dumb argument stating that it's the person whose property is being stolen that is at fault because they didn't do enough to stop it being stolen.

jesus christ, seriously? how much money are you expecting in the case again?

All that you are saying has nothing to do with the issue at hand. Its not about people pretending to be Melissa Midwest. Its about jackoffs doing a quick tgp / google search, grabbing an image and creating a random profile for whatever reason... maybe as an affiliate, maybe as a lunatic, maybe as a catfish scheme or just to see if the site is legit or whatever... them some fuckwit, filing a 4.5 billion dollar lawsuit for attention.

Not sure how you made the jump to identity theft and terrorism within the context of this discussion... as they are completely unrelated. Further, you are going to try to make it a bigger than life issue when you are talking to socially retarded losers and degenerates that are too busy trying to hustle up beer money for the weekend... which is futile.

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images...4db0d0815.jpeg

Davin why don't you watermark your images? What's to prevent a Nigerian scammer from using your pic to catfish as Bobcat Goldthwait on a sugardaddy dating site?

Whats to stop the 90s from seeing his picture from demanding that goatee back?

Seems he's just a risk taker.