DownloadableContent.com Problem
 

Dave Clark of Web-Legal is well-known as about an honest and straight-shooting a guy as you can find on the Web, so when he sends out a notice like this, I think everyone should read it, especially all the content providers in the bunch. Let me add that I (and Dave) are not yet making any specific charges here and there might be some rational explanation for what's going on here, though nothing comes to mind immediately:

***** Begin Quote *****

Heylo!

(blah, blah, blah)

It was pointed out to me tonight by one of my publishers that their material was being licensed out on downloadablecontent.com . The problem was that they had no authorization to do this from the publisher. I've given a quick look at downloadablecontent.com, and we have found four products already that may be ripped off.. however, it will be up to the owners to decide.

I'm asking everyone to go check out that site, and let me know if you find anything of yours that you did not give permission to be there. I want to try to figure out what all is happening here, and then we can plan a course of action once we know what is going on.

As far as the four that we have possibly ID'ed, I'll contact those
publishers directly as well, but I strongly urge everyone to go in
there and have a look around. You will know your works better than I do, and you are the ones that have a legal right to bust some heads if there is illegally used content on there.

OK, that's all for now... please let me know what you find out.

Dave Clark

***** End Quote *****

Now, I'm going to trot off and see if any of my content is there. If you buy content from these guys, you might not get a good licence to do it, and as I remind my customers from time to time: I don't really sell photos, I sell the right to use photos.

Very interesting. They have Lightspeed content on that site. I wonder if that was arranged by Lightspeed. I have passed the info on to them just in case.

Hi Tom
Thanks for the warning.
None of our stuff there but it looks like loads of different photographers styles.

These clowns sure are using Lightspeed Conent...... Without my permission. Funny thing, there's no contact information other than an email address........ Whois turns up notta. Our attorney will have a blast with this one......

unseen, all i can say is THANK YOU!

just checked their site and found matrix stuff. i think a vein in my neck exploded.

i'll be all over this like flies on stink.

here's his whois:
--------------------------------------------

Registrant:
Jason Himes
Luscious Entertainment
PO BOX 42267
Eugene, Oregon 97404
United States

Registrar: Go Daddy Software (http://registrar.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: DOWNLOADABLECONTENT.COM
Created on: 19-Jan-02
Expires on: 19-Jan-03
Last Updated on: 03-Feb-02

Administrative Contact:
Himes, Jason [email protected]
Luscious Entertainment
PO BOX 42267
Eugene, Oregon 97404
United States
800-523-2929
Technical Contact:
Himes, Jason [email protected]
Luscious Entertainment
PO BOX 42267
Eugene, Oregon 97404
United States
800-523-2929

Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.MTR-INTERNET.NET
NS2.MTR-INTERNET.NET

figures hes from oregon ;-)

No problem. And as far as I can see, I'm one that did NOT get hit.

This is only about a 100 mile drive for me. Want me to track this fucker down and pay him a visit?

For those of you that this guy got to.... I would suggest grabbing screen caps before the evidence is gone.

Well holy shit. I guess I better hurry and remove a link. I thought you were jumping the gun with this post at first, but apparently not.

ther was a thread this morning asking if matrix supplied the id's with it's content? any connection?

Oh, man this is going to be fun to watch. This guy is done....

More News!!!:

I got this e-mail just now:

***** BEGIN QUOTE *****

Hi Again Tom (and Dave on the CC) -

I saw your post on GFY about DownloadableContent.com - I thought you would
find this interesting:
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI...tem=1707595052

I emailed the guy through ebay and asked what site he was selling. Guess
what url he sent me?
http://www.downloadablecontent.com/index2.html

The auction ended without a sale, but I would keep an eye on that eBay account.

Please keep my name out of this, but I thought you might want to know.

Good luck with your investigation!

Take care,

(name withheld)

***** END QUOTE *****

Somebody want to contact e-Bay and PayPal?

mother fucker

This guy's got brass balls. You've got to give him that. I hope he looks good in stripes, because he seems to be committing a Federal crime.

Well thats him.. here is his ISP.. Its about 1.5 hrs from here .. Well 1 hr doing ~110 MPH hehe..

EPIK Communications
3501 Quadrangle Boulevard
Orlando, Florida 32817
407.482.8400 Phone
407.482.8404 Fax

Hey AaronM, I am half way between you and eugene, if you want some extra help just give a yell.
Hate to miss out on a good ass whoopin' that is so close to home.

You got it... Meanwhile, why don't you join us for some fun this Friday?

http://www.gofuckyourself.com/showth...threadid=51242

Just got more information in an e-mail from Dave Clark at Web-Legal (some of it I've already presented) on the DownloadableContent.com scam:

***** BEGIN QUOTE *****

Heylo!

Several people have checked in and told me that they have found
their content on http://www.downloadablecontent.com for sale
without authorization now. In addition to this, these were brought to
my attention:

http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-
cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1703763527

http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-
cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1707595052

One is an auction that was successfully completed, one expired
yesterday without a purchaser. They are identical, and were posted
by the same user account. The person reporting the "newer" one
was told in private e-mail that the site for sale was
downloadablecontent.com .

Read over the description of the website, paying particular note to
the "expenses" (notice no content expenses) and bragging about
how many customers they have. I think that it's time to shut these
twerps down.

I'm going to suggest that everyone that has content being pirated
here, get out and post some info on the webmaster boards out
there to let people know NOT to be sucked in by this sham. Then,
you may want to see about filing a DMCA claim against their ISP to
get them shut down. If you want to take further action, you may want
to look into it, but I have no idea if it would be worth the time.
Getting this character out of the marketplace would seem to me to
be the #1 priority...

Please, if you haven't checked out that site yet, please do so
quickly, and see if your material is being pirated there.

Dave Clark

***** END QUOTE *****

Do your various things!

mother fucker. i fired off a bunch of emails but no response (no surprise). well, guess i have my day cut out for me tomorrow.

I wish I could but I have to go pick-up a car I purchased, gonna be sweet to get my ass back in a porsche again :)

I have checked the local phone directory in eugene and the name dickwad gives comes up as unlisted, the phone number on the whois is to reality office.

Cross check the name with the name provided in the eBay seller info and if they match, we have a winner.

I received an e-mail from Lady Sharlot regarding Downloadablecontent and, sure enough, he had my content for sale!

I sent him a Digital Millennium Copyright Act Notification, along with one to his Host, and received a reply from an "HT" at [email protected] that claims he purchased the content off e-bay. Strangly enough though, my stolen content (the "River" series) was immediately removed.

And even though his Host (MR Entreprises dba MTR-Internet.net and LightSpeedServers.net) states in their AUP that what he's doing is grounds for pulling the plug - he's still up and running.

Is it possible to pool our legal efforts or should we each sue this bastard individually?

What a lot of webmasters don't get is that they don't really buy photos, they buy the RIGHT to use the photos, and that unless they buy those rights from the actual owner of the photos, or someone licensed to resell them, they have diddly-squat.

I would tell that poor person that they need to buy the right to use the photos from you if they want to use them, and that they need to get their money back (if they can) from downloadablecontent.com, or they'll be listed as a defendant along with downloadablecontent.com.

Get a lawyer to serve notice on him. Do not tell him which sets are in dispute.
Then serve notice on his host they are also liable once they have recieved notice.
APIC said they were on to it but the site is still up.

Also email Ebay

[email protected]

looks like paypal has shut down his account for ordering content.