The problem is simple.... http://www.gamersworld.com.au/forums/ using my skin which is free as long as there is desgin by gpf-design.com, that wm changed line with "Site Skin by Spe6tre Man" Wtf? Contacted him, he tells that it's not mine skin, even all graphics are the same, and css same too... Only logo is different, lol. So he dont do anything, hosting company not responds (1st party, data center) ... What else can I do?
either of those can hlp you. state the domain and the problem, tell them that you have consulted with your legal advisor and if the design isnt removed or the correct copyrights are where they should be tht your legal team will be fored to take action. contact me via PM, i am your new legal advisor, i offer fast free confidential legal advice.
That is so lame. Why would anyone remove someone's link if they gave them something for free. It makes them the biggest possible loser they can be.
yup, and that is the biggest problem on the internet with opensource. One of my products, people can use it as long as they have Powered By, but 10 out of every 100 people remove it, and if u actually do the effort of contacting the 10, once ofcourse you have identified them, only 1-2 respond and actually take care of abiding by the license terms.
The only solution I can think of for such problems is to put a little trigger-bomb which disables the whole skin if the copyright is not there. And make it clear that you do that in the skin's license terms - It's ethical and right, in my opinoin. Of course that it's open source and if they're smart enough they can remove this 'bomb' or even just the trigger, but 8 out of the 10 losers honey has mentioned is not capable of such things. They'll change or remove the copyright, something will stop working and the message "We're sorry, but the product XXXXXX's license terms clearly define that you may not remove the copyright statement, or else you're not licensed to use the product. Click here to revert the copyright statement to its default. Thank you and sorry for the incovinience". Classic. Just make sure you're covered, legally-speaking, and don't kill their whole system/server just because they've changed "Copyirght" to "copyright" ;-) As to your original question djixas, I would prepare a standard letter for such cases, signed by a lawyer (find a friend who can sign this for you, shouldn't be a big problem) and mail it to them via snail mail (you can find their addresses using WHOIS quereies, or if they don't have their own domain you can always trick them into giving you their address - Pose as an interested advertiser or something similar. And just to be clear - I know that some of my methods might seem 'irregular' - But they work, and as far as I know they're completely legit. In the moral level, I don't see any problem with my offers - In most of the cases, the only thing you ask in return for the use of your open-source product is the credit and perhaps link, and you shoudn't let each and every scambag take that from you. Just my two cents ;-) Ronny. P.S. Just to be clear, we are responsible for the official Hebrew version of phpBB, so we see cases of copyright removal daily, and in masses. Usually we don't really care, but we can get really pissed off when someone claims the product to be his own...