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Stolen content

Discussion in 'Legal Issues' started by Cristian Mezei, Jun 22, 2006.

  1. slinky

    slinky Banned

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    #81
    His point is simple unfortunately - many of the people in these third world countries, eastern Europe, etc. couldn't give a damn about any law you think protects you. Their attitude is "go screw yourself. Prosecute me." Unfortunately it is very effect. What if a Romanian host couldn't care less about you? What are you going to do?

    I have found out recently that toospoiled.com is actually owned by a company in New York. I am THRILLED because I am going to nail them with a subpoena if I can. They have pounded my site with advertisements against our user policy and using some location in India to do this. Having a defendant that is subject to law in the US puts some bite in your responses. You can also hit the hosting company... although that doesn't always work. I'm getting less of an effect from Network Solutions/Verisign, which are the biggest abusers IMHO and for some reason have not been touched... yet.

    Either way, if your problem is in a foreign country get used to it. You got to pick your battles... although I'm glad to throw a little poop on the site if I can for ya. :D
     
    slinky, Sep 3, 2006 IP
  2. Cristian Mezei

    Cristian Mezei Notable Member

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    #82
    Until this day I had gone trough about 5-6 lawsuits .. Most of them filled by me..

    One of them was by me against a UK resident (not company).. Since I started the lawsuit in ROmania and since the problem (doesn't matter which) happened on Romania's territory ..

    The guy was called here in Romania to trial .. He sent his lawyer only though ..

    I won.

    So the "if your problem is in a foreign country get used to it" is not always true.
     
    Cristian Mezei, Sep 3, 2006 IP
  3. slinky

    slinky Banned

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    #83
    Of course not. If the amount at stake is $500,000, then yes, it pays to hire a lawyer in another country to handle it for you.

    What I'm talking about is the case of someone stealing from your article and posting it on his site. How much damages can you win? What are your actual damages? If they are $3,000 then unless it's worth the time and money to do this, then it's just not worth your time and a cease and desist success is your best approach.

    Yes, it makes a huge difference that you are in Romania and that the person or event happened in Romania. The issue is one of jurisdiction and whether a court has the power to hear the case. If you moved to, e.g. California, you would not be able to file in your local courthouse, win the case (potentially on default of the defendant) and then trying to file the judgment in the defendant's country where he/she may have assets.

    But I digress. Yes, you are correct that "it depends" like anything else. I'm glad that you have had the ability to file those lawsuits and that they are working out for you.
     
    slinky, Sep 3, 2006 IP
  4. Cristian Mezei

    Cristian Mezei Notable Member

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    #84
    ANY and ALL court expenses. Including lawyer fees + copyright infringement rights, as much as you would like.
     
    Cristian Mezei, Sep 3, 2006 IP
  5. slinky

    slinky Banned

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    #85
    That doesn't exactly thrill me. My point is calculate the actual damages. What could they be -- $4,000 as an example? That's not a lot of money if it requires you to pay the filing fees and a lawyer for all the time he will put into your case. You have to hope that you will win and be awarded all court costs. You also have to add in your time. I don't know the way things work in Romania but in the US it's not expeditious.

    We also forgot to determine enforcement - the defendant doesn't just show up in court with check in hand. If you win your judgment, how easy is it to get the defendant to pay? If he wants to be a pain it's sending out more notices, filing liens, paying for asset searches and subpoenas and restraining orders, and then hopefully you'll pay a marshall to seize whatever there is.

    Honestly, I'd love to hear the details about your case, what you've done so far and it could help many people combat this problem.
     
    slinky, Sep 6, 2006 IP
  6. Cristian Mezei

    Cristian Mezei Notable Member

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    #86
    Usually it's a pain in the but. In (very) few cases you get the acused to pay instantly. Most of the times you have to get a court order for his belongins, but usually he appeals and that another few months/years in court.

    The Law in Romania, especially on the Internet niche, is like STUPID.

    The single two official documented laws we have on Internet problems (as far as I know), are regarding fraud and copyright.

    We have no real anti-spam law for example.

    I don't want to get into that, but if anybody from your website www.thelaw.com has problems in Romania, maybe I can help him with a few pointers.
     
    Cristian Mezei, Sep 6, 2006 IP
  7. slinky

    slinky Banned

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    #87
    Yep, that's what I'm talking about unfortunately. But if it's cheap enough, which it may be in small claims, you do prosecute like you do. Get a judgment. Get a lien. Stick the jerk with it. It will come up on assets searches and affect the ability to get credit - and you may even see money eventually. My advice is that if you can get to small claims court, do it. Otherwise it may be costly - fortunately you seem to be very smart and a "do it yourself" kind of guy.

    If it's any consolation, I've seen it take a few years but you do get your money and with interest. :D

    That would be great and thanks for the offer... I may take you up on it! I get tons of emails about this and I'm admittedly not up on Romanian law.:D

    PS - If you need a great web designer from next door, my guy is Romanian. Very reliable, fantastic work...)
     
    slinky, Sep 7, 2006 IP
  8. Cristian Mezei

    Cristian Mezei Notable Member

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    #88
    My guys are Romanians too ;) "Very reliable, fantastic work" ....
     
    Cristian Mezei, Sep 7, 2006 IP
  9. Hobbit2

    Hobbit2 Active Member

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    #89
    Looks to me that he just wanted to piss you off.
     
    Hobbit2, Sep 7, 2006 IP
  10. Cristian Mezei

    Cristian Mezei Notable Member

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    #90
    Don't understand your point.
     
    Cristian Mezei, Sep 7, 2006 IP
  11. Set

    Set Peon

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    #91
    He probably refers to the
    part.

    Seems unlikely he would get ton's of emails about problems in Romania.
     
    Set, Sep 8, 2006 IP
  12. slinky

    slinky Banned

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    #92
    It's irrelevant and a silly comment best ignored. As Cristian can tell, my comments are sincere.

    FYI, there is a lot of web talent in Romania and an equal number of problems. In addition to design, 2 scripts that I use to run successful web sites both originate from guess where?
     
    slinky, Sep 8, 2006 IP
  13. Set

    Set Peon

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    #93
    That's what I felt, but some people just search for a hole in a whole.
     
    Set, Sep 8, 2006 IP
  14. Deadlock

    Deadlock Active Member

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    #94
    Flagged it for you.. Hate crap like this. Straight up bs.
     
    Deadlock, Sep 8, 2006 IP
  15. Cristian Mezei

    Cristian Mezei Notable Member

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    #95
    Thanks but .. It won't help at all. :(

    Even today he still has his blog up.
     
    Cristian Mezei, Sep 9, 2006 IP
  16. Set

    Set Peon

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    #96
    I still don't understand why you're allowing him to hotlink to your images. Do some mod rewrite on images if they are attemted to be loaded from external domains and replace them with image saying: "Please visit www.seopedia.com for original content" or something like that.

    You'll get free advertisements and perhaps some traffic along with making his blog look quite idiotic.
     
    Set, Sep 9, 2006 IP
  17. Cristian Mezei

    Cristian Mezei Notable Member

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    #97
    Done .. Thanks.
     
    Cristian Mezei, Sep 10, 2006 IP
  18. rxbbx

    rxbbx Peon

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    #98
    Good work.. I see he has your hotlink-pics everywhere.. :)
     
    rxbbx, Sep 10, 2006 IP
  19. slinky

    slinky Banned

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    #99
    Hilarious and great idea.
     
    slinky, Sep 11, 2006 IP
  20. MattUK

    MattUK Notable Member

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    #100
    Still up now, and flagged it too.

    Interesting you say he references DP in his blog posts, which leads you to believe he's a member here. Maybe he's copied those posts from other DP members?
     
    MattUK, Sep 21, 2006 IP