wwp@yahoogroups.com:
copyright violation
G. Donald Bain 2004-Jul-30 23:49:00
For those of you not on the #removed#, I will give a
brief summary of some interesting developments earlier today.
Alex Makienko tipped me that a site was using over 200 of my panoramas.
Sure enough, there they were:
http://www.aboutcanada.info/Panoramas/
Of course I had never given permission, or received any payment. The
site owners are in Israel, but the hosting company is in the U.S. Alex
contacted the owners (in Russian!), I contacted the ISP.
The ISP at first tried to stonewall me and told me to come back with a
cease and desist order from a judge. But then they did a quick about
face and the CEO personally assured me that they do not allow copyright
violations.
The site is now gone (but I am going to check again tomorrow). Probably
taken down by its owners (thanks to Alex), but if it comes back with
illegal material we expect the ISP to shut it down.
Protecting your copyright on the web is not easy, but we must keep
trying. Most violators are small timers, and many do it out of
ignorance. We have some major allies -- two of the leaders in this
field are the Vatican (their library and art collections) and Playboy
magazine. What a team.
If you see panoramas from the WWP events on any site other than
GeoImages, FullScreenQTVR, or WHTour, let me know. If it goes beyond
"fair use" news and review we will certainly do something about it.
Don