My Stolen Work....Now Selling In A WSO!..HELP

And since the site is the wf, you could probably send it to the help desk.

If the dmca stuff is new to you, there is good info about it here. The dmca part starts about 2 folds down.

What You Can Do About “Paypal Dispute Ripoff Artists” | Domaining Diva

Personally I wouldn't even have taken the time to ask anyone's opinion about this. It seems clear it's not a nice thing to do.

It's automatically copyrighted, there's nothing special he has to do.

As soon as he designs them, he has automatic copyrights..

You dont 'copyright' anything. Copyright is automatic and granted without action to the creator of a work the instant it is created.

He is using my graphic E-cover that he ordered. Then canceled the order as soon as it was delivered. Forcing me to refund him. And now is using the same graphic in his WSO.

LOL "Unless you got your lawyer on Fiverr.... "
That's pretty funny Noah!
:-Þ

My advice hasn't changed.

The best advice is still to move on. Your advice is still silly for $5. I'm willing to bet he doesn't have a lawyer on retainer. It's a waste of time, energy, and money.

I know that his reputation is crucial here on this Forum, but this person only has 1 post, so he can just create another profile. I filed a report with the admins. I will also submit a claim to Fiverr.com and Paypal.com.

Then I'll just move on

What's with the snarky comment? Noah is just expressing his opinion (as you are); there's no need for a personal attack.

I do agree with you there.

That's ridiculous advice. Contact a moderator or the help desk with your proof and his WSO will likely be shut down. I've seen them shut down before for the very same reason. Hit him in his pocketbook.

Stephen,
So sorry to hear this happened to you. You should report the issue to all the parties involved... PayPal, then Fiverr, Warrior Forum, and even law enforcement as well as your own attorney.

You may find, if you're in the United States, that 'intellectual property rights' violations can be classified as a misdemeanor or a felony, depending on several factors, and it's even possible that any law enforcement agency won't even bother with it if it's only a misdemeanor, and especially if it's a misdemeanor that isn't their own locale.

Your own attorney may be able to file a civil suit, but again, if you're in different states/countries, that could get very messy, and very expensive.

You should still at least 'try,' though... and you should definitely report the issue to PayPal, Fiverr, and Warrior Forum.

You may find that certain sites will not remove the allegedly stolen content absent an actual 'legal verdict' that it was in fact stolen from you.

The issue is a liability for the site. If they disrupt someone's business based on an 'accusation' without proof, they could be liable for the damages done to that person's business.

But if you present them with your proof, they may decide that the proof is substantial enough that the liability to you would be greater than the liability to the person you are accusing, they may remove the content and possibly the priveleges of that person.

So you should report to law enforcement, but don't hold out any hope that it would be prosecuted. You should call your attorney, but be prepared to discover that the costs of filing a civil suit, even if you have it, won't be worth if you discover that the offender is deemed 'not collectable,' (you may win a judgment but getting them to actually 'pay' is a completely different animal, especially if they have no assets you can put 'liens' on to satisfy the judgment).

And you should also certainly notify PayPal, Fiverr and Warrior Forum.

-Danielle

"You ned to pick your fights" my mom would say!
A $5 product is not worth more than $5 to pursue it in court! Go ahead and pay your lawyer's fees and take the bum to court.
Then good luck trying to get any remuneration from him, IF you win!
I had a "Guru" internet marketer sign on as an affiliate for a loss leader product which I was offering as a 100% commission. She used a different e-mail to buy the product and essentially stole the product from me.
I could hardly believe this huge well known marketer would do this! But there it was! She could have asked and I would have given it to her!
People do some stupid things and I would report this guy to his webhost under the DCMA and report him to the Admin of this forum - but I certainly wouldn't waste my money on getting a lawyer for a $5 pack of images!
JMHO

I don't thing it is detached or ignorant as much as it is they want to see justice served.

Theft is theft. Its is illegal, punishable by real judges and such...not forum mods (not meant as an insult Paul and other mods) or minimum wage paypal employees.

But for me, it certainly isn't worth throwing good money after bad to pursue that angle.

I guess if the ecover was used on a normal hosting site, a DMCA to the host would be easy enough.

But getting a lawyer is just going to cost the OP more time, money, energy, and effort than its worth. Not to mention that at this point the OP is out $4.

Go hire a lawyer and the OP will be out a couple hundred just to get a damn letter sent threatening a lawsuit.

Then the accused would probably be back on this very forum asking what to do if he got a threatening letter from a lawyer over the $4 stolen cover (obviously with his side of the story). At that point, most here would advise him to ignore it...lol

Maybe if they had lawyers for hire on fiverr for $5 it would be a different deal...lol

If anything like that existed, I can certainly think of more fun ways to use the technology than blacking some fellows eye over $4.

If he is using artwork that you created and he did not pay for this artwork that you created then he is in violation of copyright laws (estimated value $2500) he is using your work for profit then you could be owed a portion of his profits generated by using your work. So yes, I would let him make some money and then take him to court. These days you can take him to small claims court if you are sueing for less then $5000. and you could take your chances without a lawyer if you think you have enough evidence to support your case.

TEAM NBAY

Hiring a lawyer to pursue a civil case in something like this is probably a poor choice. You can't collect monetary damages without an officially filed copyright so you'd be spending hundreds or thousands of dollars to end up getting what a DMCA would do - removing the image.

That's a little like getting out the shotgun to kill that annoying fly.

Reporting to the Help Desk here (with proof), filing a DMCA with the thief's host, reporting the theft to Fiverr and perhaps reporting it to PayPal - that takes very little time, no monetary expense and gets you the same results.

I believe you would be allowed to post a calm, objective note in the WSO thread stating that you are unhappy that he chose to reject and refund an image, then go on and use it. You can't call him nasty names but it will make it clear to everyone that this is a person who obviously cannot be trusted.

You are both wrong and should read up on copyright laws. Without an officially filed copyright, you cannot sue for monetary compensation based on lost revenues or damages. You still own the copyright but you will only accomplish the exact same thing as a DMCA will except you will pay a whole lot more money to do so.

Do I have to register with your office to be protected?
No. In general, registration is voluntary. Copyright exists from the moment the work is created. You will have to register, however, if you wish to bring a lawsuit for infringement of a U.S. work. See Circular 1, Copyright Basics, section

Per http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.pdf:

The window is very limited to be able to file after the infringement occurs, but it is theoretically possible. Considering the effective date of registration is when the Copyright office receives "all required elements--an application, a nonrefundable filing fee, and a nonreturnable deposit", it's unlikely that you will make the deadline.

Not to mention, in this particular case, the OP would have to pay a minimum of $35 to register his $5 item, plus spend time on the registration form and submit hard copies of the work and documentation, and the average processing times are as follows (per U.S. Copyright Office - I've Mailed My Application, Fee, and Copy of My Work to the Copyright Office. Now What? (FAQ)) :

Average Processing Time for e-Filing: 2.5 months
Average Processing Time for Paper Forms: 6.5 months

I wouldn't count on being able to sue for previous infringements.

And seriously, would you really recommend the OP do this in his particular circumstances?

You've been on the forum for 2 years and don't know the rules...???

Read Rule #1 of the forum rules and you'll have your answer

Theo, That's because you didn't see the whole conversation. I am not convinced either way, but the overall impression I got makes it believable.

I don't make these calls based on a single piece of information if I can avoid it. I've heard most of the 'excuses' too many times to just accept them without support.

On a side note, I have to say... Stephen's handling of this, from the seller's refund request to the detail he gave the mods and the way he addressed this publicly, has been textbook professional.


Paul