All quotes from SGW. I didn't want to quote everything but these are the first few where he lays out his case. The "letter" should be found in the fourth quoted section.
I just received a final answer from Dreamhost that hosts the infamous Dr. Shades Mormon Discussions forum. I have been personally battling with Dream host to remove a particular thread on that discussion forum where they made vile threats towards me, published photo's of myself and family members, and participated in the most outlandish defamation ever.
After consulting with my attorney, they noticed that the photo's they kept online in a discussion thread were copyrighted. I sent my brother-in-law (who took the photo's and is a photo journalists) a copy of the email regarding a "Take down notice" since the photographs of me were copyrighted.
If you go to the website, you will find that Mormon Discussions is no longer online and will get a message from Dream host that the website has not been uploaded. Thankfully, I sent Dr. Shades the same email (when I sent it to Dream Host).
I would not be surprised that they will come back with a new Mormon Discussion, however, maybe Dr. Shades and his ilk followers will realize that they need to maintain some decency and have their discussion forum members realize that they can't simply just swipe someone's photographs without permission, alter those photographs, and then participate in defamation of Latter-day Saint members.
The point is that Anti-Mormon's like to use Defamation and Slander to attack. If they want to ridicule, they have that right. However, publishing photographs of my family, and even publishing photographs of me, and taking the liberty of changing those photographs without prior permission is a violation of the DMCA. As per the right of the copyright owner, the image of myself is protected under copyright.
I was not expecting the entire site to be taken down, I was expecting the images of myself be removed from the thread due to copyright infringement. Some Hosting Sites will remove offending content by deleting the entire site in order to avoid copyright litigation where they will become liable and responsible for any damages incurred - including attorney fee's.
Since I could not get them to delete the threads due to personal threats (one poster had posted a flash image of a Oujia Board where it spelled out D.I.E) underneath a photo of me. I also started receiving hate mail, people were friending me and then hacking my Facebook computer.
As for the writing of At the Ocean that they linked to, yes, I had written that long before my return back to the LDS Faith. I had tried to figure out a way to have that short fiction deleted from my Associated content, however, Associated Content would not allow users to delete certain types of content due to it being Non-Exclusive. I finally actually had the ability to delete the content from my Associated content by having other AC Contributor's go to the Short fiction, flag it as inappropriate and within a couple of days, I was allowed to go into my AC Dashboard to delete the content.
So, it was not my intention of having that forum completely removed from Dreamhost Servers, it was my intent of having certain information removed due to its unethical content and copyright infringement.
I actually have not visited that Board but maybe once. I think I had an account there a long time ago but never posted anything there. I left them to their own thinking and discussions. However, I came across the thread when I was checking my dashboard on my wordpress blog and noticed that there were a large amount of visitors from Mormon Discussion to my blog. I clicked on the link and it brought me to the discussion where, like I said, defamation, ridicule, mockery, publishing photo's of my family, ad hominem attacks, and then the publishing and altering of a photo my brother-in-law took of me for my unsuccessfully published novel - Mourning Ellyn. The Image is copyrighted since I have had to deal with copyright infringement over the past couple of years.
As previously stated, they can ridicule, mock, and slander all they want, but when it reaches the level of harassment, cyberbullying, and defamation of character, as well as copyright infringement, they are not only unethical, but they are violating US Federal Laws. And since the Web hosting company is based in California, the company itself can be brought into litigation if it came right down to it.
Am I angry over this? No, frustrated, yes. I would not be human if I found what they were saying to have not affected me in anyway. I am just glad that the issue has been resolved and hopefully the admins (Dr. Scratch, Dr. Shades, and the like) have learned their lesson as to not engage in such unethical and illegal behavior, or allow their members to engage in such behavior as previously done.
Ceebo, no offense, but when individuals take it upon themselves to go beyond mockery and ridicule and engage in unethical and illegal activities by posting family photographs, defamation of character, and then subsequently producing a medium and platform where harassment and cyber-bullying begins - then yes, it is something to celebrate and expose. If they had left the pictures out of it, if they had not published photographs that one member altered, or even published an ouija board spelling out death, and then from that, individuals decided to contact me to harass and bully, then it would have been left alone and the site would not have been taken down by Dreamhost. however, since members on that board took it upon themselves to engage in this type of activity and the fruit thereof produced harassment to me and my wife, yes, I am going to take action and yes, if dream host had not removed the copyright infringement, then Dr. Shades, and those who contributed to that particular discussion thread would be charged and taken to court for copyright infringement. And yes, I did consult my attorney and they investigated it with me and advised me to first and foremost send a Take Down notice as per the Federal Regulations of DMCA because of the photograph of me being copyrighted.
Yes, it is not a broad paintbrush of calling these individuals out for their unethical behavior and the choices they made in posting such vile and offensive content. Now, if you are an intelligent human being, you will agree that they crossed the line. Even Katherine Cupcake Queen chastized the one poster of publishing photographs of my family.
Again, the point of my original post is to provide information that members at the discussion board stepped over the bounds and engaged in illegal acts that had dire consequences. Did I want Mormon Discussions to be taken down? No. However, dependent upon the ISP and Webserver hosting sites, some will remove the website all together, others will remove the content that is found to be offensive or someone violated the copyright of another work. This is so that they will not be held liable if litigation is proceeded.
Here is the actual email I sent to Dream Host, Dr. Shades, and my brother in law:To New Dream Network, LLC and Dr. Shades
I am the copyright owner, as well as James Snook, of the photographs being infringed at:
http://www.Mormon***...Berman&start=21
And:
http://www.Mormon*****.***/phpBB3/viewt ... thy+Berman
Copies of the photographs being infringed are included to assist in their removal from the infringing Website.
This letter is official notification under the provisions of Section 512 ( c ) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) to effect removal of the above-reported infringements. I request that you immediatelyissue a cancellation message as specified in RFC 1036 for the specified postings and prevent the infringer, who is identified by its Web address, from posting the infringing photographs to your servers in the future. Please be advised that law requires you, as a service provider, to “expeditiously remove or disable access to” the infringing photographs upon receiving this notice. Noncompliance may result in a loss of immunity for liability under the DMCA.
I have a good faith belief that the use of the material in the manner complained of here is not authorized by me or James Snook, the copyright holders, or the law. The information provided here is accurate to the best of my knowledge. I swear under penalty of perjury that I and James Snook are the copyright holders.
Please send me at the address noted below a prompt response indicating the actions you have taken to resolve this matter.
Do I have a legal right to request those photographs to be removed? Yes, because it is copyrighted material: MCN: BUNQ2-WQ1SN-S8JK8 which is at My Free Copyright.
So, you may disagree, however, the truth remains the truth, members on that board are unethical and have crossed the line to cyber-bullying and harassment, or have produced a mechanism in which individuals have chosen to participate in cyberbullying and harassment - which is a Federal Crime.
As to why the entire forum was removed from Dream Hosts webserver and not the photographs, that was a decision Dream Host made in light of my Take Down Notification.
And, I will reiterate, maybe next time those individuals will realize that they must comply with the laws of the land, or face their website to be removed if their members engage in such immature and childish antics.
The hornets are mad. However, if they had reigned in their member's posting and put in appropriate measures to discourage the posting of family photo's and the like, they probably would have had their precious forum intake.
There is now question as to my move to submit a Take Down notice. They are reading my posts here and then commenting on other forums - why not come here and comment? Are they afraid? Again, they rather fall prey to ad hominem's, slander, and defamation.
However, I have sought legal advice. The steps I took were within the bounds of the law as advised by the attorney my wife and I have.
Here are the facts:
1) The Original OP was about me soliciting donations for a magazine publication that I have had a desire to produce (I have recently removed the paypal donation button from my blog until further notice).
2) Those who commented did not keep within the nature of the OP and then began discussing an old erotica that I had published on Associated Content prior to AC being bought out by Yahoo.com
3) A member took the liberty to publish photographs of my family and then alter a photograph of myself that was taken by my brother-in-law who is a photo journalists and it was a photo taken for an Author Bio - hence the copyright is in place.
4) As per my attorney, since my blog, writerscafe.org profile, and the author bio photograph are considered copyrighted material (even though they are published online), I was within my right to submit a take down notice to the ISP and not the Admin of the website.
Those who question this motive do so out of their own anger, ignorance and foolishness. Here is the actual Digital Law regarding DMCA and Copyright. As stated, it was submitted in good faith and not for any other malicious conspiracies that the Anti's are now buzzing about like angry hornets. Instead of being rancorous in their disdain and bitterness, they should realize that they overstepped their bounds. However, Christ said it best - Light has come into the world but there are some who love darkness rather than light because if they come into the Light and Truth, their evil deeds will be exposed for what they are.
I actually have been finding content online (mainly writing) and have had to deal with take down notices over the past year. The photo of my head shot was another one. Actually my intention was to seek how to prevent further cyber bullying and harassment as a result from the thread that was posted, and the way it had degenerated. When I contacted my attorney a couple of weeks ago, they stated that I did not have any grounds for any true cyber bullying because I had to prove it was a direct result from the thread. I then asked about the photos they published and showed my attorney the cache of my family pictures being published. They advised me of the following steps:
1) Contact the webhost with a Take Down Notice. If I could, send the same take down notice to the site admin and if at all possible, do it in one email.
2) If the take down notice did not work after 5 business days, then contact them back and they would issue a take down notice from their office
3) If the photo's were still available to the general public then subpoenas would be submitted to acquire official address of the Site Admins that operate MDB and legal notifications and take down notices will be submitted
4) Legal action and litigation would be taken against the individual poster, as well as the site admins and site owner and possibly the webhost company.
Since the issue has been resolved, and since the hornets want to continue with their mudslinging and slander, then let them. They are just angry that they were caught performing illegal and unethical actions and it came and bit them in the rumpus.