# Something a little startling.



## littlewailer

Mods, I am indeed at a loss for where to put this. I'm just in a state of shock.

I decided to google my SOTW user name for fun. Ya know, see what comes up and came across this

http://www.todayaq.com/general-discussion/talk-02030.html

and this

http://www.todayaq.com/general-discussion/talk-03628.html

These are old posts and a thread that I made here.... on SOTW. But they are being pawned off as Copyrighted (illegally) articles or some kind of blog.

Isn't this like..... super illegal. Don't they have to prove they're sources if they are going to copyright text. You can easily cut and paste sentences from those pages and have them link back to SOTW.

I feel cheated. Although both of those were from a few years ago while I was still very new (and naive) to SOTW.

AGG


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## littlewailer

Sorry for the Typo's... I am unable to edit my post and I see a few.


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## littlewailer

Oh, this is the marketplace. In the forum it just says miscellaneous.

MODS I AM SORRY. (Error based on the pure shock of the content within)


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## trice

Regardless of where this thread should be put, this is very disturbing. This site contains mountains and mountains of SOTW posts. They just grabbed them and put them on their site. At the bottom of each page is a copyright statement that is, of course, not true.

Any of you of lawyer/saxonphonists out specialize in copyright law?


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## littlewailer

Grumps?


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## saxman01

This seems strange and a somewhat similar to stealing but it doesn't really seem malicious. I seriously doubt that any copyright law protects forum posts. Perhaps you should contact the guy and ask him to give proper credit though?


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## bluesaxgirl

WoW. A lot of these topics are directly copied off of SOTW and have references to other members in it. This is definitely wrong.


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## Yofis

Well you've done it...I went and googled my SOTW name and found this:

http://yofis.org/

a blogger who goes on and on about his chihuahua and theology while vomiting with the stomach flu. Yikes!


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## prosax1

WoW! try contacting those sites?


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## trice

It may not be legal. SOTW may get automatic copyright on the posts. Where are those pesky lawyers when you need them?


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## BOPITY FUNK

I'm on too;s'pose its our 15 minutes of fame! 
Bopity


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## shmuelyosef

yeah...check purl=http://www.todayaq.com/general-discussion/talk-04577.html]THIS[/url]out


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## shmuelyosef

yeah...check THISout

...grrrr


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## gary

...and people get on one's case from time to time here for not coming out of the closet and posting one's full name and other personal info openly on the forum. Hmm. :roll:


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## kcp

Hi guys, sorry I'm late and littlewailer, no worries about posting in the wrong forum, I moved it right where it belongs 

This said, thanks for your concern but Harri is aware of that site for quite some time already and didn't seem to think it is a big deal. He kinda took it as a compliment


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## Gordon (NZ)

Stuff from me there too.
I never gave permission.
Hmmm.


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## bfoster64

I'm a lawyer and I know just enough about intellectual property law to get myself in trouble, though I am not an intellectual property lawyer, so don't rely too heavily on this, but here are my thoughts:

This other site might actually have a copyright for the specific presentation of SOTW material contained therein. It might qualify as a "derivative work." The creator of the work would still have a copyright in the original work. If an SOTW member were trying to publish and profit from his work he might have reason to look at the copyright infringement issues, but since nobody is making any money off any of this then there's little reason to spend any time thinking about it. If another site started making significant profits by stealing material from SOTW, then SOTW might have reason to look into the issue. It might be able to force a disgorgement of profits. I doubt that will ever happen. If anybody needs specific legal advice regarding intellectual property rights, there are plenty of qualified lawyers out there who will help you (for a modest fee, of course).


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## gary

This isn't the only site, that's why I'm a bit reluctant. I had a music merchant actually take a post of mine from SOTW, add my full name which he had because I had ordered something from him, and then used my SOTW post with my full name underneath as an endorsement on his web site. When I contacted him and told him to change it, he just ignored my request - for years.


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## FremontSax

gary said:


> This isn't the only site, that's why I'm a bit reluctant. I had a music merchant actually take a post of mine from SOTW, add my full name which he had because I had ordered something from him, and then used my SOTW post with my full name underneath as an endorsement on his web site. When I contacted him and told him to change it, he just ignored my request - for years.


Gary,

If this peeves you. Just state who it is and provide a pair of links. One to your sow statement and one to the misused statement. Add a statement about how you object to their miss use of your name for their commercial profit. State it here clearly on sow and let a couple of other sites reference it and then google will likely pick it up and when people google the vendor your complaint will pop close to the top.

My point being that misusing statements for commercial endorsements can make a company look dishonest. The Internet is very capable of spreading news about abuse. If I have any doubts about a new vendor I likely will not use them.


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## MartinMusicMan

so I googled my SOTW user name and up popped a conversation between me and bandmommy. It was innocuous -- each wishing the other happy birthday -- but still disconcerting. I also viewed visitor messages to me, and my profile which said that my current activity was replying to the thread "Something a little startling." SOTW users should be made aware that their conversations are seen by search engines, as are their visitor messages and profiles.


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## gary

FremontSax said:


> Gary,
> 
> If this peeves you. Just state who it is and provide a pair of links. One to your sow statement and one to the misused statement. Add a statement about how you object to their miss use of your name for their commercial profit. State it here clearly on sow and let a couple of other sites reference it and then google will likely pick it up and when people google the vendor your complaint will pop close to the top.
> 
> My point being that misusing statements for commercial endorsements can make a company look dishonest. The Internet is very capable of spreading news about abuse. If I have any doubts about a new vendor I likely will not use them.


Thanks for the suggestion. The merchant has since gone out of business and the web site is now history.


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## Bill Mecca

not that profit has anything to do with violating copyright, but that site is making a profit, or at least attempting to wtih google adsense. It is using the copy from here to pile on the keywords and drive traffic to the site in the hopes some visitors may click on a google ad and they make $.

and it wouldn't really qualify as a derivative work since it is just wholesale copying, though tyey did reformat it slightly, but it's doubtful the court would see that as significant. more details at the following link.

http://www.lawgirl.com/copyright.shtml#derivative


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## SaxPunter

Not one of my posts in there.... I'm bummed!


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## gary

SaxPunter said:


> Not one of my posts in there.... I'm bummed!


Au contraire mon Frere. They know better than to **** with Aussies. :twisted:


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## SaxPunter

gary said:


> Au contraire mon Frere. They know better than to **** with Aussies. :twisted:


Muhaha.... we'd just take them out to Wolf Creek


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## bandmommy

Yup! It was there! 
Thank goodness there weren't any old "Martysax converstaions". 
All joking aside... It is really creepy....


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## MartinMusicMan

told ya, bm. and it is creepy.


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## harmonizerNJ

So, if we create a thread here on SOTW and lace it with accusations of plagiarism by todayaq.com, will they copy that as well to their site? Maybe if we throw in some advice about sax mouthpieces, they will.


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## johnnysax

gary said:


> Thanks for the suggestion. The merchant has since gone out of business and the web site is now history.


See what your endorsement has done! :shock:


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## Harri Rautiainen

todayaq.com is in LA area in California.
I have banned a few of their IP addresses now. We'll see if any effect?

Thanks for alerting,
-Harri


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