Time to assess the true cost of digital piracy by Joanne Seiff

Time to assess the true cost of digital piracy

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/time-to-reconsider-the-cost-digital-piracy-1.3488270

Etsy crackdown

http://www.thewriteassistantllc.com/2016/11/09/etsy-shop-shutdowns/

Illegal trademark use on Ebay

A COUPLE from St Austell who added popular logos such as Hello Kitty and Fireman Sam onto goods they were selling through their eBay shop have been ordered to pay up for illegally using the trademarks.
Read more at http://www.westbriton.co.uk/st-austell-couple-ordered-to-pay-up-for-illegal-use-of-logos/story-29541327-detail/story.html#7xePv71tIMx7juHm.99 "...

Zombies? Copyright Myths That Refuse to Die.

A very good article with some of the myths we frequently see about copyright.

http://www.thebloglawyer.com/zombies

When a designer tries to have violations removed ...

A designer has submitted a complaint to a Russian site as her Intellectual Property has been used illegally. This is the response she has received, so basically the hosting site doesn't respect copyright & is telling the designer to sort it out with the person who is violating their copyright. Great for international cooperation and trying to avoid prejudice.

"Your appeal has been considered. We inform you of the following. Our company does not consider the dispute as a judicial organ of the parties of copyright infringement and counterfeit goods. Being a Russian company in its activity, we only obey Russian law. On the territory of Russia do not apply the laws of the United States (also DMCA), the EU and other countries. In addition, all the vows in written or verbal form even «under penalty of perjury» not be regarded as an adequate proof. Please note that all your accusations based on certain assumptions and without direct evidence under Russian law is a criminal offense. Your complaint will be handed over to the client for consideration"

Kind Regards to you too!

Here is a prime example of how sites ignore our complaints when designers try to protect their Intellectual Property & request takedowns of illegally copied designs. Their "Kind Regards" are anything but & we'd like to suggest where they can stick them.
* * *
Dear Sir/Madam

You have requested that (site name) takes action in regards to a specific website, since you find that there is illegal content on the website or you have asked to have protected customer information handed over to you.
We have no possibility or intention of being a judge in these cases, and therefore we advise you to direct your enquiry to the owner of the website which can be seen via the ordinary who-is lookup or to go via the system of justice (enforcement court) and get a court order against the website owner from a EU or US court stating that the owner should remove the content.
In the case of customer information, we ask that you provide a court order stating what customer information is to be handed over.
Upon receipt of a court order we will act responsibly and follow the directions of that court order.
We also refer to our privacy policy which can be found on our website.
We also want to draw your attention to the fact, that a website with its contents can be moved to another webhost/registrar within a few days and that a court order against the website owner in this situation is a more useful tool for you to pursue your rights.
If you wish, we can forward a message to the domain owner. If you want us to do this, we ask that you write out the message to be forwarded in full as we do not word or make changes to the forwarded message in order to avoid any confusion or misunderstandings.
Kind Regards

"I didn't know the site contains copyright violations"

We have put together a short summary to try to assist people in what to avoid on forums or web sites as we have received comments recently from people using Chinese sites saying they didn't know the charts are illegal copies. It is a non-exhaustive pointer guide. The countries specified are examples as obviously not all sites from these countries are violating copyrights but unfortunately the worst sites are found on their servers & takedown requests are often totally ignored.
Mainly it is common sense but sometimes it can be hard to tell which is why we recommend anyone in doubt to ask either a designer, a specialized forum or the Association.
This is a basis for educating and debate on the subject, as most of our posts are.