Lawyers? - Or just some pirates ?

During our journey through the depth of DMCA complaints, cease and desist letters and divers conversations with potential copyright infringing people we found out something astounding we just have to share with you, dearest reader.


whenever the infringing party receive such complaints (and after the 10th time we warn them finally decide to contact us) - they tell us they are lawyers!! copyright lawyers on top of it!
Some of them are not quite as bold and say 'one of their family members is a lawyer '(a copyright lawyer lol), don't want to take all the credits for their doings, but rather hide behind uncle or brother (or neighbor or milkman or whomever they have on their mind pushing forward as copyright specialist (those poor 'victims' probably don't even know about their 'elevation' lol).

Now, valued reader, isn't that strange?
Copyright lawyers all over the place and still they are so much wanted by well paying clients all over the world? Is it that the salary of a copyright lawyer is not as attractive as sitting at home and uploading files -or do they have no clients to take care of ?(what does not speak for the quality of their 'service'.

Hmmmm....maybe the copyright lawyers nowadays are doing those illegal uploads in their lunch break - maybe between two cases? As a kind of 'office sport'??? Maybe it is their 'dark side' breaking through and they finally want to commit a crime by themselves to see how the other side feels???

Nooo!! - NOW I KNOW!!! they want to attract new clients by sharing their stuff first and then offering help ROFL!!!! (by disclosing information about their pirate friends' IP's and addies and groups to us???) Well, we will sure recommend you to other store owners, who surely already have a copyright lawyer and probably don't need your business after all lol.

This is a nice try, dear pirates ,associates and script kiddies,  but rest assured, we sleep well, knowing now, that some of our customers might be lawyers, copyright lawyers, who watch over us like a mother hen over the chicks.But then - we already got a lawyer, heck!!- he even has an office and clients, a telephone number and a fax, toooooo!!! Not to mention a staff of legal assistants who support him in his work and is so involved in his work that he has no time for file sharing lol (what a blessing, he ensured us he don't need rapidshare points to get through the day and we tend to believe him)

To make a satirical story short and serious:::::It takes a better story to scare us and we will not be intimidated by your sore attempts to make us comply to digital piracy and file sharing. Not Now! Not Ever!

To our honest and valued customers, scrap designers, hobbyists, card artisans and web designer- we will further try all in our power to serve you and provide you with material you need for your pleasure or business. Beside providing sufficient licenses adjusted to your needs with as much freedom for creating as possible - we will make sure, that others don't steal and distribute what you have paid for at least not without consequences for their doings.

more curiosities from the world of sharing caring groups soon - stay tuned and CR compliant
sincerely yours, dedicated to the cause
Kat and Team

ps. this story is based on collected facts, the relation to real events can be proofed and is documented by NKDigitalArt. Thanks to all, who provided facts and proof, we appreciate your ongoing support, knowing what you are going through by monitoring groups and movements in the digital piracy scene. you are lambs amongst wolves and we understand if you at any point need to drop out of the team. Know that I am right beside you, fighting for the  cause and a coming generation of ecommerce merchants, who might have a better support by the law as it actually has been provided to protect their hard work and efforts from a ruthless and growing pirate community. If we don't stand up for fairness and a safe platform for working creatives - who will? thank you for all you do, KatNKDA

update

Hi all readers,

due a lack of time I decided not to continue publishing piracy cases in details, but rather to provide helpful links for other victims of digital piracy. Thanks for all emails I received from fellow designers and for your kind support in the effort to slow down piracy and copyright infringement, you can contact me any time for questions or to exchange experiences considering digital piracy, you have my email addy :). The subject is not from the table, only not a priority in my life, as you all know I have to work to make a living and as long as I am focused on those unpleasant and frustrating shares, I cannot give my all to the work I love and the customers of NKDigitalArt.
thanks also to all people out there, who report illegal links to me, your effort does not go unappreciated but is a sign, that not all people out there lost their values and still know right from wrong. My customer support will take appropriate action for every link you report, when we can find out the IP of the person sharing and/or contact the sharing people with a cease and desist notification. I know many of you know by now how to extract email headers and how important they are for follow up reports and the legal 'waterproof' process of it. If you want to help, please always forward also the email header to NKDA. if you don't know how to do this, please mail to my husband, he will be more than happy to explain and guide you through the process namon@nkdigitalart.us is his addy.

KatNKDA

Miss Rosie - or - how a group can go from bad to worse

a designer 'dared' to complain to a piracy group member about illegal sharing of their products - below the complaint and the reaction of the newly appointed or 'elevated' group owner (who is a well known pirate and also know for her nasty writing style when she has been 'cornered')

another one, who doesn't understand or refuses to realize what a 'non transferable license' is
No, Ms Rosie or whoever you are - you cannot give away what you buy since you do not buy the artwork or element or paper but a 'NON TRANSFERABLE LICENSE OF USAGE'

means
you can use it according to the designer's TOU
you cannot share it (non transferable)
you cannot call it 'yours' since you only buy a license and NOT the artwork itself

now repeat that 50 times and it might even sink in to the most wooden pirate heads lol

how anybody can come to the idea, that a complex scrap kit which took many hours to be completed, can change the owner for 3.50 USD lol, use some common sense folks! What you are talking about is custom work or commission (for which the rights can be sold) but you won't get those as cheap as a regular kit. Tz tz, pitiful lack of information and refusal to learn or even to read a designer's TOU (which they mostly remove before uploading to their RS accounts to keep the newbies ignorant about their doings)

for all my designing friends and artists
ban this one from your store if you don't care for your products to be spread around and be harassed and discriminated on top of it. Even if I don't know if she ever buys a kit, better safe than sorry, right?

just read the email, this person wrote to her piracy snake pit she calls a group, she sure has an imperial attitude and makes even Henry VIII looking quite pale. But maybe the unexpected leadership was a bit much for Rosie, quite a piece of work to send all the hateful mails and threats every day and keep the level of information down to the absolute minimum for the group members, who also have some innocent group rookies amongst them, who 'learn' from all kind of low lifes how to cheat, steal and take what isn't theirs. The change of the ownership in this group made it going from bad to worse.

Rosie, Rosie - don't be worried about your group and the members thereof - 4 pirates and the rest of it designers lol, not so great for spreading pay to use products around without getting reported. one does not have to wonder, why this group is in trouble since they opened.

I am looking forward to your next move or mail (which always are greatly amusing)


well, maybe one day Rosie learns to keep her paws off things which don't belong to her - until then, just lets go on and file those complaints. Remember - always file them to yahoo AND email provider for the maximum effect

Rosie's email adress (the current one and one of many as I assume) is
rats.suck2@gmail.com (I don not think she will ever use this one to buy at your store though lol)

now here is her IP - screenshots of the original mail below, also an excerpt of the polite mail, one of the designers wrote to a group member (click the images, so you can read it properly)
)
67.193.213.241

below is the provider info with the abuse adress
(btw. the original email can be provided for those who have a justifiable interest in it or don't 'believe' screen shots, just mail to nkda@nkdigitalart.us )

CIDR: 67.193.0.0/16
OriginAS: AS7992
NetName: CGOC-9BLK
NetHandle: NET-67-193-0-0-1
Parent: NET-67-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Allocation
NameServer: NS5.CGOCABLE.NET
NameServer: NS6.CGOCABLE.NET
Comment: Send email to security@cogeco.net for abuse/security
Comment: issues.
RegDate: 2007-07-20
Updated: 2008-05-08

RTechHandle: IPSER5-ARIN
RTechName: IP Services
RTechPhone: +1-905-333-7055
RTechEmail: ipservices@cogeco.net

OrgAbuseHandle: INTER3-ARIN
OrgAbuseName: Abuse and Security
OrgAbusePhone: +1-905-333-5343
OrgAbuseEmail: security@cogeco.net

OrgTechHandle: INS2-ARIN
OrgTechName: IP Network Service
OrgTechPhone: +1-905-333-7055
OrgTechEmail: ipservices@cogeco.net

Randi Andreasen

piracy, copyright infringement, mass sharing of whatever comes under her fingers
this one is persistent but not untouchable though, complaints are filed and will be processed by yahoo, no problem with Randi, she will give a lot to complain about in the future and repeat her offending and damaging activities. always remember - it is not done with taking links down, the complaints are what counts - so do your homework and file them, hit those thieves where it hurts - get their internet connection


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the pirates got your stuff and share it - what YOU can do

the pirates got your stuff and share it - what can you do

there is actually a lot you can do, here are some options

1. step - the 'Cease And Desist' letter
can be of help if the one who is sharing is a 'sharer by accident' or out of dis consideration.
I will upload a model CD letter and link to it as soon as possible.
tip:: if the culprit replies in an insulting way, you can on top of the infringement file against harassment. you have the right to contact and confront them, keep the mails they send to you and rejoice in every insult, this speeds up your case even more.

2. step - the complaints
against the platform where your stuff has been shared (google groups, yahoo groups, blogspot etc.)
against the provider of the infringing party
you find this provider by extracting the header of an email, the provider or ISP shows up as a number. You find a link in my side bar to a place, where you only have to copy and paste the email header in a blank field and it will extract and track the originating ISP for you
If this ISP only leads to a gmail account - no problem either, you can follow up with step 3

3. step - the subpoena
you can take your case directly to the court in your home town and file for a subpoena of disclosure of personal information about the infringing party (pirate) , do not delete any emails but rather save them on CD to take along when you contact your local courthouse.
once you have the subpoena, send it to the provider and to yahoo, according to the DMCA the providers and social networks have to disclose the information, the same goes for Rapidshare, pando, mediafire etc.

4. the demand of termination of an account by abuse
repeatedly offending users will be reported more than once, subpoena or not - you can demand from a provider to take the person off the 'air' if they don't stop their infringing activities. Yahoo mostly does that as soon as they are convinced about the nature of the shares and the premeditation and repeat of the infringements. include your demand literally like that: 'I demand of you to terminate the account of the infringing party, since the infringement has been repeated' make sure the word 'demand' is included

little tip::if a person shares your stuff in more than one mails, file your complaints in a time delay of 24 hours, this way the provider issue a second (third, fourth and so on) complaint number and treat it as a second case of infringement, remember - they do it again, you can demand of the provider to block their accounts

5. when you file complaints, stay with facts and not emotions. we all know what illegal shares do to us mentally and we tend to give in to the anger and disappointment over the loss of income and the 'rape' of our work. This is ok and understandable, but keep professional correspondence professional.

complaints have to be filed a certain way and every place has their own 'forms' they want to work with, stick to those forms, don't forget to include the statements they need to have and your full personal information, a complaint is not a mail you send to someone to cry your heart out, it is an official document which is an important part of a lawsuit if it comes to this later on. many complaints get trashed right away, if the infringed party does not follow the form and instructions by filing it. Prepare model complaints to make it easy on yourself, once you have the model complaint, you just have to fill in your information about the case and your person, takes you 5 minutes and you can send it off to the provider.

I will upload all the model complaints I have, for different places and providers, just give me some time for that, I do this in my free time and so it will be a slow process until this blog is complete, when it comes to forms and explanations.

stay safe and don't let those mobsters out there get the best of you, always remember - they are wrong and you are the copyright owner, you have rights and need to demand those rights, keep fighting, don't be afraid or scared. It takes more than a wannabe mafiosi to bring an honest, working person down.

KatNKDA

new case - Jeanne Convis

a new case is coming up, a lady named Jeanne Convis, well know pirate and snag'nshare groups member is sharing oooodles of kits with illegal links to rapidshare, pando, mediafire and so on.

Her IP is

71.116.251.125

The first 'x-received'from' line, reading the header from bottom to top

Here is the link to the arin IP base, when you follow it, you see her provider with the abuse email.

http://ws.arin.net/whois/?queryinput=71.116.251.125

The policies of verizon net require a complaint on paper, either way fax or regular mail

Verizon Corporate Services Corp.l

Patrick M. Flaherty - designated agent for DMCA notices

1320 N. Courthouse Rd.

9th floor

Arlington, VA 22201

Fax 1-703-351-3669

this one is buying once and then sharing with thousands of people - yes - YOUR hard work, YOUR hours of creating and your artwork, too.
She got targeted before in another group and vanished for a little while in the swamp of piracy underground, now she's back and it is time to stop her, once and for all!

let's get it on, should be easy enough since we know she is using her verizon email addy for committing her offenses - how thankful we are for such crucial information.

see you later with an update (or maybe tomorrow since I am working on some new releases.) What are you doing for a living, Jeanne? Shop lifting lol??? just a joke

oh, before I forget it, here is one of the original email headers (as always you can receive the material if you mail to nkda@nkdigitalart.us )
X-Sender: jmcsocal@verizon.net
X-Apparently-To: Pando-Licious@yahoogroups.com
X-Received: (qmail 22056 invoked from network); 30 Jan 2010 19:27:49 -0000
X-Received: from unknown (98.137.34.46)
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X-Mailer: YahooMailClassic/9.1.10 YahooMailWebService/0.8.100.260964
To: undisclosed recipients: ;
X-Originating-IP: 68.142.206.173
X-eGroups-Msg-Info: 1:12:0:0:0
From: "jmcsocal@verizon.net"
X-Yahoo-Profile: jmcsocal@verizon.net
Sender: Pando-Licious@yahoogroups.com

btw. the little blue arrows mark the mails I reported to the copyright owner, the others will have that arrow, too, as soon as the infringed parties contact NKDigitalArt.
Remember, nothing is accomplished with taking links down, provider complaints, yahoo complaints, gmail complaints and such are what really will make the right impression, the more often you file such complaints the more likely those offenders will be taken off the net. file one a day to the provider, another one next day, another one the 3rd day, this way the infringing party is considered as repeatedly offending and will get black listed sooner or later.

'Cease And Desist' notifications, what they are and why I don't believe in them

'Cease And Desist' Letters what they are and why I don't believe in them

what is a Cease and desist notification (CDN) and who sends/receives those?

the copyright owner of a product has the option, to send a notification to the infringer. This note is meant as a warning, it tells the infringing party to stop sharing and desist any infringing material uploaded by them immediately. It is a kind of 'last warning' before filing provider complaints, the last 'chance' to straighten up.

As I noticed increased illegal sharing of my products, I started sending such notifications to the culprits, having still the hope it will warn them and they will take it for serious.

well, in the most cases I was wrong. While some 'first time sharers' complied and wrote back to me with their agreement, the majority of pirates didn't reply and if they did - it was in an insulting and threatening way, not being grateful I just warned them instead of filing complaints directly, but hateful, obscene and with a language which I only heard before from fish grocers in the haven of Hamburg lol. See some of the examples in an earlier posting. This is how low they go - first they steal, illegally distribute my work on on top of that harassing and threatening me with their responses. I will not give those criminals the benefits of a doubt any longer, neither will I warn them with polite emails, blame it on yourself - you get caught sharing - you will get reported.

These warning also are a risk for the copyright owner, it 'warns' the hard core pirates and all they do is to run and hide, means - founding new groups (the 'secret' ones) and targeting the copyright owner with massive shares. (I had to take over 300 illegal links down after those letters have been sent, from all kind of file sharing providers who are supporting and nurturing with their policies art theft and piracy of criminal wannabe mafia organizations.)

Ever since NKDigitalArt decided, not to warn anybody any more. We see a product shared - NKDigitalArt is filing complaints, all throughout the US but also in overseas (remember the Millenium Copyright Act is an international agreement, piracy and art theft are forbidden in the most civilized countries and punishable by law, especially in European countries the law is a lot stricter than here in the U.S. when it comes to illegal file sharing.)

Such complaints are transmitted by fax (some overseas provider prefer to have 'something written' before they act - but they WILL take action if a case is made known to them, especially if someone repeatently violates the copyright law. They do even more - for example in Germany such cases will be submitted directly from the provider to the authorities for further investigation, since copyright infringement is a federal crime)

So dear pirates - cease and desist letters are not a threat but a CHANCE for you, if you ever receive one. Take it as a 'treat' , the copyright owner could also file complaints right away, it is up to the owner of the rights to decide if they give you a last chance to straighten up or not. You answer in a rude manner and non compliant - go ahead and suffer the consequences.

I stated the policies of NKDA earlier - this is how it will be - you share - we try all to get your internet connection (as a first step, we got to start somewhere, every further step will be a lot more unpleasant) - on top of that you will have your '5 minutes of fame' on this blog, since we publish such cases in all details from now on.

more later

have a great weekend
KatNKDA