Ongoing...

I received a reply from the web site designer of hrantiques.com (the site that is stealing my content and that of many other people), and decided that this is an issue which impacts us all. So, in that light, I'm going to share our email interaction as it unfolds. Below you'll see his response to my comments left on his sites, followed by my email response to his.
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Email response from web site designer:
On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 6:35 AM, Andreas Viklund wrote:
Hello there!

I have replied to the comment you posted on my blog. I suggest that you read my two replies, and then do what is proper to do: apologize for accusing me of being a spam blogger and a content thief. Such claims can seriously hurt my reputation and my business, even if the claim is completely invalid and not backed up by any kind of reason. It would be for your own benefit as well, since that claim reveals that you do not do any kind of research before you go into attack mode - which doesn't look pretty at all.

I'll be awaiting your reply, and as written on my site, I wish you the best of luck with securing your content - by making sure to aim in the right direction before you fire. :)

--Andreas Viklund, professional website template designer, Jokkmokk, Sweden
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My response to his email:

You are listed as designer on the web site that has stolen my property. Andreas Viklund and Ainslee Johnson are the only links/contacts listed in conjunction with that site. If you designed the site, and its format to auto upload RSS feeds directly as new content, you are at fault. The link to Ainslee leads to another similar site with no contact information AND no comments allowed. Therefore I will proceed with action against you. If there is another party involved with the hrantiques.com site, please immediately forward this email to them and send me their contact information.

I have searched and do not see a reply/response to my comment anywhere on either your site (andreasviklund.com) or the hrantiques.com site. Please send me the direct link to the response you reference in your email. As for 'doing what is proper to do', that is exactly my intention:

With my previous comments on your blog (in lieu of sending an email, since you provide no direct contact information on your site) and this email response to you, I am informing you and any and all parties involved in www.hrantiques.com that you are violating my copyright. I will take legal action under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act unless you remove my content from your site immediately. You have 24 hours to comply.

For your information:
The 1998 Digital Millenium Copyright Act governs copyright infringement as well as technology whose purpose is to circumvent measures intended to protect copyrights. Under the DMCA, rights-holders like me can complain to services like GoDaddy that content uploaded by users infringes their copyrights. This act criminalizes the act of circumvention of a technological protection system put in place by a copyright holder -- even if one has a fair use right to access that information, they do not have implicit right to use it.

I am also contacting the company that hosts your Web site, GoDaddy, as well as advertisers on your site and search engines, providing the necessary evidence of your theft of my property via mail or fax, as required. The DMCA puts the onus on advertisers, Web hosts and search engines to remove copyright violations if you should so choose not to remove the content you stole from me. Ultimately the site can be shut down completely for this offense, as I suspect it would be due to the many blogs you have stolen content from.

It is one thing to reference another person's writing/content in your own post, and provide a link to them. This is an acceptable use of second party content - however, it STILL requires permission to do so.
It is quite another to reproduce exactly that person's writing and photography in their entirety. This is an express and clear violation of international copyright laws and a blatant attempt to gain advertising revenues for yourself based on the content you steal from others.

"Good luck securing your content' - was this sarcastic? I hope not. Intellectual Copyright laws protect my content from the moment I publish it on my own blog - this is how it is secured. You are breaking the law. In the UK, Sweden, America, anywhere - your practice is not acceptable nor allowable. Your actions are illegal.

Yes, DO talk to me about reputation and business damage, Andreas. I am not a contributor to your site and yet you list me as such. I am not writing blog posts for you but you publish them as such. This is a gross misrepresentation of an implied business relationship that does not exist. As it stands, you have stolen property from me and misrepresented me professionally. 'Not Pretty' indeed!

You have also stolen property from third parties - the photos that you published on your site of various antique dealers and of Columbia Winery that are contained in my original posts are private property. I obtained permission to use those photos from the businesses. This permission does not include rebroadcast or duplication on any other source/medium in any other way. You are in a very serious legal situation with this. I've notified each business involved, given them the links to your blog and the posts containing their photos, and they will take it from there. Suffice it to say that Columbia Winery has a very large legal department with endless resources for pursuing theft of their property and brand collateral.

What you don't seem to understand is that taking a high tone and throwing attitude does not make what you did right in any sense of the word. You do not scare or intimidate me, Andreas. I have a well-known voice in my industry and can shed a substantial light on what you are doing through many media outlets who already publish my work - PAID publishing, which is how I make my living. I give them permission to republish my blog posts and articles because without that permission they would be committing a crime. As you are.

You suggest quite sarcastically that I 'aim in the right direction before I fire' - no problem.
I will continue to post on my blogs about your practice of stealing content. I will also be sharing our email conversations publicly on my blog. I will continue to share the link to your site so that people can see what you are doing and flood you with comments awaiting moderation. I will continue to notify each of the other 'contributors' to your blog that they are being robbed and misrepresented. I will spearhead a class action suit against you if I have to to get you to stop stealing the artistic and intellectual property of the photographers, writers, artisans, and others whose original content is appearing on your site. I am sure they will join me in this pursuit of justice.

Far simpler for you to cease and desist your illegal activity and remove all of the stolen posts from your site. IMMEDIATELY. Again, you have 24 hours from this time (9 AM PDT 10 September 2009) to comply before further action is taken.

Debi Ward Kennedy