Community Help: Protecting copyright

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Every industry faces some form of piracy, and that is normal. Open source efforts normally don't face many issues from theft of their work, but it does happen. Open Source ExpertAgents and Indicators suffer horrible abuses of piracy where unscrupulous people take hard work and sell it as their own.

vykhukholev was one such person who joined our community with the intent to sell work of others. There are many more. Based on some community feedback, I'd like to collaborate on finding some of these thieves and reporting them for copyright violation. I hope to collect additional information on the violations, and provide the information to the copyright holders if they wish to pursue their legal rights. Copyright holders could approach us asking for help gathering information and/or protecting their copyright. This is a way for users of community developed software to give something back to that community.

Searching for "Forex" yielded 258 results. I would be amazed if 120 of those sellers actually owns the copyright to their material. 36 products had "Buy it now" options for under $5. I seriously doubt these people own the rights to the materials.

This person lists information about copyright, likely that the ebook is in the public domain. http://cgi.ebay.com/Insiders-Secrets-of-Online-Currency-Forex-Trading-Ebook_W0QQitemZ230046198013QQihZ013QQcategoryZ47103QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

On the other hand, http://cgi.ebay.com/A-Massive-Manual-for-Successful-Forex-Currency-Trading_W0QQitemZ320044841481QQihZ011QQcategoryZ102485QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

by http://www.masterforex.co.uk/ looks a little suspect. A 107 page book sold by a website that is filled with adsense links to other places. No copyright information listed. Even the tips look stolen :/ The same Ebay seller has books for sex tips, a giant collection of Dreamweaver ebooks for under $5, and an acne solution. They are also using copyrighted images as if they own the image.

I can see a few ways to proceed here. The first step is to identify people who sell ebooks, indicators and EA on Ebay like the person above. The second is ask who wrote the book/indicator/EA. This may sound like a common request, since someone buying a book or code would want to know who wrote it. If the answer is something other than "I wrote it" or "it was written by X and is in public domain/licensed" we submit a complaint to Ebay. If the seller claims to write it, we google for paragraphs, phrases that may be direct quotes. We may do the same thing for images on images.google.com, but a simple complaint may work.

I am not a lawyer, but I personally believe the burden of providing documentation that copyright has been respected is up to the distributor. We may send an additional message to the seller before filing a complaint on ebay, letting the seller know that they must provide copyright info or we will issue complaints to ebay in an attempt to get them banned, for the good of the copyright holder.

This is intended to have 2 primary effects. #1 a lot of the theft and distribution on Ebay will stop. #2 The really low prices will reflect really low quality, and copyright owners who do wish to distribute their software/ebook commercially will have a more stable market.

If we want to carry this further, we could ask for Ebay to provide additional information to us, like a history of sales in order to assess damages preparing for litigation. Since Ebay is the *ultimate* distributor, they are legally required to assist us or they might be named as a party to the violation. Technically, a copyright holder can sue Ebay directly, but I don't think that would be worth it at this time. If the law was changed as a result, I don't think it would be a positive change.

Shall we make a list of the worst culprits on Ebay by username?

esales2007 is on the list so far.

 

Community help in Protecting Copyright

Ok D,

I'm a newbee to fx Only one year.

I hear what you are saying and you are right.

I'm one of those people that "hover" over threads, endlesly test and look for EAs that might be successful without directly contributing to their development. But I do it to try to learn. I'm not a programmer though I have 15 years experience in PC computing technlogy and at this stage at least I must admit to be a piss poor trader. But I'm learning and in time I will too, be able to give back. In the last few months, in discovering this forum, I am indebted as are many others, to a very few very generous individuals who have helped us learn the business through this forem. My debt to those people who I've never met or spoken to is already huge. You know who I'm talking about so I won't mention names. We are naked amateurs in probably the biggest, most ruthless and and most manipulative business in the world. And yet a few talented and diciplined amateurs survive in this shark pond and through their genious and ideas occasionally confound the professionals.. My Dad used to tell me when I was a kid.. Son .. the people who are doing it aren't talking about it.

Thats surely true of the professionals.

Well here in TSD thats not wholly true.

So If I can help in preventing the generosity and achievements of those few who contribute so much,from being exploited by the slime that occasionally crawl out of the woodwork - count me in.

If it encourages other "old hands" to come forward and contribute their wisdom, knowing that their contributions are valued and protected by this forum, and its members, then - Yes I will help police the integrity of their contributions.

I'm NOT by sentiment a "policeman" - far from it - but I will help in any way I can with your proposal on the basis that what you are suggesting is fair and just.

I await your further advice...

Cliff

 
 
 
 
 

Mr "Sniper".

I was wondering when you will pay us a visit again.

Just to recall :

Mr Sniper started a thred a while back in which he flashed his Sidewinder and CZI and gained the following of quite a few members...............Until Mr Sniper started to notice that some of "his" ideas actually work, and when that happened Mr.Sniper immediately removed "his" indicators and yammered about thieves and scoundrals.........

Unfortunately Mr.Sniper forgot to mention that he himself replicated tradestation indicators based on Woodies principles...................

And now when Mr Sniper is back again to give us a lecture about copyright and Lateral thinking.................

In my book, you are counterproductive to this community, and you need to let moderators keep an open forum and not scrutinize every person about originality of his ideas, since if they had done this to you , you would not have passed the Woodies club originality test.

 

And I forgot to say about some other subject. Everybody may look at the commercial threads. About who is selling ... Just few good members which are well-known. Other members are very new to this forum.

I understand that many people are just sharing. Seems that many programmers/developers are coming here just to share ... And where they are selling (if not here)? And why not here? Nothing to sell? Don't believe.

This forum is not for sharing only.

 
newdigital:
And I forgot to say about some other subject. Everybody may look at the commercial threads. About who is selling ... Just few good members which are well-known. Other members are very new to this forum.

I understand that many people are just sharing. Seems that many programmers/developers are coming here just to share ... And where they are selling (if not here)? And why not here? Nothing to sell? Don't believe.

This forum is not for sharing only.

Hi there !

Good luck in your efforts, it would appear once more as if mine was well wasted. Anyhow, it probably kept me out of other mischief

Best wishes,

FX Sniper

 
 
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