Intellectual thievery

[senjuro]

I wasn't aware of this issue til I saw this and did some reasearch of my own.

I'm sure you've all been to, or at least heard of, ebaumsworld.com, run by one Eric Bauman.

Well, I'm here to tell you that you should never, ever return there. Plain and simple, he's a thief. Here's a catchy song to fill you in on the basics:

http://www.ebaumsworldsucks.com/

More information is available there, as well.

The long and short of it is this: he steals people's intellectual property without crediting it to the true authors of the material, and gets rich off the work of others.

This is a VERY serious issue. Sure, the material on this site isn't the sort of fare he'd be stealing, but it's still intellectual property. How would you feel if someone was stealing your work and saying it was theirs? You can see why lots of people would have a beef with this.

Anyway, I ask that if you went to eBaumsworld before, please discontinue visiting, as he gets money for every hit registered on his site. If you understand the gravity of this issue, please spread the news to your friends and colleagues. Unfortunately, no one will be able to bring him down, but at least we can all keep him from making some more money from work he didn't make himself.

Thanks.

[Dale3k21]

A lot of the games on there can be found on newgrounds, which is where a lot of things begin, then get seen and stolen. But I will spread the news.

[Harie Krauzer]

Well wouldn't he have to get some money somehow in order to run the site? I'm no expert, so I'm asking.

[Dale3k21]

Yea, and that's why people have ads on their sites. They get X amount of money for every time people click it usually. And if there's thousands of hits a day... It's not to bad of money. And since he is making money because of stolen property, then that IS illegal.

[Anonmon]

What is this "intellectual property" you speak of?

[senjuro]

Intellectual property is any literary, musical, or otherwise artistic work, where the primary material for its creation is based on a a person's creativity.

Here's the law that protects it:

"Copyright [of intellectual property] itself does not depend on official procedures. A created work is considered protected by copyright as soon as it exists. According to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, literary and artistic works are protected without any formalities in the countries party to that Convention. Thus, WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization] does not offer any kind of copyright registration system."

-exerpted from http://www.wipo.int/copyright/en/faq/faqs.htm

[Anonmon]

I was trying to say that the notion of "intellectual property" is bullshit. I can do a Google search for myself, you know.

IP IS BS. There are trademarks, copyrights and patents. Each of these is the government granting some exclusive right to YOU, the IP Holder, in order to encourage creative work.

Instead, Sony sticks rootkits on their CDs and can sue you if you delete the software. Instead, SCO sues IBM and drags the case out for going on 3 years now. Instead, 12 year old girls are made to pay the RIAA's legal fees. Instead, nobody can create a One-Click shopping system but Amazon.com, because they've got the patent.

Movies, music and video games may be creative works, but the protections have leaned too far towards the content producers. Copyleft NOW!

That, and there should never, ever have been such a thing as a software patent.

[Wisemon]

I was trying to say that the notion of "intellectual property" is bullshit.

Speak for yourself. I own 250 CD's, and I'm proud of the fact that I only "steal" concert bootlegs of artists I've bought albums from. Aside from that, I'm an engineer, and my grandfather was an inventor. Patents are important to me.

[senjuro]

The notion of "intellectual property being bullshit" is only something that someone who doesn't make their living from it would say.

To people who rely on their creative prowess in one way or another, I'm sure you can imagine how such a statement would strike a chord in them. I can totally understand peoples' outrage when it happens to them, and even moreso when people are making money off it. It's utterly despicable that people can get away with anything on the web, simply because the Internet isn't policed in any tangible way. (NOTE: I'm not an advocate of internet policing, I'm just saying how people can get away with just about anything)

[Anonmon]

I hate to admit it, but you guys make good points. Intellectual property is mainly bullshit when applied to software.