![\"copyright\"](\"https:\/\/rosalindgardner.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/copyright.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
I'd pulled a picture of a very good-looking young man from a dating site (like Match.com) to use on my affiliate dating service review site at 101Date.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n As it turned out, that wasn't copasetic (legal) in the least.<\/p>\n The good-looking guy was a model and the picture was owned by his agency. The picture shouldn't have been posted publicly by the model himself. His modeling agency's legal representative contacted me by email and demanded I pull the picture immediately or suffer legal consequences for copyright infringement, i.e. theft.<\/p>\n NOTE<\/strong>: The legal penalties for copyright infringement are that an infringer pays the actual dollar amount of damages and profits. The law provides a range from $200 to $150,000 for each work infringed AND the infringer pays for all attorneys fees and court costs.<\/p>\n Never having been on the wrong side of the law and, therefore, quaking in my boots, I pulled the picture from the site immediately.<\/p>\n Since that incident, I've always either used photographs I've taken myself or purchased from a stock agency like iStock by Getty Images.<\/p>\n After publishing the Super Affiliate Handbook<\/a> in 2003 and gaining much more publicity for my website, copyright infringers descended on my sites, stealing content I'd written and photos I had purchased.<\/p>\n Although finding copyright infringers is frustrating and represents a huge waste of my time, catching and taking them down is a game of cat and mouse I thoroughly enjoy winning. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n Just recently, a webmaster who stole an article from my blog – including a stock photo that I'd purchased and used as the feature photo – came to my attention through a trackback link. (You gotta love STUPID thieves).<\/p>\n Here's a screen capture of my article about 3 Fabulous Food Bloggers<\/a>. Now here's a screen capture of that article on the thief's blog.<\/p>\n Yup, no doubt about where they (Wybin.com) got that photo and content.<\/p>\n I immediately looked up the domain name through Whois.net and found the name of their hosting service to which I sent a copyright infringement report via email. The stolen article was removed shortly afterward.<\/p>\n This particular thief was tenacious, however.<\/strong><\/p>\n Every time I posted a new article, he copied it to his website. Sometimes the articles were published ‘as is' and other times they were run through an article spinner, with results that would have made the most basic reader of English cringe.<\/p>\n I sent 2 more infringement reports about articles which were taken down, but then the thief moved his site.<\/p>\n By the way, he wasn't stealing only my articles, he was stealing 100's of articles every day. In one month alone, he'd published over 3,000 articles on his brand-new website. WOW! And the site wasn't ‘curated' as such, it was all just stolen material.<\/p>\n Using Whois.net again, I discovered that he'd moved the domain to BlueHost<\/a> as follows:<\/p>\n Same thief, different host.<\/p>\n I sent BlueHost<\/a> 2 copyright infringement reports on the 6th article stolen as follows<\/strong>:<\/p>\n THAT message finally got the job done.<\/p>\n Here is what Wybin looks like today…<\/p>\n Gone, gone, GONE! The idiot wasted a few months of his time stealing from others, trying to make money. I doubt he made a cent. He had all the social networks in place and I never saw a single Facebook like.<\/p>\n Anyway, the moral of the story is NOT to take content or pictures that don't belong to you.<\/p>\n Stay on the right side of copyright infringement law by:<\/p>\n Did you find this post about copyright infringement informative and useful? If so, please share it with others! If you have a comment, question or suggestion, please leave a comment below!<\/strong><\/p>\n Cheers, I’m SO glad that readers as me about acceptable use policies so they can avoid getting into legal issues over copyright infringement! Thankfully, I learned the most important lesson about copyright infringement very early in my Internet marketing career. I’d pulled a picture of a very good-looking young man from a dating site (like Match.com) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":577,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[937],"tags":[759],"yoast_head":"\nBecoming the Victim of a Copyright Infringer<\/h2>\n
\n![\"copyright](\"https:\/\/rosalindgardner.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/copyright-ingringer-2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"copyright](\"https:\/\/rosalindgardner.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/copyright-infringer.jpg\")
<\/p>\nHow to Take a Copyright Infringement Thief Down<\/h2>\n
\n
Domain Name: WYBIN.COM\r\nRegistry Domain ID: 1995310921_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN\r\nRegistrar WHOIS Server: whois.bluehost.com\r\nRegistrar URL: http:\/\/www.bluehost.com\/\r\nUpdated Date: 2016-02-09T02:18:23Z\r\nCreation Date: 2016-01-18T14:28:41Z\r\nRegistrar Registration Expiration Date: 2017-01-18T14:28:41Z\r\nRegistrar: FastDomain Inc.\r\nRegistrar IANA ID: 1154\r\nRegistrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@bluehost.com\r\nRegistrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1 801 765 9400\r\nReseller: BlueHost.Com\r\nDomain Status: ok (https:\/\/www.icann.org\/epp#ok)\r\nRegistry Registrant ID:\r\nRegistrant Name: SIVA BANU\r\nRegistrant Organization: HITMAXZ\r\nRegistrant Street: POINT PEDRO ROAD, KOPAY JUNCTION\r\nRegistrant City: JAFFNA\r\nRegistrant State\/Province: JAFFNA\r\nRegistrant Postal Code: 40000\r\nRegistrant Country: SRI LANKA\r\nRegistrant Phone: +94.768034687\r\nRegistrant Phone Ext:\r\nRegistrant Fax:\r\nRegistrant Fax Ext:\r\nRegistrant Email: NISANTHAN@EMAIL.COM\r\nRegistry Admin ID:\r\nAdmin Name: SIVA BANU\r\nAdmin Organization: HITMAXZ\r\nAdmin Street: POINT PEDRO ROAD, KOPAY JUNCTION\r\nAdmin City: JAFFNA\r\nAdmin State\/Province: JAFFNA\r\nAdmin Postal Code: 40000\r\nAdmin Country: SRI LANKA\r\nAdmin Phone: +94.768034687\r\nAdmin Phone Ext:\r\nAdmin Fax:\r\nAdmin Fax Ext:\r\nAdmin Email: NISANTHAN@EMAIL.COM\r\nRegistry Tech ID:\r\nTech Name: BLUEHOST INC\r\nTech Organization: BLUEHOST.COM\r\nTech Street: 1958 SOUTH 950 EAST\r\nTech City: PROVO\r\nTech State\/Province: UTAH\r\nTech Postal Code: 84606\r\nTech Country: UNITED STATES\r\nTech Phone: +1.8017659400\r\nTech Phone Ext:\r\nTech Fax: +1.8017651992\r\nTech Fax Ext:\r\nTech Email: WHOIS@BLUEHOST.COM\r\nName Server: ERNEST.NS.CLOUDFLARE.COM\r\nName Server: MEG.NS.CLOUDFLARE.COM\r\nDNSSEC: unsigned\r\nURL of the ICANN WHOIS Data Problem Reporting System:\r\nhttp:\/\/wdprs.internic.net\/\r\nLast update of WHOIS database: 2016-02-09T02:18:23Z\r\nFor more information on Whois status codes, please visit\r\nhttps:\/\/www.icann.org\/resources\/pages\/epp-status-codes-2014-06-16-en<\/pre>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n
Attn: Copyright Agent\r\n\r\nPursuant to 17 USC 512(c)(3)(A), this communication serves as a statement that:\r\n\r\nI am [the exclusive rights holder | the duly authorized representative of the exclusive rights holder] for the pages created at;\r\nhttps:\/\/rosalindgardner.com\/blog\/affiliate-marketing-mistake-3-bad-writing\/<\/a>\r\n\r\nThese exclusive rights are being violated by material available upon your site at the following URL(s):\r\nhttp:\/\/www.wybin.com\/affiliate-marketing-mistake-3-bad-writing\/\r\nI have a good faith belief that the use of this material in such a fashion is not authorized by the copyright holder, the copyright holder's agent, or the law;\r\n\r\nUnder penalty of perjury in a United States court of law, I state that the information contained in this notification is accurate, and that I am authorized to act on the behalf of the exclusive rights holder for the material in question;\r\n\r\nI may be contacted by the following methods (include all): (my address, phone and email);\r\n\r\nI hereby request that you remove or disable access to this material as it appears on your service in as expedient a fashion as possible. \r\nThank you.\r\n\r\nRegards,\r\nRosalind Gardner\r\n\r\nP.S. This is the 2nd copyright infringement report I've filed about this site. ALL the material on this site appears to be stolen from other bloggers. Would it not be prudent to shut him down and delete the content?<\/pre>\n<\/blockquote>\n
![\"wybin\"](\"https:\/\/rosalindgardner.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/wybin.jpg\")
<\/p>\nHow to Avoid Copyright Infringement Lawsuits<\/h2>\n
\n
\n![\"sig-ros\"](\"https:\/\/rosalindgardner.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sig-ros.jpg\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"