"TMP Copyright and IP infringement – Formal Notice" Topic

Mike Snorbens: I wrote this newsworthy item on a private forum and Bill took it from this forum and post in under my name on TMP.

"Mike Snorbens: I wrote this newsworthy item on a private forum and Bill took it from this forum and post in under my name on TMP."

So when are YOU going to object and threaten to sue Bill?

Mike Snorbens: I am not going to sue anybody. For me this is an old story. I just want to present here my experience and tell everybody that problems were here before Hwiccee started this topics.

Petr – nice website. I like the article on terrain building.

ajbartman: thank you. We are preparing somthing simillar for this year. Propably it will be some WW2 terrain.

First of all – Hwiccee, thank you for providing some specifics this time (if not of your own case, then of someone else's).

The answer is pretty straightforward. Copyright law in the U.S. includes a "fair use" exception for the purpose of reporting the news. In Petr's case, he made an announcement regarding the registration of a significant domain name – "wargaming" for the entire Europe area – which is certainly newsworthy.

Besides which, you won't own the copyright to messages posted to Yahoo! groups – they belong to Yahoo! (according to the notice on their website).

Also: Hwiccee, if you will promise to stop creating "sock puppet" TMP accounts (over 25 so far!), I will temporarily unlock the Hwiccee account for your use.

Of course, its worth pointing out that the domain name .eu (as in "wargaming.eu") has nothing to do with the "entire Europe area" any more than .com has with "commercial operations in the US".

A domain name is simply an addressing method, no more no less. To imply that the wargaming.eu site is some overarching Europe wide wargaming web site is just silly. Its owned and run by a bunch of wargamers in Prague. Fine, good luck to them.
Just don't claim you speak for the whole of Europe.

You don't.

BTW why didn't you get wargaming.cz? Would've made much more sense …

Mike Snorbens: because the czech domains are more expensive that the .eu ones :-)

Our webpage is just presenting our group and we are not going to speak for whole Europe.

By "the entire Europe area," I simply meant the ".eu" (European) domain area.

Like I said, the .eu domain is just a label. ICANN probably set it up for use by "European wide" orgainsations such as the European Cort of Human Rights. Unfortunately, the fact that domain names are freely bought and sold on the open market makes a mockery of such intentions and reduces the domain names to meaningless strings of characters. Wargaming.eu is a good example – unless the Prague group are not telling us something? :-)

…and .com isn't the US – it's commercial… .co.us or .us should be the US. Anyone would think the the Internet was a method of US domination by the back door… ;-)

How do you gain access to a closed yahoo group, anyway?

".co.us or .us should be the US."

With emphasis on the word "should". How many big American companies do you know of that have a .co.us domain name and NOT a .com?

Even TMP is .com!!

(Bill you'd better grab theminiaturespage.co.us quick! )

Cort –> Court
(oops, I try to correct my own spalling mastikes)

I know. Even the site we've registered for the Exeter show in Devon, England on March 1st is legionary-exeter.com

Was that subtle enough? Ah well.

I find it surprising that this person keeps telling us how busy he is. To be honest, this whole thing smacks of somebody with far too much time on their hands.
I've tried to find the 'dead body' in all this but so far it's evaded me.
Can you tell me HWICCEE, and this is a genuine question not a dig, in what way Bill's news announcement has affected you and your wargaming group?

Can you tell me HWICCEE, and this is a genuine question not a dig, in what way Bill's news announcement has affected you and your wargaming group?

That's not the issue, it seems. Or not his issue, anyway. He won't tell us what the issue is as it's private and copywrited. He doesn't want to draw attention to it.

This is a Joke right? I assumed it was some guy from the 'other' place trolling for a laugh……….this guys really, really serious.

This thread (and the others related to it) has the same smell as all the 'Editor vrs. Frothers' threads.

I want to be fair and objective about this but I fail to see where the breach has occurred. It's hard to argue that Bill surreptitiously took the information from a private forum to use on TMP when the forum is hosted on a public network (Yahoo). The forum may have restricted membership but the only way Bill could have gleaned the "news item" from there is if he was a member of the group, approved by the forum moderator.

Now, you could say this item in question wasn't "newsworthy" but just because one person doesn't hold the information as newsworthy doesn't mean someone else won't. As a news item it's harder to claim copyright information as it falls under "fair use".

I assumed it was some guy from the 'other' place trolling for a laugh…

Frothers is in the clear this time.

just because one person doesn't hold the information as newsworthy doesn't mean someone else won't.

As Amy Winehouse would agree, it seems…

I have a question about the link that has been posted as a source of this alleged problem: TMP link

Why is the second post on that link a congratulatory post from Hwiccee? If this is objectionable for the reasons stated, why aren't those objections stated there? This seems inconsistent.

It sure does! I didn't notice that before, but it sure makes it appear that Hwhiiiccccciiieeeee (sic) had no problem with that info being published back then. I wonder why it suddenly got his panties all in a knot? I have absolutely NO sympathy for this guy as long as he continues to abuse the rules of TMP, and especially as long as he refuses to supply us with links to all this offending material he claims has been "stolen" from him.

Or perhaps maybe there's something odd in the water in his country that is making him a bit unstable? 8)=

how many posts are we up to, bill do we have a counter?
laughing on the other side of the world

i just read the original news item…can someone explain to me why he's excited?…why he bothered?

Perhaps someone's sour grapes soured their disposition.

jizbrand: because Hwiccee thought that I post it on TMP and he send me email asking me why I did it. And this email from him advised me that somebody is posting on my name at TMP.

As a matter of idle interest, what name did Bill use to join your closed and private yahoogroup?

streetline: I dont know. We closed this forum two years ago I cant check it.

OK, cheers

what name did Bill use to join your closed and private yahoogroup?

I believe I used my usual "editor@theminiaturespage.com" email address.

And this email from him advised me that somebody is posting on my name at TMP.

Doesn't the article simply identify you as the person who had made the announcement? It doesn't say you "posted" anything on TMP.

Ed,
The reason this person writes legalistic non-sence, is that his wife is a lawyer. There is no problem. In my opinion it's an issue of someone liking control. This can annoy people.

I have already had to deal with this man personally after an incident he was involved in. He made a false accusation against me. He libelled and slandered me to my friends. One of those friends was Petr Starosta, with whom I used to often wargame. After this case, I lost touch with Petr.

If I could address myself to Petr Starosta:

Petr: I am sorry we lost touch, especially as you seem to be unaware of something. Are you aware that this accusation was taken to an investigating magistrate's chamber? Are you aware that all the evidence was heard and witnesses were called? That Hwiccee had plenty of opportunity to explain himself? And in that end he lost, the case thrown out and I was held completely innocent in front of witnesses? That the magistrate expressed sympathy for what he had done to me?

I am sorry you chose to cut ties: I enjoyed our friendship and wargaming. I wish you all the best.

Ahoj.

Possibly that's the reason Hwiccee does not post the links.

I just saw this:

Petr Starosta 22 Jan 2008 11:51 p.m. PST
''I know Hwiccee for a few years and I must say that he is the most confidential and trustworthy member of our Prague wargaming group………I trust to Hwiccee ''

Then why did a magistrate in your own country not believe him? Do you need the court records?

Also, you told me that you were no longer wargaming and no longer seeing that Prague group because you were busy. On here you state the opposite. It's very odd.

Orbit1967
''This ‘punishment' could via the law but as already mentioned I would prefer not to as this would be a real hassle and would involve other people''.

How are we to understand that? The Czech Republic works under a legal code, as your wife can tell you. If you think Bill's broken a specific statute (which is the only way you're going to take this further) then quote the number of the law he's broken.

Is it not more likely that you're having a bad day and so decided to draw attention to yourself for internal reasons connected with your so-called ''club''? Otherwise quote the law number.