Art theft & copyright violation?

[mxyzplk]

Ah, the saga continues.

That WHOIS is accurate, it's his parents' house. When he is posting on blogs/forums and defacing Wikipedia the IP addresses come from Marion, IL. So he is based in that area.

You can get all the information you'd ever want on this guy and his history on Geek Related - thanks for linking my one article, but it's part of a long term chronicling of this guy and his misdeeds on the off chance someone'll do something one day. Concerted effort has gotten some Web sites and stores of his shut down (notice that his Web site URL and email has changed several times over this); do feel free and complain to his ISP, email provider, Web host, Paypal, etc. to disrupt his fencing. And heck maybe writing to his parents at the WHOIS address and explaining their son's a crook might help, it is the Midwest, maybe they'll give him a long deserved talking to.

 

[Janx]

Yup. But someone still has to think of it and pay for the initial consult.

Plus, the class has to be certified by the court, which isn't a rubber stamp process.

I think we all hope that some forum member who happens to be a Lawyer is outraged by the injustice of it all and solves these parts of the problem...

 

[Morrus]

I think we all hope that some forum member who happens to be a Lawyer is outraged by the injustice of it all and solves these parts of the problem...

I'm pretty sure WotC, Games Workshop, and Dreamworks can afford lawyers. Cost clearly isn't the issue.

 

[billd91]

I'm pretty sure WotC, Games Workshop, and Dreamworks can afford lawyers. Cost clearly isn't the issue.

But cost vs benefit may be an issue. That cost could be larger than the perceived benefit of shutting the infraction down.

 

[Janx]

I'm pretty sure WotC, Games Workshop, and Dreamworks can afford lawyers. Cost clearly isn't the issue.

From my read of the article, those people weren't the ones stolen from. An artist licensed some art to WotC, and Shipman pirated that art. WotC got what it paid for. It's not the same as Shipman stealing WotC's in-house art.

As such, these big shops aren't as invested in the problem.

I would be surprised to hear this guy is making lots of money (I saw 50 units referenced for one title). But no doubt its eating into individual artists, etc.

 

[Ryujin]

But cost vs benefit may be an issue. That cost could be larger than the perceived benefit of shutting the infraction down.

Sometimes the only cost is to have a letter sent by a lawyer, though it sounds like this particular person really wouldn't care about that. If he's using mommy and daddy's place as an address then perhaps he's somewhat judgment proof? Blood from a stone (or basement troll) and all of that.

 

[Janx]

Sometimes the only cost is to have a letter sent by a lawyer, though it sounds like this particular person really wouldn't care about that. If he's using mommy and daddy's place as an address then perhaps he's somewhat judgment proof? Blood from a stone (or basement troll) and all of that.

Might be a matter of chasing the problem down the wrong way.

He's doing this stuff online, which may violate Wire Fraud or other laws as he is misrepresenting his product. It's basically piracy, and if you get the right agency involved (say if you know an FBI guy who has fast-lane tickets to Gitmo because you work in InfoSec related industries...)

If he is using Mommy and Daddy's place, then file suit and get judgement against them. That'll help nip that crap in the bud when his family suffers the repercussions of his actions.

 

[Doctor Futurity]

I see he's still up to no good. Unfortunately a search for Outlaw Press brings his site up, again, and I notice that he's got all of my books back up for sale --again-- that he is not authorized to print or sell, and which he agreed to take down in discussions when this first boiled to the surface back in 2008ish; and lots more....in fact I am arguably among the least of his victims. Some of the books I had effectively donated to his cause back when it looked legit in the early 00's since they were reprints of articles and adventures for T&T from my old 80's fanzine, and I only requested copies as payment since (at the time and still today to be honest) I saw no point in trying to profit on old T&T content from ages past. But then stuff I had not authorized started appearing...and the whole thing blew up with the revelation of his unauthorized use of art and content in early 2008 (iirc) when he set up an account with onebookshelf and started posting product for sale at rpgnow. This opened it up to wider exposure than before, and almost immediately people started recognizing pirated work.

Jim is weirdly fixated on T&T, and will pirate anything for his own use and sale that is T&T connected or can be forced to connect to T&T (I recall one of his books was actually content from an old issue of Dragon Magazine retooled for T&T, for example). The art is a bigger issue, however, as he clearly takes what he wants without regard or interest in the source, and uses the talent of others to make a profit off of them. For a guy so fixated on T&T, he's taken great pains to destroy the game's community and take advantage of the fact that it's such a small niche community and no one is able to defend themselves from his predation of their works.

Although I have bigger things in life to worry about, I do periodically entertain a fantasy of picking up some equipment and paying Jim a visit. Luckily for him I have a family to worry about and a strong sense of right and wrong....unlike Jim.....but one day I imagine he might finally step on the wrong person and learn a very painful lesson for it.

 

[TarionzCousin]

If this guy gets 4chan's attention, he'll wish he had never been born.

 

[Alzrius]

If he is using Mommy and Daddy's place, then file suit and get judgement against them. That'll help nip that crap in the bud when his family suffers the repercussions of his actions.

I'm personally leery of punishing someone's relatives for their crimes; we have no way of knowing if they're even aware of what he's doing, let alone know that he's using their address as a location from which to commit his crimes.

While I agree that dragging them into any sort of proceedings against him might be a good way to have them make him stop, it'd be something different if, say, the federal government simply seizes their house (via civil or criminal forfeiture) as being the base of operations of a systemic copyright-infringement scheme (which is entirely possible; it's how we took down the Vampire Nation, after all).