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It always surprises us when we're surfing around the Internet to come across an article written by us but appearing on someone else's website without any permission for reprints having been made and certainly not given.
This happens a lot with the investigative articles and commentary that we've done in the Terri Schiavo case.
For some reason, people seem to think that they can lift for their own purposes articles that they find on the Internet.
Wrong. It's a copyright violation and legally actionable. It's not "Fair Use", it's outright theft. It doesn't make a difference if you give attribution or not, you've lifted the article without permission and are directing readers away from the original site of publication.
Legally we have the right to seek payment for the unauthorized use of our material.
We were doing Google searches a couple of days ago and lo and behold, were directed to the forum for JAIL4Judges, that organization out in California headed by egotistical Ron Branson that has some radical ideas about how to address the issue of judicial tyranny and immunity. We have absolutely no association with J.A.I.L. nor do we support their group in any manner.
We found an article in their J.A.I.L. News Journal for Dec. 8, 2005, that had been lifted from The North Country Gazette. There was no credit given to the author nor did it even state where the article had originally appeared. It did inconspicuously have a line on the bottom of the article that said "© 2005 North Country Gazette".
So why's it published in the JAIL Journal without permission, without payment? We requested that it be removed as no permission was granted for its use nor would there be even if a request was made. Our request was ignored. So much for any integrity at JAIL4Judges. This is the same organization that tried to claim credit for the 2004 Rally to Rein In The Judges held in Albany at the state Capitol and sponsored by the The Empire Journal, the NYS Tyranny Response Team and the NYS Oaths Project.
We were quite surprised to read on another website a couple of days after the rally that JAIL4Judges was taking credit for the affair, claiming they had sponsored it. We had invited a speaker from the group to appear on the program but that's all he was, a speaker and invited for sake of unity, of trying to bring all the judicial reform groups together. JAIL4Judges contributed nothing to the program against judicial tyranny except blowing its own horn and certainly basked in and benefited by the publicity that was generated by the rally.
The New York State Bar Association publishes a wonderful pamphlet entitled "Intellectual Property: Copyright, Trademark, Trade Secret, Patent & Internet Law" that we would strongly recommend to others, especially those who operate websites and have a habit of pilfering other people's work without compensation.
A copyright is a form of protection provided to the authors of original work by the laws of the author's resident country and through international treaties, the pamphlet advises. Ron Branson and others take heed----Copyright owners have the exclusive right to reproduce their copyrighted work and make certain other uses of it. Anyone else who wishes to reproduce the copyrighted work , perform or display it publicly or distribute it, either in hard copy or by electronic transmission, must get the permission of the copyright owner to do so.
Mr. Branson didn't even bother to ask. He probably thought we'd never know that he pilfered our work. Wrong.
The bar association pamphlet advises that the copyright exists from the moment the work is first written down or recorded and no registration or other formality is required to protect the work.
If the work is registered with the Library of Congress, the author may seek legal damages from anyone who makes unauthorized use of the work.
When someone takes one of our articles and publishes it on their site, it obviously directs readers and potential patrons of our advertisers away from The North Country Gazette and adversely affects our statistics for daily readership and ultimately affects potential income. The statistics that we keep are important to us because not only are they used for advertising and marketing purposes, but helps in tracking purposes, telling us what articles are being read the most, what interests the public the most and helps us plan future projects.
We allow, and in fact encourage, the dissemination of links to our articles and commentary and allow the reprint of the first paragraph or two of the story but total reproduction of any of our work without express written permission, directing readers away from our site, is not only prohibited by the ownership of The North Country Gazette but by law. 12-15-05
© 2005 North
Country Gazette
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