Right on Dave, sup you get some sleep finally? Was that one yours? I'm not trying to escalate it, just chatting and defending my point of view till I'm blue in the face. For some reason that seems like escalating it, or flaming to these people, we know each other Dave this isn't flaming...You make a good point with the family stuff, I'm right there with you. I shot P5 a quick message about it, I'm trying to be nice and not take it there yet. Really I just want it removed, it's not like anyone here plans to kick me or any of these others that got ripped off some compensation. Honestly the most we can hope for in situations like this is the removal, and we eat the damages yet again...   Thanks Wincustomize!

At least it was caught on this site.  Who knows how many other sites are out there we don't know about yet... It's a little depressing to think about. Thank goodness creating new works is therapeutic.

ES, do NOT contact me again in any way, shape or form, your foul-mouthed abusive remarks in your PM to me are not needed nor will they be tolerated. As I said in my reply to you, the Mods here take IP rights very seriously and I can assure you things will be dealt with appropriately.

Why are you attacking me and calling me names?(very immature,I might add) I did no such thing to you, nor have I uploaded any of your works. Go cry to and curse at someone else.

Edit. If you are going to quote me be accurate . I said....."The (your) work was incorporated into a .dream file.  A dream is a looping video clip which by your own definition is allowed."

Your definition being:The way it works is that if you incorporate the work into your own work, I.E. Your a video editor and you use my work in a clip, then you can redistribute it that way

I did not say it was "new" work.

 That is my final say on the matter as there are very qualified people here at WC to handle these situations, so please let them handle it.

Thank You.

I've been here a long time and there's no where else on the internet takes copyright more seriously. The admins here put in a tireless effort in protecting everyone's rights. This what they will be doing right now: a complete investigation of the origins of any upload involved. Including ascertaining who the original copyright holder is, whether this site's rules have been broken (there are some specific to dreams), and the terms and conditions of the site from which they originate.

Making inflamatory posts and making an ass of yourself on the forum doesn't help. Let the admins do their job, in private; they are very good at what they do.

I'm sorry, but simply taking a video file and placing it into another container is still a copyright violation.  Not to mention that the sites on which I sell my animations specifically prohibit selling (or otherwise distributing) derivative works in the license agreed to by the buyer.  They can only be used as part of a much larger project such as a television commercial, television show, movie, webmercial, etc...  The person who is currently distributing my works as his/her own is in clear violation of my copyright.

Anyone who believes that it is okay to buy an animation from another web site, simply repackage it and resell it (or even give it away) is severely mistaken and uninformed.

I believe that WC will do what's right and remove them. However, if they don't, I have no problem taking the legal route to defend my copyright. I don't think it will come to that.

i find my work stolen here to

this is user that take my work:

Ausvet

can someone tell me if the users who submit here media to download earn eny money for submiting things here?

Radek, the files are distributed for free.  However, according to information on the Piracy Resource Center web site, the offender and the distributor (this web site) are still liable for damages.  I've screen capped all of my stolen items along with the download counts in case I need to make a claim for damages.  I suggest you do the same with your items.  If WC is quick and removes my items and the offending user's account, then I'm willing to let it go.  We'll see what they do.

i know that they are distributed for free

but when i register here i saw an option to sign up to better account with price about 19$ i think that give user unlimited acces to files that are here on the site

so the owners of this site earn money when people with this better accounts download this clips

Hmm... I didn't realize that...  That changes things quite a bit since WC is profiting from stolen materials.  We'll have to see what they end up doing with the account and how quickly they act.

Hey Dave you know allot about this stuff they are saying they are a "Stardock.corp] is a Gold Partner to Microsoft" so do you still, or currently have any contacts at Microsoft? They basically are giving me run around in PM, I'm done with dealing with this. So do we pass these guys off to sites that legally host our work or contact microsoft, or both? Hit me up via email.

I should make it clear that I am not posting this as a representative of Stardock.

EternalSpline : It has been less than 24 hours since you reported this (this thread was made after COB on Thursday).  Once people are in the office today I am sure action will be taken (I do not have sufficient access to do so).  The office opens at 9am EST - so 3 hours or so away.

Brian, having gone through this before with other sites, I am waiting a full business day before I escalate this.  I have reported the incident to all of the sites where I sell my work.  I have reported it to the Business Software Alliance (BSA) through their "report piracy" online form.  I have also reported copyright violations to Blizzard, Paramount Pictures and other agencies whose copyrights are being sold here.  It's already been posted on the web forums of many artist organizations to have artists come here and search for their works.

It's important to note that if they do not remove your items in a timely fashion, they can be liable for up to 10 times the value of EACH copyright violation times the number of downloads.  I added up the downloads for all of my items and it's nearly 15,000 downloads.  That's over $3.5 million if a jury/judge ruled in my favor.

And yes, their Microsoft preferred status can be revoked if they are willingly violating copyrights and promoting piracy. Microsoft will kick them to the curb real fast rather than be associated with that.

However, I'm gonna be patient and see what happens in the next 16 hours.  If the items haven't all been removed then I'll escalate the issue through other means.  Let's give them a chance to resolve this themselves.

Well there mods are talking to me saying the same thing over and over giving me the run around, in my eyes refusing to do any thing. Saying how it's not being sold, soooo.... That's why to me it's basically already escalated. If you have already reported them to all of them then that's allot more then I have done. I was still on the giving them time.. I contacted appropriate channels at the sites that sell our work legally, Ill just wait and see if they have better luck. Can you do me a sold Dave and screen grab my stuff too? Links are on the P5 forum. I can't see straight I need sleep! Hit me up via email though, I'm done here!

As before, not speaking for Stardock.

The mods have to confirm that what you say is actually true.  You could be claiming copyrights on other peoples work too.  Usually this would be handled via a DMCA takedown request in the US as that means you are legally stating the works in question are your own (with legal liabilities if it is not the case) and it also offers the other party the ability to disagree and get the works put back up, but in return they open themselves up to lawsuits.

As I mentioned earlier, your posts have come outside work hours (9am to 5pm EST).  Your first post appears to be after 6pm Thursday which is why nothing will happen until after 9am EST when the paid employees of Stardock get into the office.  The internet may be a global thing, but the staff who actually run the site do not work 24 hours a day - not yet at least!

You can be sure that copyrights are taken very seriously around here.  For many of us thats how we earn our living and we all know the pain of discovering someone is giving your work away for free.  If you look around the forums you will see just such a thread from last week where a pirate site (outside the US so impossible to take down) was giving away premium content developed by some of the artists here.  In this case nobody was aware that the uploader was not the copyright holder.

Thanks Neil.  I'm pretty sure Brian doesn't realize that the people he's conversing through on the forum are not actually from WC or Stardock, although they might claim to be.

FWIW, there is not a clearly defined procedure on the WC web site for reporting copyright violations.  Many sites provide a "report this" link on each item's page.  I ended up sending my list to the general contact email for the site, which I hope is correct.

weird thread, where's the other post?

anyway, looking at profiles, dnavarrojr, radek_pl and EternalSpline all created memberships within 24 hours of each other and here they are, seemingly in collusion, making similar noises.

hmmm..........?

Hi,

We take copyright violation very seriously here.  I'm just getting in the office this morning and will take care of all violations immediately.  

Let me also note that when someone uploads a work to WinCustomize, the responsibility lies with the uploader to comply with the site upload guidelines and policies.

https://www.wincustomize.com/upload-guidelines

The uploads on the site are not owned by Stardock or WinCustomize unless otherwise stated.

https://www.wincustomize.com/terms-of-service

CONTENT SUBMITTED WinCustomize.com/Stardock does not claim ownership of the Content you place on your WinCustomize.com Site. Stardock may quote, redistribute or reproduce in whole or part of your Content (if you have made it public) in order to promote your WinCustomize.com site and/or the WinCustomize.com service, but only on a fair-use-type basis. By using this site, you agree to the following:

All Content uploaded onto this site must be original material created by you. By uploading any Content to this site, contributors are automatically assumed to be the creator and owner of the Content. You may not upload Content created by another person or taken from another source such as another website, etc, without express written permission from copyright owner. Copyright violation could result in account cancellation and in possible criminal prosecution.

By uploading content, you agree to accept the responsibility of supporting your upload. Stardock, under no circumstances, will not be responsible for the support of your upload, nor will Stardock provide support for any upload not produced directly by Stardock.

You can contact me via sscott [at] stardock.com as well.

We all found out about the theft of our copyrighted material yesterday from a member here who posted the information on an artist related web site.  So, here we all are to defend our rights...  What's so strange about that?

Thanks Island Dog.  I submitted my claim to the generic address on the web site, should I resend it to you directly or will you get it otherwise?

I have received one e-mail about "Flower Power".  Any other works please send me the names/links and I will have them taken care of.

I emailed you directly with some links.  I can build a comprehensive links of all products, if that's necessary (or are you just going to disable the guy's account?).  I included links to my portfolio on the primary site where I sell my works.

Also, might I suggest that you add an option to your web site for direct reporting to make the process less confusing?  Perhaps that would prevent similar occurrences in the future.

Issues of copyright abuse/violation are required to be taken up directly with The Administrators and/or Moderators of Wincustomize.com IN PRIVATE.

Public accusation is often erroneous and can lead to issues of libel, hence all communication is to be kept out of the public domain.

When someone finds his/her works unlawfully on this site [just as with any other site] the very first information that is required in order to resolve the situation is actual clarity of THREE things.

1.  The claimed unlawfully used item/s in question [link].

2. The claimed original artists' work [link]

3. Terms of use of the source site of the author's distribution [link].

Without any one of those items it is painfully obvious that no action can be taken.

On [private] receipt of all three of those 'items' action can be taken, and will be.

No-one is being given a run-around.  It is simple reality that without a target or a source just saying 'User A has pinched my stuff....take it down" means absolutely nothing...in reality or in Law.

What stuff?  Where? From whom?  How was the 'stuff' obtained?  How has its specific use violated your IP - relative to the source site?

The Wincustomize Admins/Mods are good...but they are not magicians.