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Copyright Infringement and Hotlinking Harassment Plague This Furry's Blog

5/16/2014

8 Comments

 
This is a nightmare...

Well, this isn't a very common furry question this time, but I have a huge harassing problem.

I have a blog and I decided to make some judgment against intolerance, after some small issues, a horrible drama website decided to post my blog info and made up crap about me, using no real critique, etc., etc.

They also make fun of the term "Autism" and now, I feel like I have no power to stop them from doing more crap. They even posted an offensive "ad" on the side saying something about "Autism?" and when clicked on: It goes to my blog. No joke.

I think it all started when I posted some slight non-taking-serious graph about some "fandom" based off a reaction that actually happened. Then it all started when this brony a person decided to post more news about my blog in the most crappiest way as possible. But there was another before (and I made a response to it) that compared random stuff to "bestiality" or something.

I am very worried about this. I fear so much that an even MORE horrid site will notice this and post even more offensive crap against me.

Do you know, if there is ANY legal way to stop them from posting current or future content from my blog? Or perhaps any talk about it? Is there any secrets, or trick to slide through the legal system?

I know there is copyright, and even though I hate copyright, I did try to abuse my own will and tried putting notices for it, but they think I "can't" do that. And yet, I have no idea how to file a copyright complaint off to a whole different website. Sadly, the website may not be connected with Google like mine is.

The only other thing I could do is try to "ignore" them, but that may stop me of my rights to criticize intolerable crap. I also tried modding my own URLs to avoid being clicked on but that bully keeps on updating the damn link to the new URL.

I wrote this kind of fast, but I am in great fear of what will happen the next day!

Note: By the time I send this, I may change the URL of the whole blog, mainly to prevent them from linking to them. And make it more hidden.

There is ANOTHER problem. They found away to link to a old captor of my blog. No joke!

Ever heard of the Wayback Machine? It's a website that captures old websites, and sadly, my blog was at least captured once. If you have any ideas on how to delete the wayback machine problem, you can post that too.

Anyway, my blog is a blogger, which is part of Google.

Anonymous

* * *

Hi, Anonymous,

This is a complicated but important issue you are bringing up that touches on a lot of issues. Let me try and reply to your letter in a clear and logical manner. I have a very Germanic process on such things, favoring numbered lists for clarity, but a Q&A might work best here.

Without even going into the problem that the people who are harassing you are jerks, let’s see what can be done.

Q: How can I block websites from linking to my website or blog?

A: This touches on the issue of hotlinking, which usually refers to people linking to images on your website without your permission. Disregarding copyright issues, the problem with this practice is that if a lot of people are pulling images directly from your site rather than downloading the images and then reposting them to their pages is that they are using your bandwidth, which can really gum up the works on your site, causing it to slow down or crash if the images are really popular.

Hotlinking can also refer to accessing other files, such as css or other program files, and it can refer to accessing the URL itself. There are ways to block specific sites from linking to you, but it can be a little complicated as it involves adding lines of code to your .htaccess file. (cf. http://wiki.dreamhost.com/Preventing_hotlinking and 
http://www.javascriptkit.com/howto/htaccess10.shtml for more information). 

Since you are using Google Blogger, I would contact the people at Google and see if they can help and/or post on their forums page to see if you can get advice, as well.

Q: Can I have my old site versions excluded from the Wayback Machine?

A: Yes. To do so, you need to place a robots.txt file on your site (cf. https://archive.org/about/exclude.php). If you can’t do this because you’re using Google and can’t get access to code, contact the admins at the Internet Archive at info@archive.org and ask for their assistance.

Q: How can I prevent people from quoting from my blog or using other information and files on my blog without my permission?

A: As with authors of articles, books, etc., when you write something on the Internet and publish it, it is automatically copyrighted. However, it is very difficult to make a case about this without registering your copyright. The folks at LegalZoom advise that in some cases it might be best to register a copyright: “Copyright violation is always illegal, but it can be difficult to prosecute offenders without copyright registration, which establishes a public record of ownership. In addition, owners of registered works may be eligible for statutory damages and attorney's fees in successful litigation against infringers.”

Remember, though, that there is a thing called “fair use” rights. Fair use means that people have the legal right to quote a portion of your text (general rule of thumb is no more than about 10% of the text) without your permission if they are doing so for such things as writing a review. Also, satirizing a book, film, or even a website is legal because it is protected under free speech. If this is really irksome for you and is causing you financial damages (which I doubt in your case), you could consult with an attorney to assist you (cf. http://www.whoishostingthis.com/resources/student-copyright/ to learn more about copyright laws and your rights.)

While the people who are harassing you sound very unpleasant, and certainly their apparent mocking of sufferers of autism is in very poor taste, they, like you, are entitled to their rights of free speech, even if that speech is very ugly (but not to the point of being a hate crime or Internet bullying).

One thing you might try is this: On your website, put a prominent notice about the website that is harassing you, stating that you find their practices hurtful and in poor taste and whatever else you feel like saying (within reason). Have this notice appear on the page to which they are linking from their site so that people can see it easily.

When it all comes down to it, if you are confident in what you write about on your website and that it has value to those who read it, then others mocking that content are making themselves look bad more than they are hurting you. Indeed, as my partner, Yogi, says, there's no such thing as bad PR. These people are drawing attention to your site, giving you the opportunity to step up and show everyone who visits you what an awesome blog it really is despite their puerile attempts to make you look silly.

I hope this helps! Good luck!

Papabear
8 Comments
Randy
5/16/2014 06:53:53 am

It may be tempting to contact the hateful site and express your disapproval, but that just tends to add fuel to the fire. Once they realize they have a "live one," they tend to just escalate their harassment.

Reply
Papabear
5/16/2014 09:44:58 am

That's very true, Randy.

Reply
Cyril link
5/21/2014 11:51:05 pm

why papa why dont cry for me plz

Anon
5/16/2014 10:23:37 am

Thanks for helping.
But I have been recently reading fair use, and apparently, "Satire" isn't consider "protected" I think.

"""Fair use and parody

Producers or creators of parodies of a copyrighted work have been sued for infringement by the targets of their ridicule, even though such use may be protected as fair use. These fair use cases distinguish between parodies (using a work in order to poke fun at or comment on the work itself) and satires (using a work to poke fun at or comment on something else). Courts have been more willing to grant fair use protections to parodies than to satires, but the ultimate outcome in either circumstance will turn on the application of the four fair use factors.""" -Wikipedia

And are you saying that there posts are "protected" by fair use?
I don't know if it's a good idea to link to the site on here that's causing issues, but the posts isn't very clear that it's all protected by fair use, because fair use may be consider "tricky". I do know that fair use may require four different things, and I think it's a risk of less fair use, when using different purposes, especially modifying my pictures, and republishing them.

I will also say, that my articles (The writing it's self) may be Copyrighted, isn't it possible?

Though, I don't know about the idea of "registering" copyrights because if my work is already copyright, then shouldn't it be already "registered"? And you did say it's risky...

"(but not to the point of being a hate crime or Internet bullying)"
Are you saying there posts are not "Internet bullying"? I did thought they were cyber bullying me though. And I honestly do not think there speech should be "protected". Because they cause serious physical damage to others, ruining reputations, etc. I also heard Hate speech not being protected either.

-The guy who wrote the letter

Yeah I tried asking more questions on here, but I still am makings sure and still very upset about what they did to me.
Note: There website is a "brony website", it has the word "news" on the title of it.

Reply
Papabear
5/16/2014 11:03:00 am

You sent me the articles in a private email, and they are not satire or parody (for the record, both are protected--cf. http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/parody-satire). The purpose of registering a copyright is to make your claim that you have created an original work more defensible in a court of law, should you go that far. Yes, all original works are by default copyrighted, but registering said copyright is just a way of arming yourself better for a legal battle.

I have read both what you wrote and the two articles you found offensive. I do not find these articles to fall under the category of "bullying." They do, indeed, criticize what you wrote, but that is not the same as being a bully.

To be clear, in my opinion, if you took this to court you would lose a case claiming harassment or bullying. I agree with you that their style of writing is irritating, but having read your articles I can see why someone could also take offense to them as they are rather strongly worded.

When people like you or me write editorials or other strong opinion pieces, we set ourselves up for criticism by those who hold alternative views. You can stand by your views and defend them, but you do not have the right to block their opposing views.

As for their linking to your site, I offered some ways to block that in the above article. You can certainly take steps to blocking them from your site, or, as you have done at least briefly, make it a private, password-protected site that only people you invite can read.

Reply
Anon
5/16/2014 12:48:03 pm

I see, but I think that this website is just talking about "Satire" it's self.
I don't think it covers "Satire" works that uses Copyright material though.

If they were to use Satire crap against me, without using any of my Copyrighted work, then I probably can't use any legit, legal battle against them. But since they did (And even modify my works, and re-post), that might be different than what that website talks about.
"You sent me the articles in a private email, and they are not satire or parody" Oh, but one of the owners of the website claim that my posts are "funny" and I see people laughing, etc, etc.

"I do not find these articles to fall under the category of "bullying." They do, indeed, criticize what you wrote, but that is not the same as being a bully."
Honestly, they have used my name a lot, (Say that ad that's no longer there for example), kept on talking crap about me on Twitter, etc, etc. Calling me names, (Whether somehow it's part of criticism or not).

As for criticism, I don't think what they do on those articles ARE legit criticism...
Them making fun of my posts, calling me names, etc, etc doesn't sound like proper criticism, it's completely biased, rude, and hateful.
It's sort of like bullying someone at School, for being a furry, but then the teacher saids: "Oh, he's not bullying, because he is criticizing you of being a furry, because he hates it".
It still should fall under the category of "Internet Bullying".

I did saw some more of those horrid posts, there was SOME fair criticizing (Like when I spelled retarded wrong), but there sole purpose still fails, and most of it, is just biased (Critique abuse) opinions being forced on me, using hypocritical "reasons" for them to use Austism as an "insult", and possibly, other crappy reasons.

Harassment is true too because they kept bringing my name out, over, and over again for the purpose of "Making fun of", etc, etc.
That's not any different from when a bully at school decides to bring someone's name out in the middle of a stage, and talk crap about him just because he was furry.

Know what I mean?

And there was no reason for them write like that to me.
In my own articles, (The place that actually shows the WHOLE things), all I did was criticize intolerance, comparison, without any biased, non-sense hatred attached thoughts. And they decided to throw a fit with no real evidence on there own claims.

Anyway, even if the court fails to see bullying, or harassment, I could still bring out lack of fair use, and still possibly tell them to remove my blog contents off there website from Copyright.

Sorry for a long response, but I am like I would always do: Trying to explain, and compare things..

Anon
5/16/2014 07:01:56 pm

By the way, I can't seem to figure out how ".htaccess" works on blogspot. I have a feeling that those hotlink things you sent me isn't compatible with Blogspot. Only WordPress and probably some others.

Reply
Papabear
5/22/2014 01:37:54 am

I suspected as much, which is why I suggest you contact Google to help you with your blog.

Reply



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