It's shaping up to be great friday... I come in to find a DMCA notice via email, apparently from another host, claiming to own copyright on about two dozen files that it CLAIMS are located at a couple of URLS... such as..

x.x.x.x (An IP for one of our servers, a windows box, but enter it as a URL and all you get is a "go way, stick to domain names!")
purenrg.com:2082 (our domain, and a cpanel port#, but that box doesn't have cpanel, and so that port is unanswered)
client1:2082
client2:2082
client3:2022 (All valid.. but useless without a username/password)

Anyway, I assume this is some weird fight over a cPanel theme or something (we use the default cPanel theme) and shoot a copy of the email off to cPanel support and ask for some clarification if they know anything.. Meanwhile I start running locates on the hosting boxen looking for the 'complained' files... and turn up not one.

Oh yeah, it's going to be a lovely friday.

Just wondering if anyone else has gotten one of these lately? (If you had, you'd remember it me thinks).. I'm not mentioning the company it came from, as after digging into the whole situation, I'm not entirely convinced the email wasn't just a fake to try and stir up a fight between two hosts or something. (The number of mistakes regarding addresses/ports/etc.. it just didn't come out very professional.. besides I didn't even see anything on their site about them doing design work, and we sure didn't steal the cP theme from them... so...).. I guess I wait and see what responses I get back.. :Sigh:

I got the same email today.

Shannon, what was the company name? you can PM me

What happened with this? I'm very curious to know! :D

Better watch out on this. I saw on TechTV that their are these companies going around patenting e-commerce technology (very very general patents) then taking suit against small businesses. This may be one of those clowns. Ill try and find a link to what exactly im talking about.

Zach

http://www.youmaybenext.com

Thats the site.

Some scary shi... stuff.

Zach

Oh yeah, saw that on TechTV too

This is the email I got:

************************************

Date: November 7th, 2002

JDC DESIGNS
jdcdesigns.com
950 Vineland Dr. #79
Clarkston, WA 99403

To Whom It May Concern,

I am writing to you to avail myself of my rights under the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act (DMCA). This letter is a Notice of
Infringement as authorized in § 512(c) of the U.S. Copyright Law. I wish to
report an instance of what I feel in good faith is an
instance or Copyright Infringement. The infringing material appears on the
Service for which you are the designated agent.

You are registered with the U.S. Copyright Office as the Designated Service
Provider Agent to receive notifications of alleged
Copyright infringement with respect to users of the Service for which you are
the Designated Agent.

1. The material which I contend belongs to me, and appears illegally on the
Service is the following:
http://vipsnet.com:2082
http://vipsnet.com/cpdemo.html


2. The material appears at the website address:
64.191.7.107
http://vipsnet.com/
http://vipsnet.com:2082
http://www.client1:2082
http://www.client2:2082 (they took client's list from our happy
http://www.client3:2082 customer's page)
http://www.client4:2082
http://www.client5:2082
as well as any site hosted by vipsnet.com


3. My contact information is as follows:
JDC DESIGNS
Jackie Edwards
950 Vineland Dr. #79
Clarkston, WA 99403
legal@jdcdesigns.com

4. I have a good faith belief that the use of the material that appears on the
service is not authorized by the copyright owner, its
agent, or by operation of law.

5. The information in this notice is accurate, and I am either the copyright
owner or I am authorize to act on behalf of the
copyright owner.

6. You are asked to remove the above material as soon as possible, if not
immediately. To post the above on your site/page is a
violation of copyright law, which is a federal offense.
You are welcome to dispute this letter or to defend your use of the material in
question, but should be aware of the following:

a) If asked NO PERMISSION will be granted to keep the material in question on
the website/page.
b) Any & all threats, or responses of a threatening nature, will be reported.
c) Any claim to the effect that permission WAS granted or taken for granted MUST
be supported by irrefutable proof in the form of an
attached document from me to you with the following: date of request & date of
received permission, and the email/letter in which
the permission was asked, given, and received. ALL EVIDENCE MUST BE IN WRITING.
d) We/I DO keep record of permission given & to whom it was given, and have
thorough documentation of such.

A copy of this letter has been retained by the sender(s). If the material in
question remains on the website/page after the passage
of 48 hours you will again be given notice of your infringement. If you continue
to ignore this request appropriate action wil be
taken.


I declare under the perjury laws of the United States of America that this
notification is true and correct to the best of my
knowledge.


Jackie Edwards
JDC Designs


************************************


as you all see this is jdcdesigns.com who sent this email, I think they send me this cause I have Vertex Cpanel Skin screenshot at my website. All those clients and my main account use default cpanel theme.

I sent them email but they did not reply.

I guess I have to treat this email as :spam:

I suggest all of You who got this email please inform Norm from Netacore about the SPAM (jdcdesigns.com have reseller account with Norm)

Did this jdc designs, design the vertex theme? Or did they modify it then copywrite it? Or are they saying anything domain.com:2082 is copywritten?

Zach

I have no clue who designed Vertex theme but it is included in Cpanel/WHM so few of our customers use it (resellers). None of the customers they were quoting though.

I sent them emails and did not get any reply so I guess they are not serious.

That would be some good sh*t, copyrighting a port number.

If it's a CPanel theme, how would they know what theme is being used if all they're getting is a login box?

Sounds like BS to me.

They wouldn't. However, they assumed by going to demo and then finding a list of customers. Bad assumption, but that's my guess as to how they decided to make contact.

Furthermore, if they were going to make the contact, they at least should have provided more complete information as to the nature of the problem.

Originally posted by dbodner
That would be some good sh*t, copyrighting a port number.
Yep, we have copyrighted port 80. :D :stickout:

Err, I didn't get anything? :)

Wow, these guys are slime. I hope no one falls for this stuff.

That's pretty rich, considering they ripped off some of our FAQ items. In fact, it looks to me like most of the FAQ area itself is lifted from other hosts. Good thing we're getting rid of that page when we put the new knowledgebase in - wouldn't want anyone to even hint we'd be associated with someone who would do this sort of thing.

I would only be worried when recieving a court order :)

But not even then, hehe..

It is just a scare tactic.

Do you really think this guy would ever take you to court over a few 100 dollars? Must be a rich son of a lawer :)

Originally posted by Annette
That's pretty rich, considering they ripped off some of our FAQ items. In fact, it looks to me like most of the FAQ area itself is lifted from other hosts.

indeed, they ripped off your FAQ, You better send them the same email they sent me, just change web page links:D

Originally posted by Maximiliam
I would only be worried when recieving a court order :)

But not even then, hehe..

It is just a scare tactic.

Do you really think this guy would ever take you to court over a few 100 dollars? Must be a rich son of a lawer :)

You know how it works especially in the US, there is always someone who wants to sue you and get money for nothing.

Off-topic: I remember few years back I had a little car accident, one lady hit my car, nothing really happened but 2 days later in my mailbox I had two offers from lawyers that they want to represent me and sue the lady, just for 30%. I was wondering how those lawyers got my address...

HA! This is very amusing. I was intrigued by this email itself (and kinda upset that I didn't get one ;) ) so I decided to do som research on the patent that was filed and they are sueing for.

In US Patent 5,576,951, it states that "this invention is directed to data processing systems designed to facilitate commercial, financial and educational transactions between multimedia terminals such as automated sales workstations, information dispensing networks and self-service banking systems. Specifically this invention is directed to a tool for augmentation of sales and marketing capabilities of travel agency personnel in conjunction with computerized airline reservation systems. This invention also relates to financial service application processing, and interactive delivery of informative, educational and recreational audio-visual programs to the home, school or office."

Now, if I'm reading this clearly and accurately, they are stating that even though the date was in 1994, that they now own the patent on ATM machines (self-service banking systems), Travel Agency operation and sales tools, educational program that involve audio/visual wether used in the home, school, or office, and much more.

Something tells me that this just isn't right.

P.S. Also, in reading through some of the previous filings with the Patent Offices from the same group, it seems that originally started the process in 1984 in relation to an invention that "relates first to automatic reservation and ticketing terminals; second, to programmed audio-visual displays used in connection with the sale of goods and services, and to automatic, around-the-clock service tellers. "

So what does this have to do with e-commerce and us?!

Originally posted by Aussie Bob

Yep, we have copyrighted port 80. :D :stickout:



We copyrighted the 'dot' in .com :D

I get port 21! :D

This seems pretty ridiculous but maybe I'll be lucky and recieve one of these emails myself ;)

I think it might be quite amusing.

Slime. First off I recommend contacting your attorney and filing a lawsuit against them. Nothing will warm their little bloody hearts more than getting some certified snail mail. Or we could all collectively return the favor.

Also let them know that they haven't clearly show proof of ownership and will have to get a court appointed judge to ask you to remove it.

Originally posted by AffordableHost
We copyrighted the 'dot' in .com :D
I have a patent for the wheel. ;) :D

my patent is on sliced bread.! :D

I would only be worried when recieving a court order

I get about one a week from US courts and the go stright in the bin and I email the attorney to tell them its out of their jurisdiction.
Often i end up terminating the customer for breach of TOS anyway but US courts have no authority here and if they want to pursue it legaly they need to hire a guy wearing a wig.

Anyway, last year British Telecom took action claiming that hyperlinks breached their US patents.
It was thrown out.

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,54721,00.html

However, what if we claled our company "Port 80 internet services" and trademarked the name.
Potentially we could deprive anyone of the right to use the term "port 80" without our permission.

I was involved in a major trade mark dispute once and you wouldnot believe how messy it gets.
You would be surprised who owns the most obscure trade marks, often through takeover of smaller companies.
Its not something I would want to go through again.

Gordon

Well if anyone would like to know who they are I'd be happy to find out, they live 5 miles from me :rolleyes:. I can't believe that anyone around here even knows what a control panel is... someone pretty ritzey though, those are pretty spendy apartments (and yes it is an apartment, not a commercial building).

I wouldn't worry about it too much. :).

LOL there whois information is blank (which is against the rules) and jdcdesigns.net is available... I'm really thinking of registering it and forwarding it to a Vortex demo :D.

Ok, I lay claim to the patent of oxygen, so either pay up or stop breathing.

Also, I now own the patent to the Earth, so pay up or get off my planet. :D


Oh yeah, I'll take the Sun too.

I have trademarked the word "scam". Use it and die MWHAHA!

Screw you all, I'm trade markin' the comma... Bad grammer everywhere MWHAHAHAHAHAH!

Actually
I used to work ina place where they owned the patent for the DNA of various micro-organisms.

SO............ I claim the rights to everyones DNS.
So dematerialise immediately or I will sue the pants off you.

Gordon

I just patented blinking! :eek:

I just patented the word "patent". So no more use of this word without my permission! :)

Originally posted by Aussie Bob

I have a patent for the wheel. ;) :D
We have just recently been approved for our patent on fire.:D

I just patented breathing...so everyone cease and desist now!!!!! :angry:



...literally! :cool:

--Tina

I patented Webhost and the word HOST. BEFORE YOU ALL USE IT ON UR DOMAIN NAMES, faqs, info, anywhere.... You all owe me $5000 per year for licensing! Also port 2086 is patented & trademarked hehehe :D

While we're all staking our claim...I filed and was approved for the patent on the entire English Alphabet years ago and was just being nice by not enforcing it, but the gloves are off now baby. Licensing is per character, per week(icluding punctuation, sorry Affordable host). 5 cents per letter for initial draft, and 2 cents per week per letter that said document stays in print.

I just patented water.

I just patented the internet!

muhahah

Originally posted by Reality Host
I just patented the internet!

muhahah
I thought Al Gore was the first one to do this?!:rolleyes: :eek: :)

I thought Al Gore was the first one to do this?!


sssshhh don't let my sekrit identity out!

It's always nice to see a little humor in the forums....but again the bad news continues...


10 years ago I patented the Universe....I charged only $1 a day per person, aliens are $40 day....Sorry folks ;)

I believe the theme was made by imhosted and later included as 'vertex' by someone. Notice the 'IM' on some buttons.

I patented the electron! I demand a fee for each electron transferred.

elecTRON Of BORG

I just GPL'd blood :)

Can there be a class action lawsuit against PanIP in reverse?

If the patent is found unenforceable those named in the case may be able to file a counter-suit. Right now PanIP is simply protecting it's intellectual property, rightly or not.

-Matt