Legal Threat
 

Well, I got a few emails yesterday from a guy claiming that we have stolen his artwork. I will post our email conversation as quotes.

EDIT: I removed the quotes, they caused some problems for some users, so right now, the messages are simply divided by a line.

---

Richard
You have stolen the images from my forum, and placed them on your forum. I did not give permission for you to use them, and if you do not take them down within 24 hours i will be forced to take action.

I wait for your explanation
Richard


---

Chruser
Hello Sir,
Is there any chance you might be a little more specific about the images?
Could you also give me the URL for your site? I have several
administrators working for my forum, and even though all of them (including me) would be capable of image theft like any other person out there, I still have a lot of doubts about
them actually steal any copyrighted images.

I will be in full responsibility of any actions you take, since I am the owner of Zelaron.com. I will investigate this matter as soon as you reply to this message. Until then, I can do nothing to come up with a solution.

-Chris


---

Richard
Ok here is the stloen image that is on your site...
http://www.zelaron.com/forums/images...s/forumtop.gif

And here is the original image from my site...
http://www.materialvision.com/images/forumtop.gif

And here is my forum...
http://www.materialvision.com/cgi-bi.../ikonboard.cgi

Richard


---

Chruser
Taco, one of my administrators, says he found those images at a site where
they were available to download for free for public use. If you could prove,
however, that those images are licensed to you, then we would be talking
about an illegal distribution of your work. But then again, maybe my administrator
is simply lying, even though I would doubt that?

I will find the URL where he claims to have gotten them from. In the meantime,
feel free to tell me more about this matter.

-Chris


---

Richard
I am very interested to know where he got this image. Im not saying i
believe you, but i do have psd files. Please let me know where you say you
got this image.


Richard


---

NOTE: I chose not to reply to this message, since I had already sent taco a PM about this. However, 24 hours later, I had gotten nothing from taco, but Richard sent me another email instead.

---

Richard
Ok i am now sick of this bullshit about you not knowing you ripped. I know
you are lying, and i am giving you 24 hours to take them down or i will
be
forced to take severe action (im not joking). I was prepared to reason with
you, but since you have not replied to my email, this is how it is going
to
be.

24 hours
Richard


---

Chruser
The reason why I have not replied to your email is simply because I was,
and still am, waiting for an answer from the administrator who had the original
source for it.

However, I will take down the image with proof of you being the actual author.
Ask your attorny to send me a confirmaion, and I will gladly take the image
down as well.

-Chris





Now, I know all of this is about a really silly image, and the guy will not get an easy time proving that he is the actual author of the site. Either way, taco has still not replied to my PM now, which is 37 hours after I sent it. I really wish he could take a bit more responsibility right now :(

This does remind me of Taco's little spamming bonanza that made a police chief contact (and trace) me down, but everything went well that time, thanks to some help for my webhost, John Allen.

By the way, visit his site if you need webhosting :p
It's not like I get lai... err, paid for advertising for him, but the chances are that he will move us once more to a better server as soon as the current one fills up :D

lol... that image suxxor SUXXOR! why copyright a piece of crap like that..thats like copyrighting a rectangle or square =p anyway zelaron will pwn him and his little forum

nah, i dont think taco would have stolen that image... probably that guy called Richard did lol... (probably not but o well, i have to team up with my own forum's members.)

Lol yep thats pretty funny. Anyhow, we got ur back Chruser!

Omfg has anyone looked at this forum site?
They have 19 members.
And only 6 of them have more than 1 post.

oops.. sorry for double post.. I figured someone would have replied by the time I got stats.. Anyhow.

Another funny thing I found in his tutorial section on his site:

http://www.materialvision.com/tutori...o/phpintro.php

A PHP tutorial... Scroll down to the bottom of that page, and you'll see how much skills he has with PHP.

Ok first off, material vision? Wtf was this guy thinking anyways? I just got off the phone with a good friend of mine that says he has been a member there for a while and that they just added that graphic a few weeks ago, dunno how much truth to that there is but o well. He claims the only reason he stays there is because the few posts there are, are either wrong or just so damn stupid there funny.

wut a fruitcake..well i know taco has ripped sum stuff...but i seriously doubt that gay thing is copyrighted..so we got ur back chruser

He prolly stole it from you... it's been on Zelaron for longer than a few weeks, right?

this guy is gay i mean why would you even care about some stupid ass shit like that

...what I want to know is why he'd copywright a thing like that... spend more money than he needs to.

His site isn't even up right now...Lol.

I remeber when somebody stole everything off of my site and I didn't really care because nobody went to his site anyways.

This guy you're talking about probably couldn't even afford a lawyer.

Just take it off. No one really uses Zephios anyways. Subsilver is way better, it just that it doesn't have the rpg hack, thats all (I am talking to you, Chruser. http://www.somethingleet.com/forum/i...es/cussing.gif)

2158 users use it

Its the default skin. All 2000 users have sign up but are never active. Just swich Ocean (or something) back to the default.

WetWired was nice enough to make a new one. Just reload the page and see :)

lol, he got all hyped up over nothing, I wish he would have said more...funny to listenm to.

I am going to catch this guy red-handed. Obviously, his site hasn't been up too long... so he could've stole it and didn't want to get caught. How long have we had it for?

not sure exactly, but a little while now.

That's a huge fucking bunch of bullshit. I hate that guy.