We all know those malicious people, those evil ones that lurk around the internet looking for warez. With illegal, copyrighted material readily available through torrents and other means of free downloads, copyright infringement has become a massive problem. Between the five-day period of July 13-18, 2009, I experienced a unique copyright infringer, one stationed in the depths of the United Kingdom. It all began one day like this…
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loveispoison:
hello
please review my website thanks
Thewebsite is for all those people that find it more convenient to bother you with their question rather than google it for themselves.
http://let-me-google-it-for-you.co.cc/
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When I visited the URL, I noticed that it was a clone of
Let Me Google That For You, and was thus violating the copyright of LMGTFY, LLC. I gave my opinion in the discussion, and got a response.
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loveispoison:
what the point of google video or daily motion or other website that are the same?
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adamparkzer:
You’re not getting my point.
There’s Youtube, Daily Motion, Hulu, and multiple other video sites because video websites are used with high frequency, and these websites are competitors. They program their own material from scratch, and they have their own specialties and features.
Your clone, on the other hand, is just stealing the work of someone else. I’m on the verge of wondering if this is even legal, as you’re plagiarizing someone else’s code and script.
If you want to use the "google video or daily motion" analogy, then think of it this way: It’s fine to have a Google Video and Daily Motion, but do we really need two Daily Motions?
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Meanwhile, I wasn’t just sitting there waiting for responses from
loveispoison, now obviously identified as our copyright infringer. Behind the scenes, I had already contacted the owners of LMGTFY, and received a response the next day. It went as follows:
Ryan of LMGTFY, LLC:
Adam,
Thanks for the notice. Yes, that site is in direct copyright violation of our company, LMGTFY, LLC.
It never ceases to amaze us how blatantly stupid and immoral some people are. This isn’t the first time we’ve been outright plagiarized. The only good thing for us is that we have millions of visitors per month, where these rip-offs rarely top a few dozen.
I’d post a reply on the forum, but I’m restricted because my forum account isn’t activated yet.
-Ryan and Jim
http://twitter.com/rmm5t
http://twitter.com/coderifous
P.S. Check out our live search stream: http://live.lmgtfy.com |
After we got Ryan’s registration and activation issue settled on the x10Forums, he went ahead and made a post on the forum thread that this all this was developing on.
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rmm5t:
loveispoison, Hi. This is one of the owners of LMGTFY, LLC. You are in direct violation of our copyright. In addition, outright copying code and rebranding it as your own just isn’t cool. Be original. Be yourself. Stealing other people’s ideas (and implementations) just makes you look like a fool.
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As this was happening,
loveispoison went ahead and created another thread on the forums, this time titled "check this out – Google Music Search tottaly legal." This was the post:
loveispoison:
copy and paste the code into your browser and see what happens
Code removed
tested And Working 100 % Guaranteed…………!! 
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Obviously, I couldn’t resist responding to it. The following was my response, then a forum administrator posting afterwards.
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adamparkzer:
So essentially, it’s a script for prompting input, plugging it into a giant string to search for on Google, then hoping you can find a website that illegally offers the song for free?
Man, you’re on a roll with this copyright infringement stuff. First you steal LMGTFY’s scripts, and now you’re helping people find illegal ways to download songs by misusing a search engine?
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David:
Referencing to above post by adamparkzer
Wow, someone who actually has a clue, you get a cookie!
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With that, the thread was closed to prevent further responses, and the code was removed. Not long afterward, a THIRD incident came up.
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loveispoison:
hi all
just finished this new site been working on the design for some time know its done but still needs some work done please review and if you can let me know if something is wrong or or ad something new thanks for reading know time to visit the website
http://get-vid.co.cc/index.php
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Someone a bit quicker than me already noticed that his new site was again a site clone, and voiced is opinion. Additionally, after reading
loveispoison‘s post, this is where I flipped.
adamparkzer:
LISTEN. I AM BEING SERIOUS.
This is the THIRD incident in the past few days I can name off the top of my head of you infringing copyright.
(1) You stole LetMeGoogleThatForYou’s copyrighted code.
(2) You created a script to help people misuse search engines and acquire illegal music.
(3) You stole DownloadYoutubeVideo’s copyrighted code.
I already notified Let Me Google That For You’s owner, Ryan McGeary, and he was nice enough to just tell you that you’re directly violating their copyright and he didn’t take action.
I will be immediately notifying the owners of DownloadYoutubeVideos.com for copyright infringement. What they choose to do is up to them. If this continues, I will have personal discussion(s) with admin(s) so they will take disciplinary action against your account.
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Although I said "If this continues," I didn’t wait for it to continue. Three incidents were more than enough; immediately after finishing that post, I started instant messaging a few moderators and administrators that I saw more frequently around the forums, or that had helped me out in the past. The next morning,
loveispoison gave us a response.
loveispoison:
Referencing to above post by sourfacedcyclop
 copied my ass 
Referencing to above post by adamparkzer
hahaha what da hell is wrong wit ya kido let me worry about that not you dumbhead tell me something what if i copy your site what your gona do huh nothing hehe so buzz of and leave me alone  but i dont copy others website and claim it as my own and yes i do copy some sites but for learning purposses only
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As my friend
Garrett said, "Go copy Windows for ‘learning purposes’ and see what happens." After his post, there were a few other responses made, and an argument broke out. An administrator that I talked with the previous day closed the thread before further flaming occurred.
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Christopher:
Closing this before it goes too far
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In the process of closing the thread, Administrator Christopher also shut down Get-Vid.co.cc, which was hosted on x10Hosting servers. But there was still the LMGTFY clone out. I couldn’t stop here.
After filing an abuse report at 000WebHost.com’s website, I got a prompt response from a staff member notifying me that the website in question had been taken down. I let Ryan of LMGTFY know about my success, and he replied:
All of
loveispoison‘s illegal sites had been shut down. I thought I was done. I thought it was going to end there. Then I got a private message.
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loveispoison:
well if you think ur who does not let go then you dont know me im worst then you i will copy your site and reup my website and make your life a hell that i swear on the devil and pormise you this corss my heart make your life a hell dont think this is a joke i will buy a hosting some were were yo u cant **** with any 1 even tell the host to shut me down but they wont shut me down and i know were |
After shooting an instant message to Christopher and forwarding the private message onto him, we also came across a new thread posted in the Free Hosting Support area.
loveispoison:
let me begin i have to websites and yhe links are on my sig but there is 2 members who are tottaly racist so i made a post to review my website review my new website please
as you can see they are saying that i was copying other website so i wasnt u copying others and the website let me google it for you is a free script and they made a fake  user as the real owner and said im the owner huh and my other website get-vid.co.cc it was suspended in there bcoz i was violating youtube.com temrs cmon there are 1000s of youtbe downloaders online and who is saing its ilegal so if you guys dont want me here then fine thanks and these are the user here who i dont like and are racist %100
check here
http://forums.x10hosting.com/members…itor_messaging
these guys below
sourfacedcyclop
adamparkzer
so if you still dont want me here then fine i leave but one thing i promise i will make those guys life a hell
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This is when I noticed that
loveispoison doesn’t know what racist means. This is also when Christopher laid down the hammer.
loveispoison immediately received a ban from x10Hosting Forums. This is where we stand now.
