Using the DMCA Against License Violations?

bcrowell asks: "Here's a moral conundrum for you. The much-hated DMCA can be a tool to enforce copyleft licenses, and in my case, it may be the only effective tool. I'm the author of some free physics textbooks (all free as in beer, some free as in speech) that are available under the GFDL and OPL copyleft licenses. I've learned that there's a guy on eBay who is selling my books on CD and violating the license. (Selling is allowed, since they're free-as-in-speech, but he's violating the license in various ways, such as not informing his buyers about the license, and selling them under a different title and using the tables of contents in his ads without showing the license or listing me as the author.) It's not just me. He's doing the same thing with other copylefted books, such as this one." The submitter is worried about the ethics behind using the recent misuses we've seen so far. Those interested in this question might also be interested in Prof. Felten's answers from his recent Slashdot interview.

"eBay has several different mechanisms for complaining about this, and I used one of them. Other people have complained too, but so far the result just seems to be that eBay deletes the listings of the items (which have already been sold). Meanwhile the guy is still violating copyleft licenses (as well as selling other copyright-violating stuff, such as screensavers containing commercial porn images).

Apparently the most effective way to deal with this on eBay is to participate in their vero program, which basically means sending the DMCA Police after the guy. For instance, if I wanted to sue the guy (which I don't), I'd need to know his name and address. The DMCA says that eBay has to provide that info to someone who complains about a copyright violation.

It seems like it would be a similar deal in the software world. The conventional wisdom about how to prevent infringement is to GPL your code, and transfer the copyright to the FSF, which will contact license violators and (theoretically) sue them if it comes to that. So how long will it be until the FSF is asked by an open-source developer to invoke the DMCA in order to deal with a license violation? In my own case, should I go ahead and join eBay's vero program? It would make me feel like I was in bed with the enemy, but it does seem like it would give me some very effective options for dealing with the situation. For instance, members of the program can have eBay run automated boolean searches for copyright-violating items, and get the results e-mailed to them periodically.

One possible reply to my question is 'Why do you care?" The problem here is that this guy is doing exactly what RMS originally designed copyleft to prevent: he's taking free information and making it not-free. His customers don't know that the books are copylefted, and have effectively had their own freedom taken away: they don't know they can modify the books, copy them, or sell them."

Comments

Big Surprise!

[Esion Modnar]

There are scumbag lowlifes selling stuff on Ebay?

I saw one guy selling information about how to buy a new Ipod for $50. But if you weren't observant, you'd think he was selling an Ipod for that price.

Sadly, there were 6 bids, and it was already up to $65. I don't know who to blame more: the scumbag pulling this shit, or the dimbulbs bidding on it.

Hit him in the karma

[stomv]

So, some guy with email
GREGLOSANG@YAHOO.COM
isn't upholding the GPL, et al? One way you can make it not worth his while is to post his email,
GREGLOSANG@YAHOO.COM
all over the web. Maybe he'd like some spam sent to
GREGLOSANG@YAHOO.COM
leting him know about stuff. If everybody sends email to
GREGLOSANG@YAHOO.COM
than his email box will become so littered that his auctions will suffer. The end result:
GREGLOSANG@YAHOO.COM
will find it less profitible to violate copyright laws, etc. Don't you think that would help
GREGLOSANG@YAHOO.COM
stop doing bad things?

Re:Other examples

[moonbender]

Oh god, what has he done to the poor woman on the office CD? And, conversely, what (who?) is she crushing with her hands? Well I guess it's better than being drugged by this freak.

Re:Good Applications Do Not Make Good Ideas

[dfn5]

Laws are bad, guns are good, Microsoft is a joke.

Yes, let's get rid of laws so that someone can shoot Microsoft.

Re:speaking of karma

[geekoid]

HAHAHAHAhahaha

I can NOT believe I did that. heh.
Just as I was wrapping up the post, one of my children came in and I hit Submit while I was distracted.

heh.

In the immortal words, of the great philosopher Homer:
"D'OH"

well, time to change my email address.

Re:Other examples

[Anonymous Coward]

My hard drive is just a 5th-level cache between the CPU and the Internet.

Your hard drive hits the DDR RAM with with a +2 disk arm.
The DDR RAM hits your hard drive with a bit bucket.
Your hard drive hits the DDR RAM with with a +2 disk arm.
The DDR RAM dies.

Your hard drive has increased in level to a 4th-level cache.

Re:speaking of karma

[Nept]

Hello ANONCOWARD@YAHOO.COM,
Thank you for your interest in this discussion.
Sure, you, Mr ANONCOWARD@YAHOO.COM,
might know participating without being AC is wrong, but you
ANONCOWARD@YAHOO.COM
will bear the brunt of your foolishness well, I am sure.
Thank you Mr ANONCOWARD@YAHOO.COM for your helpful comments.
I am sure in future, that you
ANONCOWARD@YAHOO.COM
will think before you,
ANONCOWARD@YAHOO.COM
act.