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EFF Forces DMCA Abuser to Apologize

Posted by samzenpus on from the depths-of-my-mothers-basement-I-stab-at-thee dept.

destinyland writes "The EFF just announced victory over a serial abuser of DMCA copyright notices. To set an example, their settlement required Michael Crook to record a video apology to the entire internet for interfering with free speech. He's also required to withdraw every bogus DMCA notice, and refrain from future bogus notices, never contest the original image again, and take a remedial class on copyright law. He'd attempted to use flaws in the DMCA to censor an embarrassing picture of himself that he just didn't want appearing online — but instead the whole thing backfired."

2 of 222 comments (clear)

  1. Re:That's it? by StringBlade · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you search around a bit (Google cache helped here) you'll see that it wasn't a nudie picture he was embarrassed about, it was his entire bit on Hannity and Colmes where they verbally beat him down for badmouthing our troops. He figured that he owned his own image and that somehow the DMCA gave him the power to prevent the reproduction of his image in that broadcast.

    Naturally you don't own the copyright to your image if someone else takes a picture of you and you sign a waiver giving up your copyright to that particular image and likeness.

    In the end, he's just a sad, disillusioned jerkoff who does things the American Way(TM) - without thinking about or understanding his actions.

    --
    ...and that's the way the cookie crumbles.
  2. Re:Could somebody ... by InsaneMosquito · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://www.boingboing.net/2006/11/02/michael_crook _sends_.html The Image

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7vssO8jj1E Video of him on Hannity and Colmes (poor sound quality)