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EFF Forces DMCA Abuser to Apologize
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."
Who will own the copyright to the apology video?
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.
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)
This guy is a bare faced liar. He does not seem to have learned a bit about basic decency and continues to remain the perfect example of a "griefer".
"I had an honest belief that one could control their image when it was used contrary to the original intent"
And what was the original intent of the posters Crook tricked into giving their private pictures. It is unbelievable that he expects people to believed all this while doing the exact opposite. He must live in some kind of bizzaro world.
"Who knew you can't control your own image?"
Wasn't it the same confidence that one can't, that allowed him to do this in the first place? And yet when it comes to him the rules don't apply.
"The appearance on Hannity and Colmes was very embarrassing for me"
And I thought all along that he did not know the meaning of embarrassment. Or maybe, he just lacked empathy. For those out of the loop, he called the troops "scumbags" and "pukes" on his web site for which he was called to the show where he was completely unprepared to give any valid response. Other quotes from Crook on the soldiers - "What idiots risk their life for a country...? Let 'em die in combat - we don't need their ilk in this country!".
"I firmly believe that he chose the photograph in an attempt to attack and unduly humiliate me"
Unlike his compassionate treatment his victims? Crook said "he's enjoying exposing the perverts" and "pathetic men".