Had a film ripped off.. (ish)

[JohnnySix]

Anyone speak chinese..?

Here's the site :

http://zj.showgood.com/gb/show/

and my entry:

http://zj.showgood.com/gb/show/movieshow.php?id=1655

It cropped up on one of the referers when I was looking through my stats.. :P I never submitted the film, the main reason being I'd never heard of the site but it must have been recent as it's not cropped up before.

I spodded the site using alta-vista's babelfish and found my cartoon is up there on the site and offered as a download.. :P

ARgh. Hmmm. What to do..?

I got the main jist of what is there through the translator and they have at least still got my name up there as author.. Still, offering it as a download without my permission is a bit off isn't it..?

Can anyone read the category heading I'm under as the translator doesn't o images yet..

Ohh hey.. I just noticed the copyright is Copyright 2000 - 2001 [email protected] !!!

Ah man, this sucks..!

What should I do here..?

Hmmm..

Cheers

John

[CNO]

Hmm. This is tough because international copyright law is a sticky issue - even if you were to threaten a lawsuit, it might be tough wrangling with the different statutes. Still, my first suggestion would be a friendly e-mail explaining how uncool their actions were - maybe it was a misunderstanding (don't forget - kids who use Napster think there's nothing wrong with what they're doing...).

I would follow that up with a strongly-worded legal reprimand, particualrly if you have a friend or family member who is a lawyer and can draft one up for you. I said it was tough to deal with, not impossible. And if you have the time/resources, pursue it.

If all else fails, be proud that someone thought enough of your work to steal it, and start taking precautions to protect your work at the source (once bitten, twice shy). Use as many tricks as you can to keep the casual ripper from pulling your file from their browser cache and posting it on their site - greedy people are usually lazy too. Granted if someone is determined enough they will get your stuff, but in that case you generally have to cut your losses. That, and find some 12-year-old k1dd13 to launch a DOS against his/her site.

Hit me up via e-mail or msg. if you need to know some of the methods you can use to protect your .swf

[megatoon]

That does really suck. Can't speak chinese so I can't really help you out with the translation. Personally it wouldn't really bother me if they played it, as long as my name was on it somewhere. However this would piss me off "Copyright 2000 - 2001 [email protected]". I'd get that part worked out ASAP. Even pay a lawyer for consoltation about it.

I'd assume if you sent a email in english it wouldn't make to much sense to them but I would try anyway. Let us know how it works out. This is the kind of thing that can hit any one of us.

All things considered, kinda flattering for them to post it. And that voice sound mighty familiar.

Goodluck John!

[JohnnySix]

Ah well, it's giving me hits at least.

Hmmm.. I'll have an ask around with some mates and see what I can do.


Chris..

I've got a nice script that Ibis Fernandez came up with for protecting stuff so it won't play on any other server.. I'll have to ask him about it again.

I've just about finished the new film so I'd rather not have it happen again.. Haha.

I'll mail them in english and let them know that's it's not on and see what they say. If I don'tget anything back I'll see if I can get one out in Chinese.

Hmmmm. Still, I guess old XiaoXiao has had his fair share of people nabbing his stuff and generally his stuff is so ubiquitous there's no doubt that it's his.

They've not actually modified the film at least so there's a big link there to my site and all copywrite info there is still intact, it's just underhand to be offering it as a download without my say so. :|

Megatoon : If I was rich I'd get a lawyer just for the fun of it, but I'm not, so I won't.
Hey, does the voice sound familiar..?

Cheers

John

[megatoon]

Megatoon : If I was rich I'd get a lawyer just for the fun of it, but I'm not, so I won't.

I with ya on the not being rich thing. Hey I'm there right now. I didn't mean get a lawyer to sue. I've seen a lawer before on these type of things. It was consulting for an hour it cost about $75 CDN. Really I'm thinking in a worse case scenario if they sell this, that money should be yours.

Just an idea to look into if it to expensive then nix it. But you may find it worth your while.

[JohnnySix]

Using a bit of guesswork I managed to sign up and post on thier board..

Hahaha.

http://zj.showgood.com/gb/show/talk.php?id=1655

Hopefully they'll be kind enough to mail me and explain.

If not I'll see about mailing them every day until they do take it down.

Cheers

John

[Dolemite50]

Hi Thunda!
Long time no hear. Just caught your animation. Totally cool.
Reminded me of my good ol trippin days. Glad to know that youre doing your own music in your animations. I just started doing the same thing. I dont know why I didnt do it earlier because its my one true love even more than animating. Its nice to be able to write for the exact mood that you're looking for.
I really liked the backwards tracks, the whole piece had a great mood about it. Nice work, you just keep getting better.
Sorry to hear about your work being hijacked. I guess it could have been worse. They could have said "Be sure to visit Frashkit" or something. Heh.
Anyhoo, Gnarly Davisson 3 is sooo close. Its over 150 scenes and I've been at it on and off for over 6 months. Its the biggest body of work I've ever created and at this point I cant wait to get it finished just so I can see what this "fresh air" deal is that I've been hearing so much about.
I'll send you a link to it directly when its done.
Take care man!
Kyle

[JohnnySix]

Yeah.. I dunnno that I should complain too much.. I'm getting about 200 hits from them a day.. hahaha..

Ah well man, tell me when you get Gnarly 3 out, sounds great.. Are you going to break it up into episodes..?

6 months sounds like a big project.. :O

Hmm.. The site mailed me back but all I got was random symbols.. I don't know if they were trying to send chinese characters or if it got corrupted or what.

Ah well, I'll wait and see if they mail again, I replied saying it came through as nonsensical symbols so hopefully they'll be able to respond in something a bit more readable this time.. Hahah.

Cheers

John

[xup878]

take it as a compliment...
once someone tries to steal your work and put their name on it u know its good

[littlemomo]

well here is the translation for the chinese letters that is next to your animation.


ÀÃ*±ð(category)£º ¿¨Ã�¨ÀÃ* (cartoon)

ʱ¼ä(time)£º 2001-10-29 21:02:58

´ó�¡(size)£º 650.844K

ƱÊý(votes)£º 4 ¹Û¿´(viewed)£º7330

¼ò½é(brief description)£º ÃÎÒ»³¡!(just a dream!)

×÷Õß(author)£º (I'm not sure if you want ppl to know, so I left it out)

ÓÊ�ä(email)£º (I'm not sure if you want ppl to know, so I left it out)


¹ú¼Ò(country)£º /µØÇø(area)£ºÓ¢¹ú (england)

ÔÚ�ß¹Û¿´ (view it online)


At least they give all the credits that is rightfully yours.
But I agree it is still not right to post up your work for download without you permission.

BTW John if you want me to translate that letter they send you, just e-mail it to me.
[Edited by littlemomo on 11-03-2001 at 03:45 PM]

[JohnnySix]

Hi momo.

Cheers for the translation there.

I don't know if I already mentioned, but I managed to muddle through and sign up so I could post a comment.. Hahah..

Ah well, I've mailed you so expect something in your inbox shortly.

Thanks for the translations, much apreciated, as the altavista translation machine leaves a lot to be desired, especially when it comes to images.

Cheers

John

[littlemomo]

you're welcome thundachunk.

I just finished translating the letter, so you should get it soon.

yeah I know the altavista translation thing is really not that accurate at all, especailly when it comes to asian languages.

[xup878]

the translations make it all the more fun...
they make a simple sentence into all sorts of poetic mastery
its always fun to put an english word into a translator, change it to chosen language then put that word in and change it back..

[JohnnySix]

Hahah. I had a play with altavista's fish..

Here's the original english:

To be or not to be, that is the translation.

To spanish:

Ser o no ser, ¨¦se es la traducci¨®n.

Back to english:

To be or not to be, that one is the translation.

To Japanese:

¤¢¤ë¤¿¤á¤Ë¤Ã�¤Þ¤¿¤Ã�¤Ê¤¤¤¿¤ á¤Ë, ¤½¤Î¤Ã�·Â*ÔU¤Ç¤¢¤ë¡£

Back to english again

For a certain or because it is not, that is translation .

10/10 for poetic effort but 0/10 for maintaining the original meaning.

Heheh. You can't always rely on these translation programs, eh..?

Hahah.

Cheers

John

[xup878]

it sure sounds beautiful

[JohnnySix]

They've taken it down from the front page now.. !!

I've got a whole new re-vamped brand spanking new version of the film due up in the next week, so perhaps the fact that people are downloading the older version is a good way to get a bit of an audience together for the new one.. Hahah.

Cheers

John



[Edited by ThundaChunk on 11-05-2001 at 07:38 PM]

[littlemomo]

good to hear that thundachunk.

I can't wait to see the new film.

[CNO]

I wonder if they ran your post through the Altavista translator and got a message along the lines of
"I am a fish. When the cow does his flying over the moon, films which are stolen to the from my site should not be good for us in togetherness.", figured you were quite insane, and took down the films based on those fears...