© Copyright Infringement? A Form of Flattery?

**A_DeAngelo** · 03-20-2006, 03:12 PM

© Copyright Infringement or A Form of Flattery?

It has recently come to our attention that clips of some of our movies have been pirated, ripped-off and posted on certain Yahoo groups by a well known BareBack content producer who is a member of this (GWW) group?!?!?

This has been done without our permission and is in clear violation of Copyright Laws.

Q: Do we mind?
A: YES!

Q: Why?
A: Because there is no mention of the originators, producers and rightful owners of these clips (hence no publicity) and we're proud of our work and like our names to be attached to our titles - after all, we've got egos you know!

Q: Does this mean that this person thinks our stuff is better than theirs?
(which might be why they posted something they thought was hot in the first place)

Or

Q: Does this mean that this person doesn't think they should comply with the law by asking our permission to post this material?

BTW: This content has NEVER been freely posted or given away to anyone at anytime in the history of this planet…

What do you all think?

To Be Continued…

**Lee** · 03-20-2006, 03:16 PM

Name names.

If it is deliberate, im sure the issue will be resolved quickly, if it is an error, im sure the issue will be resolved quickly.

Its also a good idea to name them so that the other BB promoters we have on GWW dont get caught up in the issue un-necessarily.

Regards,

Lee

Dzinerbear · 03-20-2006, 03:21 PM

Yeah, I'd sure like to know who. I have a lot of bareback content on my sites, but it's all bought and paid-for. I don't want to push sponsors who are stealing content.

Michael

**A_DeAngelo** · 03-20-2006, 04:08 PM

Originally Posted by Dzinerbear

Yeah, I'd sure like to know who. I have a lot of bareback content on my sites, but it's all bought and paid-for. I don't want to push sponsors who are stealing content.

Michael

Yeah well....

To us, the matter is very simple.

Our material is not in the public domain and is protected by copyright laws.

Even if a picture or a DVD had been purchased or was viewed by a paying member in a members' area of a web site, the material CAN NOT be reproduced without the producers' consent!

Everybody knows that, doesn't everybody!

As soon as our attorney gives us the go-ahead, we will name names. But, not until then.

**A_DeAngelo** · 03-20-2006, 04:13 PM

Oh, BTW...

I didn't mention that one of the "clips" was of a scene Austin Black performed in, you know, our friend who just died...

And the person that posted the "clip" didn't even mention anything about Austin, or us, or anything else with any relevance...

Odd that the post appeared at the same time we were at a service with the family...

Kinda creepy!

**hdkbill** · 03-20-2006, 05:35 PM

Originally Posted by A_DeAngelo

© Copyright Infringement or A Form of Flattery?

It has recently come to our attention that clips of some of our movies have been pirated, ripped-off and posted on certain Yahoo groups by a well known BareBack content producer who is a member of this (GWW) group?!?!?

Let's clear the air right now regarding this issue.

The "well known Bareback content producer" Tony is referring to is me. The Yahoo group he is talking about is bareback-videos@yahoogroups.com

I DID NOT POST ANY OF TONY'S COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL...OR ANY OTHER COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL FOR THAT MATTER TO THAT GROUP.

Tony is well aware of this since he has already written to the member of that group who posted the material in question. I received an email from that member this morning asking me to remove the material. He said he wasn't aware he had done anything wrong since it is a group about bareback-videos. I responded to that member immediately.

Here's the problem. As most of you are aware, YahooGroups has a bad habit of going around a deleting groups or deleting Yahoo ID's of owners or moderators of groups if they think the group is offensive or is they think the owner or moderator of the group is posting or allowing the posting of messages they feel are offensive.

The Yahoo ID I used to create that group was deleted by Yahoo. The group itself was not. Therefore, the group continues to operate but their is no moderator or owner of the group to approve new members or to go in and delete any of the messages of files. I have no idea when the video clips in question were posted but I can assure you that it was well after my Yahoo ID was deleted by Yahoo otherwise I would have made sure that the member had permission to post the clip before allowing it to be posted to the group. Since my Yahoo ID was deleted, I cannot even go and join that group because in order to join, it requires approval of the moderator, and their isn't one.

Over the past several months I have written to Yahoo a number of times and told them to delete the group. I have yet to receive an answer back from Yahoo to anyof those messages, so, unfortunately, as the Yahoo ID I used to create and moderate the group no longer exists, I can't get in to it to make any changes.

When I wrote back to the member this morning who did post Tony's material on the group, I explained that situation to him and told him to write back to Tony and let him know the situation and then suggested that he tell Tony to try writing to Yahoo directly with a DMCA notification (Digital Millenium Copyright Act), and that perhaps they would respond to him since they aren't responding to me. I even suggested to the member that if Tony needed a sample of a DMCA Notification letter, to let me know and I'd be happy to send one to him. So, Tony, I'll pass that offer on to you right now. If you need a sample DMCA notification to send to Yahoo just let me know. I'd send the DMCA notification for you if I could, but the DMCA notification must come from the Copyright Owner or his representative.

So Tony, let's get your facts straight. Don't be accusing me of "pirating and ripping off your material when you know for a fact that they were NOT posted by me, but by a individual member of that group that you have already written to. And, by the way, you are a member of that particular Yahoo group and have been since its I originally started, and, as you know, I have been more than happy to allow you to post information about your new releases on that group right from the beginning. Why are you now stating that "some of our movies have been pirated, ripped-off and posted on certain Yahoo groups by a well known BareBack content producer who is a member of this (GWW) group?!?!?", when as a member, you have seen for yourself exactly you did post the clips you are refering to? And, why the hell didn't you write directly to me. You wrote to the member who posted the clip, so obviously you knew that it wasn't be that posted it.

One last thought. I just did a search at the U.S. Copyright office for the name of your company Zyloco, Inc., as well as for TonyandCam and BarebackMasters, and the search resulted in NO items found. That means that while you may have places the copyright symbols on your films, and that are in fact copyrighted under copyright law, in the event of a copyright violation you may only sue for actual damages. You would not be able to sue for punitive awards since you have not actually registered the works with the U.S. Copyright Office. Suing for actual damage means that you could only sue if you caught someone duplicating and selling you films, and, in that event, you could only sue for the actual damages, meaning if you sold your films for $50 each, and you could prove he sold 20 of them, you could sue for $50 x 20 = $1,000. Just what you actually lost in sales.

You should ALWAYS register each film with the U.S. Copyright office which then gives you the right to sue for punitive damages, which, I believe are about $150,000 per violation.

Hope this clears up any mis-conception regarding the issue of a "well known BareBack content producer" ripping off or pirating any material....it simply isn't true.

Bill

**A_DeAngelo** · 03-20-2006, 08:35 PM

Oh my goodness?!?!

Who said what about what?

Jeez...such a bunch of stuff about what?

You betta watch what you say and disclose to whom Mr. Bill...

**hdkbill** · 03-20-2006, 09:42 PM

Tony,

Since you made the statement in a previous post: "As soon as our attorney gives us the go-ahead, we will name names. But, not until then.", I think it's probably best that we take this private and allow our legal staffs to handle this situation.

I'll refer this to our legal department and allow them to handle it from this point on since it's apparent you don't want to respond to my very detailed explanation as to what happened in an attempt to clear this matter up before it gets out of hand. Unfortunately, when you stated in your original post that a well known BareBack content producer who is a member of this board is pirating and ripping off your content, and then I start getting private emails from members of the board, I think, that perhaps, it has already gotten out of hand.

Sorry you chose not to respond to what I posted admitting that it was not a "well know BareBack content provider" who had posted your clips to that Yahoo group.

With warmest personal regards,

Bill

**A_DeAngelo** · 03-20-2006, 09:48 PM

Oy vey!

I guess Mr. HDK Bill, that you must think that you are the ONLY GAY BAREBACK CONTENT PROVIDER IN THIS FORUM...

I DID NOT MENTION YOUR NAME...

YOU, MENTIONED YOUR NAME AND
YOU, CAME FORWARD WITH MUCH INFORMATION...

Thanks for sharing...

**hdkbill** · 03-20-2006, 09:51 PM

To The Members of this thread:

What follows is the email I received early this morning from the individual who posted the clips on the Yahoo Group and my response to him.

Just want to make sure that the members here are fully aware of the facts of this situation.

If any of you have any concerns regarding this issue, please feel free to contact me privately at bill@hotdesertknights.com or bill@gayadultphotos.com.

Email correspondence follows:

Jim,

You may advise Mr. Cruise that Yahoo has deleted my profile which was used to start that particularly group and as such I am unable to access the group at all. I have written several times to Yahoo to delete the group in it's entirety and all of my emails have been ignored.

The only course of I action I know for Mr. Cruise is to attempt to contact Yahoo Groups himself, file a DMCA notification and see if he has better luck than I. If he needs a copy of a DMCA notification ask him to write to me directly and I will be happy to provide him with a sample he can use. DMCA notifications can only be filed by the copyright owner.

As it stands now, the group has no owner and no moderator and simply sits there.

Bill

At 04:13 AM 3/20/2006, you wrote:
Hi -

I was a member of your group in the past, and apparently sent in a couple of video clips that are still posted in the group. I don't know the specific file name, but one clip is from "Bareback Master" and the other is from "Bareback Grease Monkeys".

I received notice from the owner these movies ( C. Cruise of Zyloco) and he has demanded they be removed from your group site immediately. As I am no longer a member, would you please see that these clips are taken off your group right away? Also, if there are any other video clips I may have forwarded while a member, please remove those as well, just to make sure.

Please confirm that these files have been removed so that I can advise Mr. Cruise and any legal action will not be necessary. I did not realize it was wrong to send these clips.

Thank you for your immediate attention to this matter. I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,

Jim