Wednesday, November 18, 2009

What happened to the Scribd Accounts?

We all know Bill Christy, he's the guy who wrote "Try Gregory Floyd for Murder" to which I actively contributed, as one can see in this post. He's also the one who publicly said "I would have shot Bruce McKay as well," as noted in this post. He also argued that Floyd was in violation of 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(1), now he says he isn't. And we know that he calls blacks he doesn't like "Niggers" and incessantly follows me around, and has been posting most of my SSN number that he found on an obscure document that I accidentally posted 3 years ago because he can't stand the fact that I exposed his Janus-faced nature.

Well yesterday I get wind of the fact that he lied and told Scribd.com that he was the sole author of the material and that I was in DCMA copyright violation. Scribd.com thus removed "Try Gregory Floyd for Murder" and my entire account, on a first strike. Not knowing what the heck happened, I posted it back up in another of my Scribd.com accounts, then once Scribd.com told me what happened I apologized and sent them the proof that I had editorial and content input and they initially told me I should write a counter-affidavit, which I said I would do.

As all of my public documents, with thousands and thousands of reads on them were on Scribd.com, I wrote them back when they initially told me I could write a counter-affidavit. They were quite rude and Mr. Bently lied, telling me there was a "zero tolerance" policy on Copyright, but that's not true, read their own website here and here:
"DMCA copyright infringement takedown notification policy

Submitted Feb 13 by Jason Bentley

It is our policy to respond to clear, legally valid notices of alleged copyright infringement that comply with the criteria established by Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") of 1998. In addition, we terminate without notice the accounts of users that we determine are repeat infringers based on a "three-strikes" policy."

"As an Internet service provider, Scribd must comply with the terms of the DMCA that require us to terminate the accounts of users determined to be "repeat infringers.""

Swift action for policy offenders: On every document upload page, there is a prominent warning message and mandatory check box displayed to help ensure that people understand and comply with Scribd’s Terms of Service. Repeat copyright infringers are banned from Scribd."

But this is at most two strikes, and the second violation (on the same case) came before I received notification from Scribd that I was allegedly in violation, but nonetheless they have removed my ability to file a counter-affidavit. So now I have to sue these guys -- who will not tell me the name of their corporate counsel -- naturally. I'll be down at the ACLU tomorrow, the same ACLU who wrote the Mass SJC briefs for Derrick Gillenwater after I sent him over there as Boston Bob.

Moral of the story: Always keep your emails, never trust Bill Christy -- he's a slippery, slimy sort of LE, kind of like what the folks at MASSCOPS called Marty Dunn: A slime bag.