BootsnAll Travel Community

I just did a google search under my name, and found that a site called Travelstorydirectory.com is running one of the articles that I submitted to Bootsnall last year. There are, in fact, a number of stories lifted (without the authors' permission, I assume) from BnA. As I understand it, this is copyright infringement. I e-mailed their site administrator, but I received an "undeliverable mail" response. Does anyone know anything about it, or have any suggestions?

Nancy

that's not cool. try the below address(s)?

whois:


[root@manoa ~]# whois travelstorydirectory.com
[Querying whois.internic.net]
[Redirected to whois.directi.com]
[Querying whois.directi.com]
[whois.directi.com]
Registration Service Provided By: ESTDOMAINS
Contact: +372.55647646
Website: http://www.estdomains.com

Domain Name: TRAVELSTORYDIRECTORY.COM

Registrant:
NA
Kaban Vasiljevich (kaban@axylove.com)
Turchikova ave, 56, p. 43
Helsinki
,34623
FI
Tel. +3.485803567

Creation Date: 29-Apr-2005
Expiration Date: 29-Apr-2006

Domain servers in listed order:
ns0.webloveguide.com
ns1.webloveguide.com


Administrative Contact:
NA
Kaban Vasiljevich (kaban@axylove.com)
Turchikova ave, 56, p. 43
Helsinki
,34623
FI
Tel. +3.485803567

Technical Contact:
NA
Kaban Vasiljevich (kaban@axylove.com)
Turchikova ave, 56, p. 43
Helsinki
,34623
FI
Tel. +3.485803567

Billing Contact:
NA
Kaban Vasiljevich (kaban@axylove.com)
Turchikova ave, 56, p. 43
Helsinki
,34623
FI
Tel. +3.485803567

Status:ACTIVE

Yes, a number of my pieces have also been used without my permission.

[URL=http://www.newindpress.com/sunday/sundayItems.asp?id=SET20050825120840&eTitle=Travel&rLink=0/"]Anyone for Venice?[/URL]

quote:

As I understand it, this is copyright infringement

Actually, I just noticed that there is no copyright notice on the stories, so technically it's not infringment. One must explicately put a copyright notice up to be covered.

quote:

Originally posted by stuinzuri:

quote:

As I understand it, this is copyright infringement

Actually, I just noticed that there is no copyright notice on the stories, so technically it's not infringment. One must explicately put a copyright notice up to be covered.

That's not the case, at least not in most jurisdictions. I've confirmed this with the US copyright office, and it is a stipulation of the Berne Convention so should apply throughout the world. (This came into effect in the US March 1, 1989, so probably similar time frames elsewhere as well. Older works, at least for US protection, do require a notice.)

In most jurisdictions all creative works are automatically covered by copyright, all rights reserved. Notices must only be explicit if you wish to licence certain rights (such as attach a creative commons license) or release it into the public domain. Notices are probably a good idea all the same, as many people don't seem to understand this, and lack of a notice is apparently considered a mitigating circumstance by the courts, so any lawsuit awards for infringement may be reduced.

You're absolutely right Neil. Here's the long version of your explanation: Copyright Confusion

Now as for this web site, I just went there and found a number of my articles there too. Not only did they lift them off BnA rather than the acceptable linking option, but they did not give author credit!!! My name is nowhere to be found!

Nancy, have you followed up with the contact info provided? Let me know. I'll be starting my own line of contact.

Not that I'm actually advocating this, but it is really easy to post 'stories' in that site without registering.

Some awful person even posted a bugus story in the Asia section! >removed<

What is this world coming to?

Thanks for the follow up guys.
It is illegal to take stories off of the site, copyright on the individual stories or not. BnA has a copyright on everything that is published, per se.

Well talk to them ASAP.

Court

We've contacted that website and asked them to remove all of the stories they stole. If we do not hear back from them or if they do not comply we'll stop playing nice and shut them down.

Colin, was that story of yours that was published by Newindpress one that was originally published on BnA? I looked for it on our site and could not find it. I was going to contact them while I was in a bad mood too, but when I couldn't find that Venice story I wanted to be sure first.

I had a couple of stories stolen too -- looks like the pretty much swiped the whole databased.

For what it's worth, I added a notice at the bottom of each of my stories using the "comment" feature. Basically, I just said that this story had been stolen, used without the author's permission and knowledge, etc.

It seems like they took pretty much everything. I saw several of my stories on there with just a quick look, and it's not like I have that many stories here.

I am currently listed in the Cambodia Yellow Pages under "Rizla".

GRRRRRRR!!!! All mine have been nicked too. What a pisser.

Just a quick FYI, it's best not to link to the articles or that site in general. That only helps their site as far as search engines go. Still working on getting it all removed.

quote:

Originally posted by Chris:
Just a quick FYI, it's best not to link to the articles or that site in general. That only helps their site as far as search engines go. Still working on getting it all removed.

Good advice - I've edited my post accordingly.

Should I be offended that although that site stole hundreds of BnA articles, they didn't steal mine? Hmm...

The bastards stole one of my stories on Vietnam!

They cut out my name! OK, now I am pissed.

I have checked that website and at least now they mention BNALL as the source of the story they are posting

I hope the problem is solved soon



Gabriela

No Chris, the Venice story was not published on BNA. Everything published by the New Indian Express newspaper has been submitted personally by me (and they pay me!) so no worries as far as that is concerned.

my homepage

quote:

Originally posted by Sor Raimunda:
I have checked that website and at least now they mention BNALL as the source of the story they are posting
Gabriela

They haven't given BNA credit for all - 2 of my pinched stories had no reference given (inlcuding my name).