Unless the data stolen is copyrighted there isn't much of anything you can do. You can be persistant, when the person copies your site contact their WP. With enough complaints the WP will probably drop the site.
The only other thing you can do is be the better PbP site. If you keep the other site from getting many members or recruting their members than his site will go under from lack of use.

Digital Doom

the creators may die, but the game lives on.
http://groups.msn.com/shadowrunonline/welcome.msnw

But thank you for playing. Anything you write is copyrighted to you, whether you expressly state so, file it, or just post it. At least in the US. You can send a DMCA notice and have the site removed. Lemme see if I can find the boiler plate email I use... found it.

---
I am president of Effie Rover, Inc., a web development firm owning copyrights to all online work authored by Loy Ellen Gross. We have recently learned that your organization is violating copyrights of Effie Rover, Inc. by posting on your site, www.SITE.com, certain copyrighted content authored by Ms. Gross.

The copyrighted work that we believe has been infringed upon can be found here:
http://www.SITE.com/URL

Pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA"), we are writing to provide you notice of your illegal activities and copyright infringement. Acting as an agent on behalf of Effie Rover, Inc., I have a good faith belief that the use of Effie Rover, Inc’s copyrighted material in this manner is not authorized by us, our agent, or the law.

Your organization's conduct constitutes willful copyright infringement and unfair competition and is damaging Effie Rover, Inc., our customers and our advertisers.

Effie Rover, Inc. hereby ask that you remove all content and materials from your web site that was copied from ORIGINAL SOURCE and any other online sources. We insist that you confirm you have ceased all acts of infringement and destroyed all infringing materials within 5 days’ of your receipt of this letter.

We trust that you understand Effie Rover, Inc.'s concern over the infringement of their rights and that you will fully cooperate with us and confirm your compliance with our requests within 5 days’ of your receipt of this letter.

The foregoing is without waiver of any and all rights of Loy Ellen Gross or Effie Rover, Inc., all of which are expressly reserved herein.

I declare, under penalty of perjury, that the above is accurate, that Effie Rover, Inc. is the intellectual property (copyright) owners of our material and that I am authorized to act on behalf of Effie Rover, Inc.

---

Sign that puppy and send it off to both the webmaster and the site host. Then sit back and enjoy

This one's good to know. It makes protecting ones site much easier...

Digital Doom

the creators may die, but the game lives on.

http://groups.msn.com/shadowrunonline/welcome.msnw

http://shadowrunsurvivalguide.com

What's the policy on exposing such people?

I suspect it's straight no, as it can get messy and you have to be very clear of the facts when doing so, but as we have a PbP site knowing who to watch out for would be useful

never a dull moment...

http://www.rpgRM.com

There's never any law against describing actual events that have happened to you. Adding heresay, indicating that this person has done this before according to sources, or anything like that is trouble. But a simple post describing his/her actions cannot be held against you. Links to other posts describing similar activity cannot hurt either, but you cannot make things up and you cannot go on what you heard or gleaned third-hand.

That's the legal interpretation (IANAL).

-- Effie

--
FREE REVIEWS of your website ... by folks who've created some of the best RPG sites available. All you need to do is run over to the Reviews Forum and ask.

And remember your Nomex undies.

Thank you so much for all your help! We filed a DMCA with his webhost, who in turn got him to change our work on his site. The changes were minor and they didn’t follow up on the further stolen work even though we persistently emailed them. They say they won’t continue unless we file a legal action.

There is now a whole page of lies about my partner and myself on their site and very negative comments on several voting links.

We recently opened up our forum for guests to write on and within an hour they had put scathing and untrue comments up. When we blocked them this was the email we received:

You think you know who I am,
you really have no idea!.
Continue to update your ban filter,
it will not stop me.

I may not be able to post on your forum,
now that you have stopped access for guests,
this I am please about, if it stops your RPG from having guests post on the forum - FANTASTIC!

Monitor your applications closely!. I read you believe you had spies within Infinity. Believe me when I say they wont be all you have. Everything you do, every action you take, and every email you send out then I read. I watch very closely, I miss nothing!!!. Be sure to scan each and every application - it may be another character of MINE.

Amy, Scott, and any other personality you have - my mission: To
make your RPG difficult. Enjoy your game!.

Will post again soon (I promise) am really enjoying the mission thus far,

Role Player

~

We know who it is, as only one person logged on to a page they referred to in their messages on our board and there are grammatical errors common to this one individual.

On top of this we have received several emails from a commanding officer in the group. He threaten to kill my partner and then to celebrate he would rape me and slit my throat.

When did role-playing get to this?

Sometimes I feel physically sick over all of it. This is a hobby I love and somehow it now feels dirty and tainted. Our site was built because of a genuine love for writing. Now we both are tempted to give it up :-(

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seasons
www.st-infinity.co.uk

There Is An Infinite Universe Out There For Us To Explore

It's A-holes like that that are ruining the games online. Don't give up on the game though, that would be admitting defeat and letting a truly respectable person win. That is not the kind of thing anyone wants, unless it is that jerk.

You may consider (if legal avenues are out of the question) just ignoring his site all together. If you delete any posts made by him, ban him, etc he will more than likely go away... Bullies usually get bored and forget about their targets eventually. (this person reminds me of the bullies from grade school... )

Digital Doom

the creators may die, but the game lives on.

ShadowRun Online

Shadowrun Survival Guide

If the person sent threatening e-mails to you regarding your physical safety, there are many legal actions you can take including forwarding copies of said e-mails to the authorities. He is obviously claiming to have compromised the board, your machine and perhaps your ISP. Most places do not like people who claim to be hackers because first off they may be, second off they frighten away paying customers and advertisers who feel their info may not be safe.

If you choose to not take a legal approach, then your choices are to either close the board, or not. If not then Digital Doom has the right attitude. Ignore him - I would look at some sites dealing with site building on how to block others from stealing content, code and artists' work. Many online art sites actually have a great deal of good information about that as artists are frequently lifted with no recompense for commercial sites. If you decide to close, I would consider reopening elsewhere.

Zeta Thompson
Graycastle
Part of the Zeta Entertainment Network ,a Subsidiary of Dogs of War.
Dow and Zen

Very sad story indeed. Reacting to this way late because I've only noticed it now. I hope you situation has improved considerably.

I haven't had things go this bad yet *knocks on wood* but I've had my fair share of abuse hurdled my way. I think with all that you already attempted (asking nicely, asking less nicely) what Digital Doom suggests is the best last option, provided you feel you and your family are feeling safe in which case I agree you should contact authorities.

Treating this as a general case.. sometimes you hit on a troll. There are people out there whose only hobby is causing trouble, enjoying the attention. Ignore them like you would ignore bad behaviour in a child. You can be sure that will get to him more than anything else because then his needs aren't met.

That is also why I never allow any rants and flaming on my boards (as opposed to constructive and polite criticism which I encourage), taking it to PM immediately. Take away the fun, the attention and it will die out. If the user doesn't comply, do a swift ban. If you own a community it is like your online living room. Would you allow this in your own living room? If they keep sending you emails after banning send them a "cease and desist"email and let that be your last word on it, reporting them for abuse if they continue. It seldom gets to that, so you really got the bad end of the stick on this one.

Reporting the situation to other games is touchy. In a way you are giving into this persons need to be trouble, so you are still playing by his rules. On the other hand, other games might appreciate the warning. There are lists on yahoo that do that, especially for sci fi games. It is a recipe for war between games though as he likely has sympathizers elsewhere. Better to take the royal way and just push the ignore button.

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