Re: DMCA takedown notice
From: mikeeusa
Date: Fri Mar 15 2019 - 23:21:08 EST
I am going to sue your staff for contributory copyright infringement in
their personal capacity, in addition to you company.
I have given you ample notice to remove the work.
Moreover, you have not addressed other doctrines, such as reliance or
promissory estoppel, which would prevent revocation even in the absence
of valuable consideration.
These are equitable defenses. Not defenses-at-law. They are determined
on a case by case basis. Promissory estoppel is most often "awarded"
when a defendant has, on the reliance of explicit promises to him by the
owner, laid out monies to purchase improvements for the affected
property.
An example is when one builds extra buildings on a piece of land one was
promised ownership on upon the owners death. It is much related to the
old Livery of Seisin which was used in the conveyance of land and is, in
fact, a modern substitute for it.
There is little relevance between such and a licensee, one of many, who,
for no outlay, had permission to use a piece of software. Permission
which was later revoked.
Similarly, based on the information you've provided, we are unable to
locate facts which would support for your argument that any of the GPL
licensed code here was granted that license without an exchange of
valuable consideration.
The John Doe would have to prove that there was a contract, it is not
me, the copyright holder, who's duty it is to show that there was none.
One cannot prove a negative. You know this very well.
It is the consideration (payment) that would create a contract which a
licensee could attempt to rely upon.
Where there is no such consideration there is no contract.
Here the John Doe admitted that he simply downloaded the work and also
admitted that there was no contract between him and I
"Thank God", he added.
This is attested to in the original complaint, the John Doe is quoted,
and his testimony is linked.
However it is not my duty to prove to you that there is _not_ any
consideration.
That is proving a negative. It is a duty of the John Doe's defense to
prove that there is such a payment, which there is not.
I was never paid by the John Doe.
You are being completely disingenuous here. You think you are clever,
but you will be sorry once my legal bill is being paid out of your
personal expenses for your blatant copyright infringement of my work.
The courts won't think you're "cute" or "clever".
I have addressed your claim that my signature was invalid. Your
understanding of what is required of a signature and the purpose of a
signature is incorrect. A signature simply shows assent of the party to
the validity of the document. An X is sufficient. Here I have chosen to
use my long-held pen name, MikeeUSA. I have also published these notices
at the place of the publication of the work, to give further
confirmation.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/gpcslots2/
https://sourceforge.net/projects/gpcslots2/files/notes/
Forewarned is forearmed.
Sincerely,
Signed,
--MikeeUSA--
On 2019-03-07 02:30, GitHub Staff wrote:
Hi MikeeUSA,
I've done my best to address your concerns below. Until you provide a
complete DMCA takedown notice, we are unable to act on your request.
My publishing of these notices on my long-held sourceforge account,
along side the download link is sufficient for a reasonable person
to conclude that I, the author of the program, am the issuer of the
request.
As explained in our previous email, that is not the standard required
by 17 U.S.C. 512(3)(a)(i).
I have chosen to do so in rescinding the license of the John Doe.
Based on the information you've provided, we are unable to determine
that any valid license revocation has taken place here.
A license, that is not supported by an interest, is revocable ...
An interest attaches when a licensee pays
the copyright holder for the receipt of a license, or transmits
valuable
bargained-for consideration to the copyright holder. Absent such
anattached
interest there exists only a revocable-at-will bare license.
Similarly, based on the information you've provided, we are unable to
locate facts which would support for your argument that any of the GPL
licensed code here was granted that license without an exchange of
valuable consideration. Moreover, you have not addressed other
doctrines, such as reliance or promissory estoppel, which would
prevent revocation even in the absence of valuable consideration.
The url you link to advances a false legal theory unsupported under US
Jurisprudence.
While they are in easily-missed footnotes, the linked article contains
citations to three cases which support their respective underlying
legal theories. Please note the article is provided for informational
purposes, and GitHub is unable to give legal advice about open-source
licensing or copyright questions.
If you would like to revise your notice to include the required
details, please send back the entire revised notice, and not only the
corrected
sections. Once we've received a complete and actionable DMCA notice,
we will process it expeditiously.
Thanks,
GitHub Staff