“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”
Edmund Burke
We are asking for your help to end the predatory practices of Copyright trolls.
Copyright trolls are companies who misuse copyright laws as a way to make money through litigation. They prey on ignorance and misuse the law for their own personal gain. In fact, many of these Copyright trolls use litigation as their primary business model.
Why should you care?
1. It’s morally wrong: These Copyright trolls are misusing the law to attack individuals and companies who unwittingly infringe on copyrights. They make it easy for their victims to unknowingly infringe on their copyrights, and then spring into legal action once their victim falls for the bait. While technically legal, this practice is morally wrong.
2. It hurts the economy: These Copyright trolls are attacking small businesses, claiming damages up to $150,000 per infringement. Any money paid to copyright trolls is money that can’t be used creating new jobs, or purchasing products/services from other companies.
3. It could affect you: Have you created a web site or web application? Have you ever published anything online? If so, have you ever used an image that you didn’t pay for? Maybe you just grabbed an image from Google images for use in a blog post. Maybe you used a seemingly free image that came bundled with your design software. If so, you can expect a letter demanding a hefty settlement for copyright infringement. Here’s a real-life story of one blogger’s experience.
We want to put an end to this predatory practice, but we need your help. What can you do?
Here are two ways to help
1. Sign the petition: We’ve created a petition with the government to reform Copyright law. I would greatly appreciate it if you took the time to sign this petition.
2. Tell your friends: Make others aware of this growing problem. Tell them about this article and the petition. Spread the word. We need to fix this problem before it spirals even farther out of hand than it already has.
That’s it. If you could do those two small things, you would help make America a better place. Also, I would be eternally grateful.