Internet thievery

[Donald Markstein]

First off, I apologize to all for this marginally-topical series of posts. I
thought the issue would have been settled by now.

Second, I will continue to refer to Angelo Totti as "Mr. Totti". As a
creator of intellectual property, I treat avowed plagiarists as enemies,
since they represent a direct threat to my way of life; and I do not address
my enemies by their first names.

Mr. Totti takes the point of view that the physical possibility of theft
makes it morally and legally acceptable. Are the windows of Mr. Totti's home
unbreakable? If not, then by his standards, there isn't a thing in the world
that he legitimately owns.

It is not surprising that Mr. Totti takes this point of view, as he holds a
similar attitude toward keeping his own word. The company that hosts his
site, Yahoo/Geocities, requires that anyone using its services agree to its
Terms of Service. If he had not agreed to them, his site would not be there.
The Yahoo/Geocities Terms of Service forbid copyright violation -- as, by
the way, do the Terms of Service of ALL Internet servers. He has stated that
he does not feel bound by his agreement -- i.e., that he was lying when he
clicked the "I Agree" button in setting up his site.

(And let me point out that under most current copyright laws, you do not
need a copyright notice on your site to claim copyright; nor is such a claim
damaged by the presence of a few short quotes for purpose of review or
illustration [e.g., a couple of phrases or images out of context]. In other
words, those Terms of Service protect everyone here whose work Mr. Totti has
stolen.)

Mr. Totti bolsters his lying, stealing agenda by belittling the ability of a
copyright holder to profit from his creation. Of course, he knows nothing of
my financial affairs or that of any other owner of intellectual property
whose legal and moral rights he has violated -- but this mode of attack is
only a red herring anyway. The copyright holder's success in exploiting his
property is no more the issue than is the use any other property owner makes
of his belongings. The point -- the ONLY point -- is that it belongs to
someone else, and therefore he does not have the right to use it.

I encourage all whose pages have been stolen by the liar and thief, Mr.
Totti, to SHOW him what can be done about it, by filling out the form found
at http://geocities.yahoo.com/v/alert.html.

Quack, Don

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