Designer Issues Takedown, Cease And Desist Over Periodic Table Of HTML5 Elements

from the not-really-yours-to-take-down,-is-it? dept

Mon, Apr 20th 2015 1:36pm — Tim Cushing

Anyone can have an idea. Multiple people can independently have the same idea. It's the expression that counts, but Alara Mills, the creator of one version of a periodic table of HTML5 elements, seems to think she should be able to curb other expressions of this idea.

Today I received a DMCA takedown request against my personal website over a trivial GitHub project that involves a periodic table layout and information about HTML5 elements.

The takedown request was preceded by an "impersonal email" from Alara Mills -- a cease and desist letter loaded with all sorts of scary claims about thousands of dollars being potentially at stake.

“You neither asked for nor received permission to use the Work… nor to make or distribute copies of it. Therefore, you have infringed my rights under 17 U.S.C. Section 101 et seq. and could be liable for statutory damages as high as $150,000 as set forth in Section 504(c)(2) therein.”

As Mike Riethmuller points out, he had never seen Alara Mills' version of this HTML5 table. His was inspired by another person's (Josh Duck) and was mainly just an exercise in CSS, rather than some sort of cottage industry designed to undercut the only thing Alara Mills offers at her website.

Here's a thumbnail version Alara Mills' HTML5 periodic table of elements, which we're posting to provide commentary on her copyright claims (since she appears to be very litigious about anyone doing anything -- we'd like to suggest she do some studying of fair use before complaining about this usage):

Because Mills is so protective of this product, there's no way to get a closer look at the arrangement of the elements to verify whether or not Riethmuller "copied" her layout.

Riethmuller's version, however, looks nothing like hers.

And, as he states in his post, it's clearly inspired by Josh Duck's:

Duck's version is no longer live because Alara Mills sued it out of existence. Mill's lawsuit claims that somehow Duck got ahold of an earlier version of her chart, which looks like this:

Duck's bears more resemblance to this than her finished product, but it's still not an exact copy. Besides, it's unclear what "copyrightable elements" Duck's could have possibly copied. The periodic table itself is not (and it's certainly not the creation of Alara Mills). The HTML 5 elements are not. The color arrangement, maybe? But those are different. The HTML5 logo is not. What little that might be protectable in Mills' effort is clearly not in Duck's. It is merely the same idea -- and ideas are not copyrightable.

And the link between Duck and Mills is extremely tenuous. Here's what Mills' lawsuit presents as "evidence" that Duck infringed on her table.

Mills emailed a copy of her prospectus to Kirk Kazanjian on July 12, 2010, which contained a derivative work of the HTML Table of Elements in order to receive initial feedback from him before pursuing book publishers. Kirk Kazanjian is a literary agent/former co-worker of Mills. Mills sells quick reference guides, wall-reference posters, and table posters displaying the HTML5 Elements Table™ graphic. A true and correct copy of the graphic submitted to Kirk Kazanjian in Mills’ email is attached hereto as Exhibit D.

[...]

On information and belief, Duck has been aware of Mills’ HTML5 Elements Table™ since July 2010, when Mills emailed a copy of the graphic to Kirk Kazajian.

On information and belief, Duck had access to Mills’ HTML5 Elements Table™

No further explanation is provided. The cease-and-desist that preceded the lawsuit is similarly vague. It simply makes an accusation but never explains how her legal representation (or Mills herself) arrived at this conclusion.

Ms. Mills submitted an earlier version of her chart within a book prospectus to a publisher in July 29, 2010, a copy of which is enclosed. This is the version that was possibly leaked to you in creation of your Periodic Table.

In other words, Mills found something on the internet that resembled something she thought was an entirely original idea, and the only conclusion she could come to was that somehow Duck must have gotten ahold of her submission. There are multiple more likely explanations for this -- chief among them being that things based on the periodic table will often resemble the periodic table as well as the hierarchy of coding terms being fairly rigid. These two elements mean that any independent creation utilizing both of these will bear heavy resemblance to another.

This was settled out of court. Duck agreed to remove the non-infringing chart in return for a dismissal with prejudice. The alternative would have been an expensive trip through the judicial system. Mills seems to feel that this acquiesence gives her the right to pursue creators of similar charts -- not similar to the version she sells -- but similar to the version she still maintains Duck "stole" from her.

Alara Mills, however, would rather not talk about it. After engaging with her for a bit on Twitter, she suddenly deleted most of her tweets to me.

Fortunately, the deleted tweets have been preserved

Now, Riethmuller has never seen this "leaked" version. He's only (possibly) seen Duck's. But he's building on a lot more than Duck. He's building on the same foundation Mills did. Only he's not claiming his chart is somehow sacrosanct.

The information about each element was shamelessly stolen from the Mozilla Developer Network (MDN) and the layout is thanks to Dmitri Mendeleev. But luckily MDN and Dmitri are all about the learning and they support the community; as such I have much love for them both.

These two entities clearly inspired Mills as well, but no one went after her for utilizing the work of others. Riethmuller clearly didn't use hers as a starting point, but she thinks she can lock down an unoriginal idea and keep anyone else from expressing a combination of periodic tables and HTML5 elements that hews a bit too closely to hers. She's wrong, of course, and Riethmuller has filed a counternotice against her DMCA takedown. As of now, his table is still live at Github.

Riethmuller recognizes his work is not "original," but also that it's no "copy" of Mills' work. Unlike Mills, he wants people to build on his efforts, not consider it an endpoint that must not be remade, altered or otherwise moved forward.

I’d love to remake this using flexbox and update it with newer HTML elements and more detailed content. I’d love people to be able to fork it and learn more about creating challenging layouts with css. Or develop something new from this concept.

Riethmuller also points out how truly pointless creation would be if all creators acted like Alara Mills.

Imagine if we all received copyright challenges over something as tenuous a particular layout and subject matter. This would mean there could only be one single column web development blog (and not only that it would be a book).

That's how over-protecting creative works kills creativity. No one has a monopoly on ideas. Expressions can be protected but something as ordinary as a re-imagining of the periodic table isn't exclusive to one person. There are hundreds of periodic table "remixes" already out there, but apparently an HTML5 elements version won't be one of them. Here's another table inspired by Josh Duck that has been killed off -- perhaps by another threat from Alara Mills.

Mills doesn't "own" this idea, nor does she have any right to push these creations off the internet. But that's what she's been doing. She still has yet to answer my question as to the unsubstantiated claim that Duck had access to an unreleased version and has apparently rescinded her offer to tell me her side of the story. It doesn't take much to get the ball rolling on copyright trolling. All it takes is for someone to believe that only they could have arrived at this creative destination and that all others are simply infringers.

This story, however, has somewhat of a happy ending. Mills reached out to Riethmuller late in the day (a few hours after the half-deleted Twitter conversation took place) and apologized to him and withdrew her legal threats. According to Riethmuller, she appears to finally have realized that her claims of ownership over HTML5 period tables are extremely weak and that ambushing creators who are wholly unaware of her previous iterations (not that those supposed "copies," like Duck's infringed on that design either) with cease-and-desist orders does nothing but turn people against her -- and copyright in general.

Millscomplaint (PDF)Millscomplaint (Text)

Leakexhibit (PDF)Leakexhibit (Text)

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Filed Under: alara mills, copyright, expression, html 5, idea, inspiration, josh duck, legal threats, mike riethmuller, periodic table, periodic table of the elements, sharing

30 Comments

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afn29129 (profile), 20 Apr 2015 @ 1:55pm

Her lawyer (or Self-Lawyering)
I suspect she either had bad/incomplete legal advice or no legal (SELF LAWYERED). OOps!
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Phoenix84 (profile), 20 Apr 2015 @ 2:11pm

You know what I learned from this? HTML has far too many entities.
In fact, I thought design related ones like b, i, em, etc.. were deprecated in favor of CSS?
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Apr 2015 @ 2:15pm

Christ, what an asshole.
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lars626, 20 Apr 2015 @ 2:17pm

Demographically challenged
I looked up the population of Australia. 23 million.
She appears from LinkedIn to be from Los Angeles.
Does she know everyone living in Los Angeles?

Her LinkedIn seems to indicate she was employed in the music business for a few years. Maybe that is where she got her head filled with all this stupidity.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Apr 2015 @ 2:23pm

Re:
I thought design related ones like b, i, em, etc.. were deprecated in favor of CSS?

They are for new pages, but will have to remain in existence for all time if old pages are to render correctly.
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Cpt Feathersword, 20 Apr 2015 @ 2:43pm

Alara Mills borrowed Naomi Weissman's idea
Naomi Weissman did a "Periodic Table of the Vegetables" in 1984. It was so successful that she followed up with periodic tables of fruits and nuts, and desserts. Weissman's periodic empire spanned the globe and inspired legions of imitators. I do not know whether she was Australian, or in cahoots with them.

http://i.imgur.com/X0IXb3E.jpg
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Josh Duck, 20 Apr 2015 @ 3:12pm

Re: Alara Mills borrowed Naomi Weissman's idea
Yup. There are literally hundreds of riffs on the idea. The symmetry behind "HTML Elements" and "Periodic Elements" made the pun so much more obvious in this case, too.
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Apr 2015 @ 4:05pm

I love seeing women in any kind of tech ..except when they're witches like this.
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madasahatter (profile), 20 Apr 2015 @ 6:31pm

The tables remind me, as an old chemist, of the periodic table that hangs in many classrooms. To me the obvious inspiration for both is that classic from about 1910 or so. So who is going rise out of the grave literally and sue the witch?
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Sllim Arala, 20 Apr 2015 @ 7:37pm

Message left for Alara Mills on her "Absolutely Fabulous" site:
Are you the epitome of a lazy ignorant non-technical incompetent?

I ask this because of your completely insane DMCA claims against Mike Riethmuller. I understand that people like yourself whose only claim is to think they have a monopoly on ideas, actually have no clue about how ideas come about or how unimportant your actual work is. Until today, you were completely unknown to me. After today, I consider you to be completely worthless in any field related to anything to do with computers, technology, art or social significance.

If all you have to show for yourself is this site, then my dead goat has done a better job.

If you really want to be of any relevance in the field then actually be constructive and provide detailed documentation and services to help people better use this technology. Otherwise get out now before you make yourself a complete laughing stock to anyone who actually does have a clue.

Sincerely

Sllim Arala
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KoD (profile), 20 Apr 2015 @ 8:23pm

"HTML5 Elements Table™" ....Really??

So this material description is a trademark? Just in case someone might confuse one of these infringing imitators with the one true HTML5™ Elements™ Table™?

Love the tweets, Tim. Some people just do not warrant soft spoken diplomacy. See how quick she backed down? I am sure she hates those screen shots you took :)

Any other use of this Techdirt Post™ or any pictures, descriptions, or accounts of the Techdirt Post™ without the KoD's consent is prohibited.
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Jack, 20 Apr 2015 @ 8:38pm

Re:
EM is a semantic element and people using screen readers appreciate when it is used properly (or hate you if it is used willy-nilly). All of the non-semantic elements remain for backward compatibility.
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orbitalinsertion (profile), 20 Apr 2015 @ 9:33pm

I'm sure to be referring to my static 20*24 glossy or watercolor $50 reference posterette (with no actual references) while I'm learning or when I can't remember an element name.
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G Thompson (profile), 20 Apr 2015 @ 9:57pm

Ah..

I'm sure there are a few words that we could use for this person who's trying to own what is not ownable in this periodic table of swearing :)

http://thumbnails-visually.netdna-ssl.com/periodic-table-of-swearing_50290aa0126f0.jpg
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G Thompson (profile), 20 Apr 2015 @ 9:59pm

UPDATE:
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G Thompson (profile), 20 Apr 2015 @ 10:01pm

Re: UPDATE:
well crap....

Mike's site has an update:

"Update: The legal threats and the DMCA takedown request have been withdrawn. In addition to that the person involved has apologised and as such I've removed the names from this post, because I think that's fair. "

http://madebymike.com.au/writing/html5-periodic-table-dmca-takedown/
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techflaws (profile), 20 Apr 2015 @ 10:13pm

"I find it very suspicious that Josh Duck and MikeRiethmuller are both from Australia but claiming not to know each other."

The genius is strong in that one!
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Apr 2015 @ 10:26pm

Time to start posting
Time to create my own Table of Elements and start selling it on Amazon.
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eye sea ewe, 20 Apr 2015 @ 11:38pm

Re: Australia is a broad broad land
With only the 23+ million peasants/serfs/villains, of course we know everyone. It's only the upper class who only know a few people (other members of the house).
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Sllim Arala, 20 Apr 2015 @ 11:42pm

Re: Message left for Alara Mills on her "Absolutely Fabulous" site:
Rats droppings, she removed it from her sight.
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That One Guy (profile), 21 Apr 2015 @ 1:59am

Re: Re: UPDATE:
Well, that's certainly refreshing, someone who learned the all important rule, 'When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging'. If only more people acted accordingly.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Apr 2015 @ 2:25am

Now we wait until Kotaku starts a smear campaign on Techdirt. "muhsojinists attack female web artist!"
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Violynne (profile), 21 Apr 2015 @ 3:19am

...she appears to finally have realized...
I'm glad this sentence was structured accordingly, because it's quite clear she hasn't learned a damn thing. The only reason she pulled her legal threats was because of the potential PR nightmare brewing.

If anything, she learned the lessons of others who didn't back down fast enough when things like this start to build up.

She'll be back. She'll threaten someone else over copyright works because she, like millions more out there, falsely believe copyright protects ideas, not expressions of those ideas.

Like those millions, I doubt she'll ever understand what this means, especially since we see far, far too many companies abusing this concept (as well into trademark disputes) to force those without the legal power to defend themselves to change their expression.
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Just Another Anonymous Troll, 21 Apr 2015 @ 5:49am

As the amount of content created increases, the probability that your idea is original approaches zero.
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Apr 2015 @ 7:09am

Re: Re: Message left for Alara Mills on her "Absolutely Fabulous" site:
Naaaaaw, you don't say! Who would've ever thought that to happen? What a censorious cunt! Oh, the humanity! *rolleyes*
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Anonymous Coward, 21 Apr 2015 @ 10:05am

"Designer"
Given that this appears to be her sole creation and is almost entirely an unoriginal concept, what exactly has she actually designed? Using that term a little loosely, aren't we? Perhaps putting the term in quotes would have been more appropriate.
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Zonker, 21 Apr 2015 @ 10:39am

An appropriate response would be to make Mike/Duck's periodic table the "official" version everyone uses and Mills' version the "incorrect" and discredited version. Further hostile acts from Mills and the rest of her work gets discredited and abandoned as well.
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Capitalist Lion Tamer (profile), 22 Apr 2015 @ 6:36am

Re:
You called it. She's already back and her claims are still as bogus as ever.
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Espryon (profile), 21 Feb 2017 @ 12:25am

Pretty crazy... a lawsuit over a .99 cent app? I can't imagine that many people buying these apps.

So..

50 * .99 = $49.5

100 * .99 = $100.99

500 * .99 = $495.99

The creators don't even get that total do they? you have to pay taxes + fees to the App Store or whatever too right?

I can't imagine developing these applications being very lucrative compared to full blown applications.
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Walt Sings Ma~, 21 Feb 2017 @ 4:12am

Re: Re: Australia is a broad broad land
Well, we're all skilled in KNIFE-to-knife combat, so we can fight off dropbears, bunyips, yetis and koala-redback-spider hybrids. If it wasn't for constantly defending ourselves against red-bellied blacks in the Weet-Bix, and stuffing a fist-full of Nutri-Grain into the nearest croc we'd finally get time to plough the Channel Country.

Next week I'll be crossing the Harbour Bridge as I drive from the Opera House to Auckland. Still waiting for the Ghan to travel from the Kimberlys to Middle Earth. Such is life!
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