Warner Music Group Employee Charged With Stealing $700,000

from the now-that's-theft dept

What is it with recording industry folks getting charged with actual theft these days? First we had folks from the Spanish music collection society SGAE charged with a complicated scheme to divert money from artists to themselves. Then we had the story of IFPI execs doing something similar. Now comes the news that a single employee at Warner Music, Andrew Robertson, whose job was "equipment buyer," may have stolen somewhere around $700,000 over a four year period. The scam involved "the creation of fictitious vendors and over-charged items," in which he diverted the funds to a personal account. Even more ridiculous? The guy didn't even seem to work very hard to cover his tracks. That "fictitious vendor"? It was called A.I. Robinson... and used Robertson's own home address. Tip to Warner Music: perhaps instead of worrying about "piracy" so much, you should pay attention to the folks actually stealing money.

Filed Under: andrew robertson, stealing
Companies: warner music group

Las Vegas Review-Journal Endorses The Same Candidate It's Suing For 'Stealing' From Them?

from the cognitive-dissonance... dept

At the end of yet another good report by the Las Vegas Sun on a defendant in a Righthaven case fighting back (thanks to visual77 for sending this in), there's an interesting pointer to a blog post from Steve Friess, a Vegas-based writer (who has previously come out in support of Righthaven's lawsuits) noting that it appears that the Las Vegas Review-Journal really doesn't take copyright issues as seriously as it pretends in its sermons on the subject. After all, it keeps claiming that copyright infringement is no different than "stealing," and yet, Freiss notes, the LVRJ has now endorsed Sharron Angle for Senate, the same candidate that it (via Righthaven) has sued for copyright infringement:

Congrats, R-J, for proving just how seriously you take copyright theft. Copyrighting is so important that, as your top lawyer Mark Hinueber told a Society of Professional Journalists gathering, it is nearly fundamental to the very foundation of the American way of life. But, on the other hand, someone who steals from you? She ought to be a United States senator! Cognitive dissonance much?

Of course, everyone knows the reality here. The LVRJ and Righthaven are not about protecting the sanctity of copyright, or "stopping theft." It's a pure business model effort, an attempt to shakedown people for money, for sharing their content in a way that does absolutely no harm to the original work or the business of the paper. But, still, it's good to see even Righthaven supporters calling out the hypocrisy of the LVRJ claiming that it's akin to stealing on the one hand, while endorsing one of the people they sued for a position in the Senate at the same time. You don't endorse the person who stole from you for Senate. And that's the point. Angle didn't "steal" anything -- and everyone at Righthaven and the LVRJ know it.

Separately, as for the original Sun article highlighting another defense effort against Righthaven, two quick points. This is the first defense I've seen that calls out the judge's ruling in the Tenenbaum case, in which the judge called the statutory rates "constitutionally excessive," and a violation of due process. This defendant is claiming that the demands brought forth by Righthaven violate due process rights based on this. I have to say that's quite a stretch of a legal argument (and an awful lot of people fully expect that ruling in the Tenenbaum case to be overturned), but still interesting. The second point is that while a lot of the defenses against Righthaven suits seem to toss up new arguments, it appears they're starting to all focus in on a few key arguments. It will be interesting to see how the courts respond to these.

Filed Under: copyright, endorsements, las vegas review journal, sharron angle, stealing
Companies: righthaven, stephens media

Failed Filmmakers Pretend Piracy Group 'Stole' Film To Try To Get Publicity

from the super-weak dept

We've talked about smart filmmakers learning to embrace file sharing to enlarge their audience and to improve their business model, but it appears that some filmmakers are getting the wrong kind of message. TorrentFreak has the story of how some filmmakers in Denmark, who had a total flop on their hands, pretended that the local Piratgruppen organization literally broke into the studio, stole (used correctly, for once) the film, and were threatening to put it online. Of course, the whole thing was completely made up in a weak attempt to get publicity. Little actually came of it until it was exposed as totally made up -- but it's a pretty serious issue. The studio was blatantly lying and accusing people of out-and-out criminal behavior, knowing that it was false. And this is in Denmark, where the local anti-piracy group has been quite aggressive in going after anyone for copyright infringement. Shameful.

Filed Under: copyright infringement, denmark, film, piracy, stealing

Artist Thrilled That His Work Was 'Stolen' By Fashion Designer

from the sincerest-form-of-flattery dept

Reader johnjac points us to a blog post from a guy who made some computer generated images of flocking birds, and was rather stunned when he discovered that a big time fashion designer had basically yanked one of his photos off of Flickr and put it on a sweatshirt. While we hear so many stories of people freaking out in such situations, this guy's reaction is quite refreshing:

The more we looked, the more the neighboring details fell into place. Smith's version was mirrored left to right so I loaded the image in Photoshop and flipped it. "Oh my god! He totally stole my work!" I was dancing around the room. "Paul Smith stole from me!" I will admit it was a strange reaction. I didn't realize this until later in the day. I was actually thrilled that someone had ripped me off. Someone I liked.

Later on in the post, the guy, Robert Hodgin, admits that his own works are built off of the works of others, as well. And, that's exactly how creativity works: you build on the works of others. It shouldn't be seen as a crime or something to get angry about. It's a way to provide more materials for more creativity going forward.

Filed Under: content, creation, designers, paul smith, stealing

Dutch Kids Convicted For Stealing Virtual Magic Amulet

from the are-you-kidding-me? dept

It's been over five years ago since we pointed out how silly the world would be if we started bringing real world justice into virtual worlds. It sets up a ridiculous situation, since the way any virtual world works is based on how it's programmed. If there's a problem with an action, it should be up to whoever controls the game to fix the problem, rather than the real world police. If you start setting a precedent where the "theft" of a virtual item in a video game is considered theft, then how do you deal with online worlds where theft is a part of the game? If the game allows it, then it should be a part of the game.

Even with plenty of people warning about how ridiculous it would be for police to get involved in searching for a stolen magic sword, it seems that hasn't stopped people from going to the police. In the past, the lawsuits have usually been for other crimes besides theft, though. We had one for illegal computer access, after a woman logged into a boyfriend's account and deleted his virtual objects. In another case, someone was charged with copyright infringement for "copying" weapons.

However, now we have a case of an actual theft charge in the Netherlands. Two kids have been convicted of theft of a (I kid you not) "virtual amulet and a virtual mask" in the game Runescape. The details are pretty scarce, but apparently the two kids "coerced" another kid to hand over the items, and to the court that's as good as theft:

"These virtual goods are goods (under Dutch law), so this is theft."

I have to admit I don't know much about Runescape, but a quick look at the website mentions that it can involve "fights to the death." Does that mean we'll soon have murder charges stemming from the game? Update: Some folks in the comments have helpfully filled in some of the details that were lacking from the original article. The two kids in this case apparently beat up and threatened at knifepoint (in real life) the other kid in order to get him to give them the virtual amulet. As others in the comments point out, it sounds like they should have been charged with assault and battery, but still not theft.

Filed Under: laws, netherlands, runescape, stealing, theft, virtual goods, virtual worlds

Making Google Products Easier To Use Is Not 'Encouraging Stealing'

from the it's-called-efficiency dept

Recently, Google Docs unveiled a number of new features including a built-in way to use Google Image Search to find pictures to complement written documents. Many people already use Google Image Search to find suitable graphics, regardless of the owner or copyright status, but this streamlining has some people calling foul. Under a provocative title suggesting that Google is "encouraging schoolchildren to steal photos," Steve Rubel continues to propagate the confusion between theft and infringement. No matter how many times we explain it, people just don't seem to understand that copyright infringement is not theft. Theft involves the removal of a rival good whereas copyright infringement makes a copy, leaving others' use uninhibited. Although the suggestion of expanding Google's Creative Commons filter is a welcome one, I doubt users who want to only use properly licensed content will fail to do so because of Google Doc's new feature. And those who want to use copyrighted images will do so whether or not they have to simply right click or open a new tab and search. All Google is doing here is making its perfectly legal features work better together. That's about efficiency, not "stealing."

Filed Under: graphics, infringement, searches, stealing