Snakeman’s Comments

• Dec 21st, 2011 @ 3:54pm

  IP Theft is real!

  on Guy Who Uploaded Early Version Of Wolverine, Which Appears Not To Have Hurt Movie At All, Gets 1 Year In Jail
  I am not familiar with all the ins and outs of this IP Theft case, but invariably the defendants in these matters claim their theft is trivial, while the person infringed tends to claim major losses.
  That is how the adversial legal system in the USA, Australia and UK works.
  Rarely is there a common middle ground.
  However as a vicgtim of IP Theft I can say that losses are often real and huge.
  We do live reptile shows http://www.reptileshows.com.au in Melbourne Victoria Australia and two years ago, a bootlegger ripped off our trademarks online and was using SEO to rip us off at the rate of more than one client a day. In dollar terms that’s about $500 a day.
  We eventually stopped him, but that was more than two years after we’d sent him a friendly cease and desist letter and he’d said he’d copmply then.
  Because of repeat business with clients, our losses ended up as being well over $1 million (you do the math).
  It is likely the matter will be heard by a judge and I have little doubt that the IP thief will trivialize our losses to minimize his penalty.
  If (as contended here) the Wolverine bootlegger did not cause great losses (as alleged by posters here), it may be that the court sought to make the case an example to deter other would be bootleggers.
  My hope is that he succeeds.
  Surely it’s not too much to expect people to behave ethically and respect other’s property, whether that be physical (like a house) or intellectual, like copyright and trademarks.
  All the best
  Snakeman