# OFFICIAL: Copyright Claim Status [DISPUTE]



## Caius (Jun 27, 2012)

*OFFICIAL: Copyright Claim Status [CLOSED]*

*DISREGARD*

I need a clean shot of the bell trees' main forum home, with the tree and logo, and other graphics clearly showing. I need this screenshot to be more than two months old. Those that did work on the theme themselves, anything time-marked that is an image of the theme will help at all.

Why?

I'll tell you later.

*REGARD*

Alright, now that the research and lovely dictionary has been thrown through a wall, the other day another website was caught using the TBT theme. I spoke with the owner, who denied knowing it was stolen. The owner was a very nice fellow, and accepted what I told him as truth.

However, he didn't steal the website theme at all. 

A member of another website did, and charged this man 76 USD for the TBT theme. This is called Unethical copying. 

After a few hours of reading terms of service for both Vbulliten and the service used for purchasing the skin, I determined it was completely possible to file a fair use/notification of alleged infringement. 

Jer authorized me to draw up the documents, sign them, and send them. As of 12:12 EST tonight, they have been printed, the photographic evidence placed in an envelope, and one will go to Vbulliten while the other makes its way to Freelance. 

I will be keeping people up to date with what happens in this case, however things may move slower than molasses rolling down a flat street. We'll see. 

Thank you Jer, for being a good sport when I pushed you to answer me quickly. And, thank you Bacon Boy for providing one piece of evidence that was needed to seal the deal. 

As for the other website using this theme, after a long discussion with Jer, and some other people, it has been decided he was not at fault, and we're going to allow him to continue using the theme provided he links back to this website. He has agreed and is very grateful. 

On the other hand, we are trying to either A) get this man his money back, or B) get reimbursed for theft of property. If all else fails, I have documents drawn up that would allow vbulliten to go after the culprit themselves, but they are forbidden from placing any blame on the other forum owner. 

This is a last ditch effort to have something done only, and ONLY because of the loophole in Vbulliten's terms and conditions stating that they own everything legally used on a forum of theirs. That includes this one. 

For the record, I would stay away from attachments artists, this could be bad news for you too. I wasn't aware of this clause until I had to pick through the terms myself with a fine tooth comb. 

Either way, if this ever happens again, I ask that you bring the information to me, as I'm experienced in legal documents and would have little to no issue filing a notification of alleged infringement.

Also for the record, my grammar/spelling is much better when I'm working on those documents. This is me being absolutely lazy over this silly mess.

In addition to physical copies, digital versions have been emailed to prevent anything from getting lost. Ever want to know what 9 hours of work looks like?







Status: CONCLUDED

Everything has been looked at. The user has been suspended and is under investigation

*Edit:* If there's any more of this stuff floating around, theme steals and whatnot, I encourage you to shoot me an email if Jer isn't around. I check my email at least 7 times a day. 
Jamie@needhamart.com

Danke!






Update:

The labeled thief has provided proof that the images from Belltree were provided by the client, therefore is being cleared of accusation. More to come within the next five days! Hopefully this will be all cleared up by then.

Update 2:

The case is closed, the appropriate parties have been suspended, and a full refund was not possible. We are credited on the other website on EVERY SINGLE PAGE.


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## Bacon Boy (Jun 27, 2012)

Wait, what? Why two months old and define 'clean'?


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## Caius (Jun 27, 2012)

Bacon Boy said:


> Wait, what? Why two months old and define 'clean'?



Clean as in, it needs to show the logo, background, header bar, tree, and have a date visible on the image. This is for a copyright claim.


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## Jeremy (Jun 27, 2012)

/me marks this official


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## Caius (Jun 27, 2012)

Jeremy said:


> /me marks this official



Thank you!


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## Bacon Boy (Jun 28, 2012)

Funny... I don't know why I took this screenshot... but here it is. The date is in the link.

http://cl.ly/2l1W0Y3u1C2F2U1G023n

Here's another just in case the first one didn't work: 

http://cl.ly/0r192G2P2O3Y3w172p3X


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## Caius (Jun 28, 2012)

Thank you.


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## Bacon Boy (Jun 28, 2012)

No problem. I'm just weird like that. Taking screenshots of random things.


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## Caius (Jun 28, 2012)

First post edited. Story up.


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## Jake (Jun 28, 2012)

Jami for mod 2012.

Lets sue them


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## Caius (Jun 28, 2012)

Bidoof said:


> Jami for mod 2012.
> 
> Lets sue them



Lawsuits are too expensive. I just want compensation or the other forum owner to get his money back so someone can make him his own nice skin.


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## Jake (Jun 28, 2012)

Zr388 said:


> Lawsuits are too expensive. I just want compensation or the other forum owner to get his money back so someone can make him his own nice skin.



fair enough;
but good job for doing this


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## Caius (Jun 28, 2012)

Bidoof said:


> fair enough;
> but good job for doing this



Legal is fun for me. No need to thank, I actually loved doing it.


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## Mino (Jun 28, 2012)

Screw that, sue their pants off!  I'll testify, they can't handle the truth.


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## Serk102 (Jun 28, 2012)

Make sure to keep us updated, I know I'd like to see how things turn out.


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## m12 (Jun 28, 2012)

You're my hero, Jamie.


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## Bacon Boy (Jun 28, 2012)

m12 said:


> You're my hero, Jamie.


It all makes sense now! I still can't figure out why I took those screenshots :s. 

Regardless, nice work, Jamie! It looks like a lot of work and time. Keep us updated!


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## Caius (Jun 28, 2012)

m12 said:


> You're my hero, Jamie.



Oh stoppit u. :3


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## Prof Gallows (Jun 28, 2012)

Dang, 75 dollars for a theme?

Good something is being done though, how did you find out about this anyway?


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## Jas0n (Jun 28, 2012)

Prof Gallows said:


> Dang, 75 dollars for a theme?
> 
> Good something is being done though, how did you find out about this anyway?



I was quite surprised at how little it sold for, freelancer.de seems to rip off designers. If I designed a theme like this I could easily get $300 for it.


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## Prof Gallows (Jun 28, 2012)

Maybe he thought he wouldn't get away with it if he tried to get away with more?

also, the thought of someone paying 300 dollars for a theme is insane to me, I'm not doubting it, but questioning it. Would it take a lot of effort and time to make such a theme?


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## Jas0n (Jun 28, 2012)

Prof Gallows said:


> Maybe he thought he wouldn't get away with it if he tried to get away with more?
> 
> also, the thought of someone paying 300 dollars for a theme is insane to me, I'm not doubting it, but questioning it. Would it take a lot of effort and time to make such a theme?



There are a lot of elements to web and graphic design, I come across this problem a lot. People don't realise how much you have to put into it.

$300 is on the lower end of the scale. For an entire web design (no coding), people pay up to something like $1500 on a proper freelancing website. Check out the 99designs web design section for proof: http://99designs.co.uk/web-design/contests?show=open


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## Serk102 (Jun 28, 2012)

Jas0n said:


> I was quite surprised at how little it sold for, freelancer.de seems to rip off designers. If I designed a theme like this I could easily get $300 for it.


Well it was stolen, so I'm sure that had something to do with it.


Jas0n said:


> There are a lot of elements to web and graphic design, I come across this problem a lot. People don't realise how much you have to put into it.
> 
> $300 is on the lower end of the scale. For an entire web design (no coding), people pay up to something like $1500 on a proper freelancing website. Check out the 99designs web design section for proof: http://99designs.co.uk/web-design/contests?show=open


But my little cousin said he could make me a site for $100! What do you mean it won't be the same quality, a website is a website right!?

^ Love hearing that one.


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## JabuJabule (Jun 28, 2012)

Wow, you are a hero Jamie! Good work!


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## Caius (Jun 28, 2012)

Prof Gallows said:


> Dang, 75 dollars for a theme?
> 
> Good something is being done though, how did you find out about this anyway?



It was brought to my attention because the owner of the website didn't speak much english. I forget who found it originally.


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## Caius (Jul 9, 2012)

Updates. See edit. Selfbump.


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## Mino (Jul 9, 2012)

Wait, so the guy with the theme is the crook?!  What a twist!


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## Caius (Jul 9, 2012)

Trevor said:


> Wait, so the guy with the theme is the crook?!  What a twist!



Directed by M. Night Shamalamadingdong


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## Winona (Oct 11, 2012)

I have a question guys. I know this topic is rather old, but it is really important to me. 
Could someone explain how the story ended? I ask this because I worked with the guy who is currently running the German Nookbay site. A friend of mine sent the url to you in order to find out if he stole it from TBT.

Anyway, he told me that he bought the theme himself and that he wasn't aware of it being stolen (as he told you as well)- and that he came to an amicable solution by talking to the bell tree-team.

And now I read something about a "twist"? What twist?
I read through all the pages but my English isn't the best, so I did not understand who was the thief in the end? Was it the guy running Nookbay? That would be a giant shock...


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## Caius (Oct 11, 2012)

Winona said:


> I have a question guys. I know this topic is rather old, but it is really important to me.
> Could someone explain how the story ended? I ask this because I worked with the guy who is currently running the German Nookbay site. A friend of mine sent the url to you in order to find out if he stole it from TBT.
> 
> Anyway, he told me that he bought the theme himself and that he wasn't aware of it being stolen (as he told you as well)- and that he came to an amicable solution by talking to the bell tree-team.
> ...



The dispute is closed. The guy from nookbay came to an agreement to source belltree on all pages. It's not important and the issue is over.


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## Winona (Oct 11, 2012)

Yeah, I just thought that another question wouldn't hurt anyone...

Plus, I think that I somehow have the right to know what happened because I worked very hard on Nookbay, and I only stopped doing that because I wasn't sure if he lied to me & the rest of the team or if he really bought the theme. 
It was uncertain wether he did something illegal or not. That's the reason why I dismissed my job there.

Whatever, if you don't want to tell me, I'll have to ask him myself- although I do not understand why you won't explain it to me since you edited all the proceedings into the first post anyway... :/


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## Caius (Oct 12, 2012)

Winona said:


> Yeah, I just thought that another question wouldn't hurt anyone...
> 
> Plus, I think that I somehow have the right to know what happened because I worked very hard on Nookbay, and I only stopped doing that because I wasn't sure if he lied to me & the rest of the team or if he really bought the theme.
> It was uncertain wether he did something illegal or not. That's the reason why I dismissed my job there.
> ...



I will personal message you the details. I'm not singling you out after telling anyone. It's just a closed dispute.


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