Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 01/20/2022 03:36 PM |
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Hello-
We've been watching your illegal activities on VeloNews Forums. As has
the webmaster from VeloNews. We do not appreciate you copying the Giro
D'Italia from TV or DVDs and selling or giving it away to your buddies.
We have you email address, the webmaster at Velo was nice enough to give
us your IP as well as the user 'Sarpin' that has been helping you copy
DVDs/TV broadcasts illegally.
Do you realize you are hurting the sport you love? You are contributing
to the possibility that someday OLN, Velo and World Cycling Productions
won't be able to afford to produce the Giro D'Italia.
Please stop your illegal activities. We are watching you and Velo News
and WCP have discussed your activities and will continue to watch you.
I still can't believe you would post this stuff on a board of a company
that sells the legal copy of the Giro D'Italia. Velo News is not happy
neither is WCP.
Sincerely,
--
Erik Dahl
Cycle Sport Magazine
651-251-4531
www.cyclesportmag.com |
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 01/20/2022 03:37 PM |
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LOL...what a chump that guy was.
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Orange Crush
Posts:4499
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| 01/20/2022 04:29 PM |
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Haha CK, you are single-handedly bringing down the Giro.
Are the TDF/ASO next on your target list?
Maybe you should add Flanders Classics. Just reading on interesting piece how, having been tasked with organizing all WC events (inside and outside Belgium), are rapidly changing the cyclocross playing field. They're the next big player after ASO, also organizing a bunch of spring classics obviously. |
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Dale
Posts:1767
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| 01/20/2022 06:12 PM |
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Oh man, that was how many years ago... 15 or more?
Just say No to WCP |
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 01/20/2022 07:33 PM |
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Yeah, it was 2006, Dale.
DOH!!! |
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6ix
Posts:485
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| 01/21/2022 08:42 AM |
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Whoa!!! I've always wondered what the full back-story is to that tagline. I gotta say, I'd have been running scared had I received that email regardless if I'd done anything wrong at all!!
What exactly was going on here? Was Sarpin ripping the DVD's and putting them on a Torrent? |
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 01/21/2022 09:42 AM |
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Now, I had burned a DVD of the full RAI coverage of a few stages. I then offered it up as a "vine" to the members of the VN board. I sent it to one person, they could watch or burn a copy and then it to the next person.
The e-mails just got more comical as the situation progressed.
Second e-mail In my response I told them I did not use WCP material in my DVD. Also told them I was cancelling my subscription to CycleSport and would never buy another DVD from them.
Regardless if you used WCP coverage or coverage from the TV; by
reproducing that footage and burning it onto a DVD you have broken
American Copyright laws. We, World Cycling Productions, own all home
video/DVD rights to the Giro D'Italia. That means you have broken the
law and we are in our full rights to prosecute. Plus we have the right
to pass your information on the Giro D'Italia organizers because along
with violating USA rights that we own, you are also violating
International copyright laws that the organizers of the Giro D'Italia
hold. Regardless if you profited from this copying you have still broken
American and International copyright laws.
This has nothing to do with Cycle Sport Magazine and that you think it
proper to threaten us with not renewing your subscription is ridiculous.
By threatening us you have just sealed your own fate. You could have
just apologized, ceased your DVD copying, and we would have been fine
with that, but your insolence has only strengthened our pending legal
action. Do you realize that in your email you have admitted to violation
of copyright laws and added strength to our pending legal action. We
will submit this email to our lawyers and pass this email onto the Giro
D'Italia, VeloNews and OLN to see what they think about your feelings on
copyright law.
Thanks again for letting us know you have ordered from us, we now know
we can find your address and all pertinent information in our databases.
We will begin legal processes immediately and I'm sure OLN and the Giro
D'Italia will be less understanding then we are. Or you could just
apologize to us and write an apology on the VeloNews boards. Remember
VeloNews is well aware of your violations and does not appreciate you
propagating illegal activities on their message-boards. You and your
buddies have exposed VeloNews to legal recourse and have sealed your own
fate by replying to us with such insolence.
We will now contact VeloNews with your response as well as our lawyers,
OLN and the Giro D'Italia.
Are you happy you wrote this email now?
Sincerely,
Erik Dahl |
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 01/21/2022 09:43 AM |
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Third e-mail By this time I had posted these e-mails on the VN board
By continuing to post our responses on the VeloNews message board you
are only inflaming the situation. We have contacted the webmaster again
and we are ready begin proceedings.
Erik |
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 01/21/2022 09:45 AM |
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Fourth e-mail I had just told him to stop his threatening e-mails
I assure you these have not been threatening emails. You have violated
copyright laws. World Cycling Productions owns all home viewing rights.
I would bet that the DVD you sent out is an edited version (no
commercials) and this is a violation of copyright laws. You admitted
your illegal activities in your email response to me and have sealed
your own fate.
Erik |
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 01/21/2022 09:46 AM |
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5th e-mail By this time I was also in touch with VN and they were just as incredulous as me over this whole thing and assured me that they had no intention of pursuing action against me
I think you chose our path for us. You sent out 1 copy to many. Andy
Pemberton (webmaster) at VeloNews assures me he will contact you and
possibly ban your IP for putting Velo in legal limbo.
Don't blame us, you violated the law.
You may have said to me that you will no longer send out additional
copies but as I posted in the last email message just yesterday you sent
out another copy. How are we to believe you when you post in a public
forum that you forgot to sent the DVD out and will tomorrow (today).
Erik |
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 01/21/2022 09:52 AM |
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I think that was the last e-mail from him, as my next response told him to stop contacting me. 5 days later, I sent him an e-mail just to troll his ass. I had discussed the issue with a buddy of mine who is a lawyer and he said I was absolutely not exposed to any legal issues.
Just wanted to let you know that I have yet to hear form any of the following three entities:
* Your lawyers
* The VN administrator (although I contacted them and there is no issue)
* The organizers of the Giro
My lawyer assures me that your e-mails are factually incorrect and border on harrassment. As far as I am concerned at this point, the matter is dead.
Hope you had a great holiday. |
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Habanero
Posts:257
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| 01/21/2022 10:28 AM |
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| Nice to see the full episode described here. I must have forgotten all this from the Forum. Erik is an effing douchecanoe. |
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6ix
Posts:485
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| 01/21/2022 11:09 AM |
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I'd have tapped out long ago, but mad props to you for continuing on. Really don't see what leg they have to stand on. The video was broadcast in a local market and recorded. Pretty sure I have VHS tapes still sitting around with the 1994 Tour de France on them recorded from CBS. That could have even been an over-the-air video signal. What's wrong with that? Just because WCP chose to buy the footage themselves in order to doctor it up and provide a cleaned, edited version to cyclists in the States doesn't mean YOU can't have recorded video also.
It's like with an NFT. Someone (an idiot, generally) pays big money for a jpeg. Somebody else paid nothing for the same jpeg they found online. Just because someone else paid for something when they could have had it entirely for free doesn't mean it's illegal for ME to have it for free. After all, it was broadcast over the air, right?
Sorry for the incoherent rambling there. |
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Dale
Posts:1767
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| 01/21/2022 12:09 PM |
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IIRR, WCP didn't even offer the Giro that year.
How many times did you "seal your own fate?"
Using that expression once was an eye roller but multiply times? Pretty weak. |
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 01/21/2022 12:20 PM |
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So the basic rule of copyright in the US re: taping coverage is that if you tape / record something, but do not edit it or cut out the commercials , then you haven't violated copyright law (see his comment re: that above).
That was when I really knew I had him because he simply did not understand what I had sent out. It was the unedited RAI (Italian) coverage, which I had subscribed to through our cable carrier.
In the end, I think he was a Production Coordinator or something and I think he thought he could show off. he really had no business contacting me at all and his heavy-handed tone simply showed he didn't know what he was doing.
After the first exchange or two, I was simply baiting him because I knew he had nothing to go after me with.
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