Andrew J Vidal;50170 wrote:

ignaciokoblischek@plenumweb.com

 

That’s their email address.  I suggest we send them one hell of an email as a society demanding our arms be taken down.

The same thing happened to members of the ACH and I have received an email from them about it. DON’T wait for the Society to communicate with this outfit (although I’m sure we will). All of you should start sending individual emails insisting your arms be removed. I have already done so.

Don’t take this lying down! Email them and insist that they have acted without your permission. Maybe if they get enough emails they’ll get scared.

I support the idea that we should complain both individually and as a society.

The site appears to have pillaged the HSS site too as I see that all the arms of members with Scottish arms (from that gallery) are listed under "D"

I have emailed to ask that my arms be removed and have let the HSS know by way of their forum.

James

David Pritchard;50174 wrote:

Since my Spanish Certification of Arms is supposed to provide me with legal protection in Spain, I wonder just what my options are?

You may have options, but as I read Spanish certifications, I’m not sure they grow out of that. The Spanish certification seems to guarantee that you have a right to the arms, and that no one else can come forward and keep you from using them, but it doesn’t in itself provide a promise that no one else can use the same arms.

In any case, this is not usurpation (no one is claiming that your arms are theirs) but rather (a) copyright infringement in misappropriation of the emblazonment, and (b) probably a violation of identity protection statutes, to the extent it implies your endorsement of a commercial enterprise that you didn’t endorse.

By contrast, I don’t think there would be any recourse at all if someone did his own emblazonment of your arms and displayed his drawing as the arms of David Pritchard.

I have sent my nasty e-mail in as Christ-like a manner as possible.  However, further provocation may result in some overturned money-changers’ tables. :shootout:

I have sent my email demanding they remove my achievement from their website as well.  I truly hate the idea people have that if you post something on one site on the Internet, it automatically entitles them to "free use," whatever their purpose may be.  I highly recommend every member of the Society send them a personal email demanding the removal of their achievement from that site.  Then a letter from the Society should be sent (including a list of all those whose arms are posted on our armorial).  Perhaps they will then get the message.

This is truly appaling.

A similar thing happend to me some time ago…

An angry e-mail did the trick…

Gentlemen,

As of this time (7:15am Central Time) all the register pages are returning a 404 error. We will need to keep an eye on this bunch, but for the moment those pages have been taken down.

Michael Swanson: I know there is a way to block users from directly copying images off of a web page. Is there a way we can easily install that here? I know, everything can be worked around if you have the skills, but the more difficult we make it, the better off we are.

I sent my flaming email last night, right before posting their email address.  I also had a brief chat with Mr. Wooten telling him that at least his arms were lifted and also sent an email to Roland Symons of the WLS.  If our armorial, the ACH and the HSS were hit, I wonder why not the WLS?

I feel a little better knowing that at least the pages are down.

Patrick- Yes, there are multiple ways of blocking someone from taking images from a particular website.  And as you stated, there are multiple ways around those safegaurds.  That isn’t to say putting them in place isn’t worth it, but in technology, there is no absolute.

Chapulin;50161 wrote:

I found my COA and others from this board registered here…  http://www.riag.es/

Loren, you get a gold star for being for finding this site.

I would like people to chime in on watermarking our graphics in the AHS armorial.  If we do this, what should the watermark say?

USHR registrants have asked why (and complained that ) I make the online arms too small and display them only in a micro-reduced version of the armiger’s purchased certificate. The reason is that the size and its placement in a certificate acts as copy protection.

You’ve got my vote, I say the watermark should read AHS

Michael Swanson;50191 wrote:

Loren, you get a gold star for being for finding this site.

I would like people to chime in on watermarking our graphics in the AHS armorial.  If we do this, what should the watermark say?

I think watermarking is the only viable solution as there are too many ways to get around the "no copy" technology.  I’m not sure what it should say, possibly something like excurs.ru does, but we need something.  In fact until there is another solution, I’ll be sending Michael watermarked versions of my emblazonments and asking him to replace what’s there.  I considered doing this from the start, but thought I was being paranoid.  Now I know better :(

PS: Their pages went down before I saw this thread, did anyone see mine over there?

I have emailed them directly to remove my arms, and have posted a notice on the College’s web page advising individuals that we have yet another "bucket shop" in our midst that should be avoided - especially at 150 Euros.

Andrew J Vidal;50189 wrote:

Patrick- Yes, there are multiple ways of blocking someone from taking images from a particular website.  And as you stated, there are multiple ways around those safegaurds.  That isn’t to say putting them in place isn’t worth it, but in technology, there is no absolute.

Of course there’s no absolute. therre’s no absolute in anything. If we watermark AND put in some form of no-copy technology, then we’ve done the absolute best we can.

My vote for watermark: American Heraldry Society. The reason for the whole thing? The next bozo could name his site AHS and for a time look legit.

I plugged this site into the wayback machine and the only internet archive of them was on May 21st of this year. At least at that time none of our arms appeared on their pages. So, sometime after May 21st these were pirated. Can’t tell you when for sure, however.

For those of you who do not know: the Wayback Machine is a public service internet site. They basically make archives of all the pages their particular robot comes across.

As a fledgling artist I am quite concerned about this.  I am not an expert on the practical application of American copyright law.  However, I do register my emblazonments with the U.S. office of Copyright to deter this sort of behavior.

The recording industry shows us that it is difficult to enforce American copyrights in foreign countries.

I wonder if any or our legal scholars have any input on this matter?

While our armorial does state that the images are the property of the armiger.  Pehaps a note mentioning that the art of specific emblazonments is copyrighted by the artist, and subject to American and international laws.  I understand that this won’t prevent all criminals intent upon stealing, but may serve as a warning to some.