Italian website selling porn games and claiming to own the copyright for them

[Cybuster]

I do not know much about law but I think, internationally, a creator owns the thing he made, be it a video or a game.
This ownership can be proved by placing a copyright notice somewhere, which does not have to be registered or paid, something like: © Winterfire, for instance.

The only thing I am truly unsure about is, do copyright notices require your real name or an username is also possible? As far as real names go, you own them and can be easily identified with them but usernames are a little different and I am not sure if they can be an alternative.

John Doe had been used by the defendant of copyright infringement, don't know about reverse role.

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[Finsit]

I would guess that the best proof of owning something (in that case) is having it posted somewhere public before anyone else.

 

[Cybuster]

Does the site use any other payment processing company other than SecurionPay?

 

[Winterfire]

Under US law using your username would be fine if that was also your company name so if you did say © Winterfire Games 2019 Then maybe but then you would have to prove you own that company.

I mean that you can put a copyright notice, without owning a company, because you have the copyright on the material you create but as far as I know, it would be valid only with First name/Last name format.

 

[Cybuster]

I'm probably late but I'll also try to contact creators whenever I can. But I question if this asshole can simply report a Patreon creator as he did to Runey, won't he just do the same thing to every other Patreon creators that try to warn them?

I think we need to do better than that. It would be better to know all payment processing company this site uses and the bank of which this site keep their money on, then report their ass to every financial institution they had dealings with.

yea I know easier said than done, but simply warning against them only seem to get them salty and retaliate. DDOS and legit threats are empty and do no good. Creators that are able should lawyer up and the only thing outsider like us could do is report.

 

[Amenahek]

Chiming in to agree that getting as many of the devs stolen from involved is best, as this idiot cannot sustain his business if he gets all of the devs he steals product from banned.

 

[Winterfire]

It seems he owns multiple websites too...
I had a look here:

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and found the administrative contact (silverboy86.live.it )
Which seems to be linked to various websites:

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Including this:

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which has a very detailed profile:

Spoiler: Whois

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I am not sure if that is the same person, I will leave it to more expert people to confirm but if that would be the case, that would be a step forward to find and contact his payment processors, etc.

 

[recreation]

I talked to acquaintance of my family who is a lawyer. I didn't tell him all the details, but he said that when it comes to a copyright infringement, the owner of the website has to prove that he owns either the rights to publish or is the creator of the "product". Legally, if he can't prove it, he has to take the products down.
He also said that it's a good idea to not send a email demanding to take stuff down, but send a "Cease and Desist letter" (or email). This will show that you are serious and willing to take legal actions. You also don't need a lawyer to write this letter to be "official" and it's a good way to scare most people enough to take this stuff down when they are not the copyright holder.

 

[Notretsam]

I talked to acquaintance of my family who is a lawyer. I didn't tell him all the details, but he said that when it comes to a copyright infringement, the owner of the website has to prove that he owns either the rights to publish or is the creator of the "product". Legally, if he can't prove it, he has to take the products down.
He also said that it's a good idea to not send a email demanding to take stuff down, but send a "Cease and Desist letter" (or email). This will show that you are serious and willing to take legal actions. You also don't need a lawyer to write this letter to be "official" and it's a good way to scare most people enough to take this stuff down when they are not the copyright holder.

actually didn't know you could send a cease and desist letter without an actual lawyer , and it still be official. great info.

Personally I would google search "Cease and Desist Letter format" and put one together, then maybe it can be shared here for all developers to mass send on same day to that person.

 

[Winterfire]

Yeah that is what I meant before too, I mean it is common sense he has to be the one proving he's the creator or has the rights to sell that stuff :facepalm: That's why it is both funny and sad how he asks for "Legal doc", some people...

-edit-
Yeah I did not know about the cease or desist letter either, thanks @recreation

-edit-
I have found something useful on google:

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It has templates for those interested and also more on what you need to make one.

 

[recreation]

I just thought it might also work to send such a letter to the hoster of the website and his payment processor?

 

[Winterfire]

A cease or desist letter to the host and payment processor? That would not make much sense, right? I mean they are doing nothing wrong other than providing services to that scammer without knowing that he is not legit.

If anything they should be contacted to let them know about this problem.

 

[HiEv]

Registrant Email: silverboy86@live.it

Woo. Doing

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turns up some other interesting stuff. Including this Google comment, which I've never seen on a Google search page before, "Suspected child abuse content has been removed from this page." Yipes!

 

[Winterfire]

Woo. Doing

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turns up some other interesting stuff. Including this Google comment, which I've never seen on a Google search page before, "Suspected child abuse content has been removed from this page." Yipes!

Yeah, I have noticed that too... Seems to be connected with a lot of porn related stuff and goes around with the name of "Silver".

 

[recreation]

A cease or desist letter to the host and payment processor? That would not make much sense, right? I mean they are doing nothing wrong other than providing services to that scammer without knowing that he is not legit.

If anything they should be contacted to let them know about this problem.

Yes of course not the cease and desist letter itself, but a more official type of document. I mean, this would have a bit more impact than a "Hey dude, this guy is selling illegal stuff on a website hostet on your servers" mail.

 

[Jon_Sleeper]

IIRC @Jeff Steel the writer for DMD and Melody is a real-life attorney. Maybe he can advise something.

 

[scrumbles]

Dual Family by

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has been added to their game list. Italian title: "Amore e Odio".

Well giving offerings to an underworld god to invoke some earthquakes wouldn't be considered illegal would it ?

Question is do they live in a seismic area.

Unfortunately they could not live in a less seismic area.

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: Does that count?

Too far. Also, go big or go home:

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.

 

[DJsona]

Dual Family by

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has been added to their game list. Italian title: "Amore e Odio".

Thank you, edited and added to my previous post. there is a screen shot of babysitter too . Also great job @ all !

 

[Hadley]

As a Community we can clearly do something about a Asshat like that. DDoS his Site into Oblivion?

 

[saintvermillion]

As a Community we can clearly do something about a Asshat like that. DDoS his Site into Oblivion?

Well I'm sure no one could ever condone such an action.

In all seriousness that would only knock his site out temporarily or if somehow permanently he'd just set up shop elsewhere again. If you really want to get him out of commission come at him through his local or international copyright laws. Proper procedure whatever that might be for following this up.