by John Darer® CLU ChFC MSSC RSP CLTC
From time to time we have to submit takedown requests to protect our rights under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Unfortunately there are certain people, generally found in this case to be associated with the seedy underbelly of the structured settlement secondary market, who do not respect the work of others, who are too lazy. dishonest or lack the creativity to create their own work. Creating videos takes time, intellectual capital and expense. Imitation may be a form of flattery but plagiarism is cheating.
Recently someone unlawfully copied and then uploaded a structured settlement related video to YouTube in which my firm and Sequence Media group have joint rights. Furthermore, the copycat attempted to unlawfully monetize the video.
Following our DMCA take down request, YouTube, which is owned by Google, notified the offender and provided a copy of the take-down notice from our lawyers. On October 5, 2014, the copycat then wrote to Google from what he thought was a spoofed email address of our law firm advising Google that the lawyers retracted the DMCA take-down request, an intentionally deceptive action which they knew to be false. We have traced the spoofed email to its source and reserve all of our rights with respect to civil and criminal action against the individual involved and associated parties.