Posted on 10/08/2008 4:38:08 AM PDT by numberonepal
I have a legal question for some FReepers that may be able to help. Here's the situation.
I've thought of putting something up at the address that would direct the free downloaders to his site. I just haven't done anything yet until I've gotten some proper legal advice. I do need to look into his book and see if there are any disclaimers about uploading the PDF to a public site. That's a good idea.
I would just come up with a number and pay him. He is expecting it and you don’t want to have to pay an attorney too.
Thanks. This is the first time in my life where I’ve even thought about an attorney.
That may be the best advice, but I've got to come up with a way to figure out a number.
But.....did you ever stay at a Holiday Inn Express?
You have FReepmail.
$200! It was Google that is distributing the copy without you kowledge or permission. Unless the author verifies that he had some sort of Harry Potter hit on his hand, tell him its going to cost him more in attorney fees then he’ll ever get out of you!
He is making you do the work here. I hope your legal council advises you well. If you have an AAA membership you may be able to get a free 1/2 hour consultation.
I would take the position that the stats are inconclusive as to what accounted for them. That’s legit.
Scripts and bots can replicate human behavior. DON’T assume that all your hits/downloads were done by humans who found your personal page out of the zillions of pages on the internet. Don’t rely on the download weblog stat to crucify yourself. “The search engines index web pages, text files, and other “human readable” files. Images and other such files are ignored. But the engine does read Adobe PDF files and will return search results for these.”
Here’s an interesting article...
http://www.divorcekit.com/Google/Googlebot_Wont_Go_Home.html
(see the part about reading pdf to the end)
If it’s possible that the downloads weren’t done by people, then what was the damage? The content is not there now so even if the search results across the planet point to your page, it’s a broken link. Document the dates you published the content, the date you removed the content so subsequent appearances of the link on search engines are irrelevant. Make sure Google removes the cache version and any other you become aware of.
Be careful coming up with a number to pay him. If you go that route you definitely need a lawyer to draft it and release you from further claims.
Making him an offer will soften him. I would figure on somewhere between 1/2 and 1/3 of those who access the pdf and multiply that by how much he charges for the download.
If you offer based on 1/3 he may bite you can also say it’s all you can afford. Get it behind you, you are obviously upset best to settle it now. Good luck! I am heading in for a knee replacement and won’t be able to answer you anytime soon. But do let me know how it goes.
Momwithhope....good luck on your knee surgery!!! Get well soon.
If Google posted the link without your knowledge, then they have some exposure here as well. Keep me posted on how this unfolds, as I’m curious to know how these things end up getting resolved.
Good luck with the surgery. It’s hunker down time for you. I know of a few folks with the replacement and they all have had a tough row to hoe even with never missing a PT session. One thing is that they are all glad they did it after about a year. I really appreciate your input.
Certainly, if you can avail yourself of the opinions of an attorney at little or no cost, go ahead. You complied with the DMCA as far as removing the file when notified. His recourse is to sue you, by VOLUNTEERING information or funds you only diminish your standing should it come to that. His material is freely available on other sites anyway, and they will not be as understanding as you were to take it down. Regardless of how much you enjoyed the book, I would cease communication with him as he has chosen an adversarial position. Anything you say WILL be used against you, you can rest assured.
I’m touched you would all be interested in my plight. All this input makes me a lot more optimistic of the outcome. Grazie ad tutti!
Besides the initial phone call and an email apologizing for him having to waste his time on the matter there has been no further contact. I am working on retaining counsel to do the talking for me. Your advice is solid. Thanks.
Well, unless Google actually ‘posted’ the link, instead of the link just showing up in someone’s search results, they’re not really at fault here - all someone needed to do is (simplified version) search for pages with the word ‘directory’ in them, then limit the search to PDF files, and add the name of the book or the author’s name or another keyword so they don’t have to sift through every PDF file on the entire web. That would give them the results of basically every pdf file with their search terms in the name that are sitting on website servers somewhere, even if it’s not openly posted.
So, in the future, double-check with an IT person to make sure that your online backups are secured and people can’t access the folder that contains them from the web (an attempt to do so would result in ‘403 forbidden’ showing up in their browser window) and name the ebook backup something else so it won’t show up in search results to begin with, or just keep your backups in an external hard drive.
Sound advice. I did at least change the file name of the book before uploading it, but that didn’t change the content of the PDF. The content was indexed.
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