Copyright Extortion Worldwide

[Matthew Chan]

I am getting vibes and hints that copyright extortion is going way beyond what was previously known.  It used to be just Getty Images but there is a new industry that is sprouting up to go after alleged copyright infringers.

Today, I received a comment how a Russian extortion letter victim couldn't reach ELI (because we block traffic from "trouble" countries with bad online reputations)

Here is a press release that was first reported on Twitter. It is a company we have briefly written about before who appears to be taken copyright extortion activities to an international level.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/6/prweb9640697.htm

Let us all keep in mind that the money has to come from somewhere and someone to support these types of operations. 

I have been very resistant to having ELI going "international" aside from our friends in Canada.  Secondarily, we support the UK and that is about as far as ELI has officially gone.

I want to ask all of you.  Should ELI stay focused on what we are good at?  (U.S. and Canadian environments)  Or should ELI go further and dilute what we have? 

As it is, I can barely keep up with the existing forums. The thought of creating more forums gives me a headache.  I almost want to "force" the new traffic into the UK forum which could be transformed into the "International Extortion Letter Forum".

Can we as Americans do a good job facilitating international extortion discussions?

Life used to be so simple when it was just Getty Images being the bad guy...  Copyright trolling and copyright extortion activities seem to be increasing and growing, not slowing down.

[lucia]

Matt--
In many ways this is a crowd sourcing project. You can only 'support' countries if some people from that country step forward and begin to do some of the work themselves. 

Some information and action is generic.  For example: it's useful for people everywhere to learn they aren't the only one in this boat. It's useful for people to be able to arrive and post a comment. (Australians and The Dash! Who'd a thunk?!)

But we know Oscar cannot provide specific legal guidance about laws outside the US. Moreover, he is busy enough as with US cases that it would be counter productive for him to try to educate himself on nuances of copyright "everywhere". 

So I think your current path is good: If people arrive and want to discuss a country, you can open a thread. Then hope that someone in the other country will be inspired to create a useful forum and support it. That's one of the great strengths of the internet.

[Matthew Chan]

You read my mind. I have often thought of ELI as a "crowdsourcing" project. It is one thing to talk about it in a theoretical sense but another thing to be part of it and see it in action.

Robert was the first guy I called an "ELI freak".  I call him a freak every other day and he just shrugs it off now.  I can barely get a reaction from him anymore.  I have to find another colorful name to call him to get his attention...

Tonight, I called Greg Troy an "ELI Freak" and accused of him trying to knock Robert off as "King ELI freak". Greg just laughs it off.

I guess the biggest reason why I am still a bit surprised is because it is the cause we (the ELI Community) have taken up arms and fight "copyright extortionists". That is why I make reference to us as the "militia".  We are a rag-tag group of people (the militia) who just came together to fight against the highly-organized and well-funded "redcoats" (with apologies to the English) we call copyright extortionists.

I reference the movie in which Mel Gibson starred in "The Patriot".

[Oscar Michelen]

Matt - I am alot of things but I am not "rag tag" thank you very much!