Theft of Files from Lancaster site

Hi all

I've received the following message from a forum moderator of another site, which I thought I'd share with you in the event anyone comes across the files.

WG




"I have been advised today that the Lancaster and Manchester Losses files which I have spent some 20+ years working to compile have been stolen from this site and are now posted online for sale by CD.

These files were clearly copyrighted and dated.

As a result I have been forced to remove this listing from the web site to protect my work.

Anyone who sees these items for sale are requested to contact the authorities in your region and advise them of this theft.

I am deeply saddened to see once again that a ‘few selfish people, who wish to make profit from others work” have ruined this information being made available to those who may wish to have used it.

Larry617
Forum Moderator"


larry617 (at) lancaster-archive.com

 

Dirty act.

 

I'm rather with you on this Owen. If I post photos then I try to make them low-res - certainly those that I've paid money for. I've seen copies of my scans on eBay for 99p - Do they just do it to increase Feedback ?

It's a shame that someone felt the need to charge for it but re-copying that sort of information is what all researchers do nowadays. I suppose he feels the need for some acknowledgement of his efforts. It's a bit like the thread on here regarding the not thanking for info. A word of thanks and a virtual pat on the back can make a big difference

 

hi everybody
what means this please : remember i'm french and english language is sometimes hard to understand !
thank you all
Patrice

 

Selling it and having done bugger all to research it does stick in the throat a bit.

 

Good idea, I'm going to download our Vets' experiences, put them on CDs and sell them on eBay. Who's there to stop me? Nice ethics, eh?

 

One of the problems of the internet - how do you safeguard Intellectual Property rights?

Mike

 

I'm rather with you on this Owen. If I post photos then I try to make them low-res - certainly those that I've paid money for. I've seen copies of my scans on eBay for 99p - Do they just do it to increase Feedback ?

It's a shame that someone felt the need to charge for it but re-copying that sort of information is what all researchers do nowadays. I suppose he feels the need for some acknowledgement of his efforts. It's a bit like the thread on here regarding the not thanking for info. A word of thanks and a virtual pat on the back can make a big difference

So when are you going to rep me for all my 1940 posts

I post all my stuff purely 'because'. I was mildly annoyed though when I discovered a historian using some of my Dunkirk related pictures that I took on his website and implied he took them himself.

I guess, as others have said, if we post our research etc on the net, and others use it for financial gain, its a cross we have to bare (Like the one at Lorraine). Leaving it on the net though surely does reduce the amount of people that will buy it.

 

Interesting posts everyone, I really had no idea this type of theft was so widespread (probably because I tend to just head down to the shops if I need something). I guess I'll just continue to potter on in my own simple little world then

 

Wendy

I know this thread comes under the heading of "For sale & for trade" but I also find it of great interest for numerous reasons not least for the views it throws up concerning putting "stuff" into the Public Domain.

As someone who has made what I consider to be an obscene amount of postings on this and many other WW2 sites,with very litle thought of what will eventually happen to the aforesaid "stuff", I thought I would try to explain my motives.

I once read somewhere, and it must have stuck in my subconscious, that a person does not really die until no-one ever says his or her name again. One of the less pleasurable aspects of reaching my age is that one loses good friends and I try to temper the grievous loss by talking or writing about them as often as I can and thus ensuring a memory of them remains.

As for my own reasons for posting, if I am completely honest to myself, I think that I am trying to leave my own mark so that in years to come someone, somewhere will say "This is interesting..... I see it was written by this old man in a place called Cockfosters and tells of what it was like to have been involved in what they used to describe as WW2"

Ron

 

Owen

When you're gone Ron, I'll be selling a CD called 'Ron's Old Army Album ' on eBay.
:biggrin:


Just see you get a good price

Ron

 

Ron, please continue to post. I enjoy what you have to say.
Wendy

 

There was a very interesting little bit on a Mark Thomas programme on Radio 4 a while back. The question was... "Is downloading copyright content from the internet 'stealing' ".

There was much debate until one bloke said "It is not stealing because when I take it, it is still there (on the owners server)" So basically the consensus turned from "it is stealing" to "It is not stealing". Technically, no, nothing was removed from that persons property but the owner had not chosen to "give" the content away.

There is a difference between sharing and giving. If you share something you still have some control over its distribution. If you give it away then you also give away the rights to control its distribution. The originator did not "give" his work to this other person, they took it and in my book that is wrong.

The creator of these pdfs would, I hope, have done a lot of his own research and have asked permission from any origionators of info that was not done by him. He has spent a lot of time and effort in creating these works.

We on this forum quote lots of references and sometimes scan in a page or two of a book but we do credit that book and author and no doubt if the author or publisher asked for the scans to be removed they would be. At no point do we claim the work as our own or try to profit from other peoples work.

I fully understand why the chap has removed the information from his site. It is the only way he can show his outrage and let people know he has been badly affected. Lets face it. If he had not have removed the files would we be talking about it now? Dont the mods here name and shame people who pretend to be vets on this forum... They have not taken anything from the server either, but they have broken a trust.

 

Sickening.

 

A person shall be guilty of theft if he dishonestly appropriates property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it.

If you can't prove the above it ain't theft. Permanently depriving is the key in the above case. Its a civil matter not criminal

Case dismissed.

NEXT !

 

May I appeal, m'lud!

If you make a copy of property belonging to another and offer it for sale yourself you are depriving the legitimate owner of the sale benefit attached and pursuant while appropriating yourself of said benefit. Criminal case most foul!

NEXT !

 

M'lud,
Your definition of theft is based on a physical object being removed form the posession of a person. This case is not about real property but intelectual property. "Theft" may not be the right word for this action according to the "5 fingers" (whatever that may be), but in a cyber world its the best word we have yet.