basically it appears that they feel they have the right to rip off other websites as its all "public information."
They also erroneously attribute ownership of b5 to JMS. Since WB owns the license, they are obivously morons who didnt bother to research any of this shit before they ripped it off. Their disclaimer is meaningless.
Its also vaguely hypocritical:
. The information, images and layout on this site are sourced from various websites, books, programmes, magazines and other media. All text is copyrighted to their original authors, all images is copyrighted to their original artists and no infringements are intended by there use. It must be remembered however the overall copyrights to Babylon 5 belong to the creator of the show, Joe Michael Straczynski and also that the internet is in part public domain.
So in short, they acknowledge that the "text" is the copyright of the original authors (which includes the text Brandon created exclusively for B5tech, as well as the images) but in the same breath they claim they have a perfect right to rip it off.
B5 Tech wrote:
Michael Wong
(Web-Master of the "I want YOU for the Galactic Empire" site. Thanks for providing me with lots of technical information, hard science, power generation figures and helping me to try and make this place as accurate as possible. Any sci-fi fan worth his salt should REALLY visit Michael's site... it is the GREATEST! Michael is one of my true, legitimate heroes. What can I say… I wanna' be like Mike. ^_^)
Ern & Berry
Special thanks to Ern & Berry of WWW.JUMPNOW.DE who were kind enough to provide some screen captures and ref. material for this site.
Fabio Passaro
(who runs the MESHWEAVER for providing us with many of the great CGI images of the Minbari Sharlin class War-Cruiser, A-Shuttle and Crew Shuttle etc!)
Mario Di Giacomo
(For allowing us use of material written by his person, and most importantly for compiling the VERY FIRST technical file on the Babylon 5 series, which has inspired all similar pages since. Download his original work by clicking HERE.)
Lars Joreteg
For providing several black&white images of the ships of Babylon 5. Lars also runs the popular website HYPERSPACE.
Craig P. Condu
(for providing us with some GREAT 3-D CGI images, from his "Epsilon Jump-Gate!" site!)
now compare it to the Draco Alliance site:
Draco Alliance wrote:
Michael Wong
Web-Master of the "I want YOU for the Galactic Empire" site. Thanks for providing lots of technical information, hard science, power generation figures
Mario Di Giacomo
For the use of material written by him personally, and most importantly for compiling the VERY FIRST technical file on the Babylon 5 series, which has inspired all similar pages since.
Ern & Berry
Special thanks to Ern & Berry who provided some screen captures and reference material.
Fabio Passaro
For providing many of the great CGI images of the Minbari Sharlin class War-Cruiser, A-Shuttle and Crew Shuttle etc!
Lars Joreteg
For providing several black & white images of the ships of Babylon 5.
Craig P. Condu
For providing some GREAT 3-D CGI images.
There is a popular website known as Slashdot @ www.slashdot.org . They are infamous for linking up unsuspecting websites - which then get promptly pummeled by thousands upon thousands of surfers going there. Most cannot take it and the site goes down temporarily.
If you could write up an article to their editors about all the sites that have been plagerized, they might just put it on.
That disclaimer's fucking bullshit. I can't believe anyone would so horribly abuse someone else's work like this. I hope this guy is destroyed by this mess.
"Sometimes I think you WANT us to fail." "Shut up, just shut up!" -Two Guys from Kabul
Latinum Star Recipient; Hacker's Cross Award Winner
"one soler flar can vapririze the planit or malt the nickl in lass than millasacit" -Bagara1000
These dumb-fucks do not understand that the concept of "fair use" requires substantial alteration to the underlying material. You can't simply copy and paste whole portions of websites in order to duplicate their intent and then cry "fair use- no foul" when the referees blow the whistle. Dumb-fuck.
"It's not evil for God to do it. Or for someone to do it at God's command."- Jonathan Boyd on baby-killing
"you guys are fascinated with the use of those "rules of logic" to the extent that you don't really want to discussus anything."- GC
"I do not believe Russian Roulette is a stupid act" - Embracer of Darkness
"Viagra commercials appear to save lives" - tharkûn on US health care.
Important note: Dracoalliance.com's ISP is FREEOLA, and the abuse E-mail is support@freeola.co.uk. Please E-mail them to let them know what you think of this.
"It's not evil for God to do it. Or for someone to do it at God's command."- Jonathan Boyd on baby-killing
"you guys are fascinated with the use of those "rules of logic" to the extent that you don't really want to discussus anything."- GC
"I do not believe Russian Roulette is a stupid act" - Embracer of Darkness
"Viagra commercials appear to save lives" - tharkûn on US health care.
Interesting statement on the dracoalliance.com homepage...
"Our apologies, but this site is now unfortunately for rpg club members only and that all pending membership applications have been cancelled, this is due to complaints received from non members. These complaints have been dealt with and all future mail from unknown sources have been blocked."
Exactly what's that supposed to mean?
"We dealt with our blatant act of plagiarism by pretending it didn't exist..."
"This is supposed to be a happy occasion... Let's not bicker and argue about who killed who."
-- The King of Swamp Castle, Monty Python and the Holy Grail
"Nothing of consequence happened today. " -- Diary of King George III, July 4, 1776
"This is not bad; this is a conspiracy to remove happiness from existence. It seeks to wrap its hedgehog hand around the still beating heart of the personification of good and squeeze until it is stilled."
-- Chuck Sonnenburg on Voyager's "Elogium"
The convention organizers might be willing to deny this club any promotional table space because of their behavior.
"This is supposed to be a happy occasion... Let's not bicker and argue about who killed who."
-- The King of Swamp Castle, Monty Python and the Holy Grail
"Nothing of consequence happened today. " -- Diary of King George III, July 4, 1776
"This is not bad; this is a conspiracy to remove happiness from existence. It seeks to wrap its hedgehog hand around the still beating heart of the personification of good and squeeze until it is stilled."
-- Chuck Sonnenburg on Voyager's "Elogium"
Hay I've noticed something new, (if others have already seen it, then feel free to point and laugh...)
B5.tech The site that this site is a near duplicate of, excluding the Character/TV Guide, Conventions and Draco Alliance pages.
So are they in the process of admitting their Stupidity, is this what they ment by, 'the problem is being dealt with', or is it an attempt to sort of deflect criticism by appearing to be holding their hands up?
From a review of the two Towers.... 'As for Gimli being comic relief, what if your comic relief had a huge axe and fells dozens of Orcs? That's a pretty cool comic relief. '
>I must start by offering my sincere apologies for recent events
>and the connection with your website.
An apology was neither requested, nor is it wanted… only decisive action to remedy this situation in which you and your website have violated my own.
>I do indeed run a B5 role play game called Draco Alliance.
>However I did not create the website, which is a direct copy of
>yours. I know very little about websites, but do know how to
>communicate via e-mail (our club RPG's are written and passed
>between members via e-mail). Our website was created by my
>younger brother, in my name (unfortunately), I asked him to do it
>for the club as he is more into websites than I am and he did create
>another website for me some time ago.
How this website came into being is of no consequence. It is your property and, as such, you are the sole individual responsible for what has happened on your website. This being the case, you are the one responsible for rectifying the matter.
>I work the late shift as a train driver and gave my brother permission
>to use my computer to create this site. If I had ever thought for a
>second that he was going to just copy someone else's site and pass
>it off as original work, I would not have let him near my computer.
The above comments are irrelevant. You are still the individual responsible.
>I must admit that the site he created (or rather just altered from your
>original) was very impressive and I was initially pleased, as was the
>rest of the club, this only goes to add praise your work. Anyway, this
>whole matter has brought our club nothing but shame and
>embarrassment, especially for me and it has even caused a rift in my
>family (but that is my problem), resulting in my brother being barred
>from my home.
Neither flattery, nor the personal issues of your life concern me. I am only interested in a regress of grievances.
>I have insisted that the site be taken down, my brother assures
>me that he has taken it down, but just left the title page (I have
>checked this and can only see the title page). I am now searching
>among our club members and friends for someone who can write
>a new site for the club, a private site that requires a password to
>view it, so that no one can be offended in the future and access
>can only be gained by members.
Unacceptable. Firstly, the site has not been taken down. While the title page no longer leads people to the content of the website, the plagiarized materials are still available at the original site link at: http://www.dracoalliance.com/B5%20homepage.htm
You cannot simply try to hide stolen content behind a password, as the violation of intellectual property rights and the gross violation of your own "Terms of Service" agreement with Freeola.com, cannot be alleviated by simply hiding the offending action. If you think that, by hiding the stolen content behind a password, will somehow makes this whole problem go away, you are very much mistaken.
Further more, you have altered content in the website in order to give the illusion that you did not originally claim the whole of the stolen material to be your own, and you have posted a nauseating excuse to justify your blatant theft of the collected works of B5TECH, the Lurkers Guide, ISN News, Star Trek Australia, B5TV, and others. These changes express no remorse for the previous actions taken and does not address the moral and legal issues at hand.
>I am very shocked by this matter and too embarrassed and
>Angry to reply to the e-mail's that I got, in fact I am just deleting
>them as they come in. Tonight I found your site and was further
>embarrassed by what I found, I can only offer you my sincerest
>apologies and ask that you pass them on to your supporters. I
>do not know what else to do, I am very, very sorry. I hope that
>our club can be forgiven.
Forgiveness is not the issue – the compliance and respect of the work and intellectual property rights of others is the issue. In my previous e-mail, sent to you February 15, 2003 I made my demands clear, in which I stated that I demanded you "remove ANY and ALL content related to my website, from your own within the next 72 hours."
It is now February 18, 2003 and you have not complied. As such I have e-mailed and snail-mailed official letters of complaint to your domain host(s) informing them of your violation of the United States Federal Trademark Dilution Act pursuant to 15 U.S.C. 1125(c)(1) and international copyright protection law, and your perversion of the "fair use" laws under the Berne Convention, as well as your gross violation of the "Terms of Service" contract with your domain host.
>I do not want to get into a dialogue about this, but would appreciate
>your forgiveness by return and also the removal of items referring to
>Draco Alliance on your site, I am having enough trouble saving the
>club now and this does not entirely help, maybe I should just give up,
>I am getting to old for this. Still, I'll leave it in your hands.
Once again, forgiveness is not the issue, only compliance and respect of the work and intellectual property rights of others. Please note that I will take no action to abridge the "Freedom of Speech" rights of those posting at my website, and I have no control over comments made by individuals posting at the dozens of other forums currently debating the actions of the DracoAlliance and your person. You will remove the stolen material from your domain in its entirety, voluntarily, or be compelled to do so by your domain host or whatever legal means are available to myself and the owners of the other websites you have plagiarized.
You guys notice how this guy now tried to weasel his way out of this?
He blames his little brother.
He takes no responsibility for his own actions.
He tried to prey upon the sympathies of others, in the hopes of keeping his stolen website active.
He tried to get me to stop all of you from talking about this, in the hopes that the whole issue would just blow over.
He lies about the site having been taken down, when we ALL know that it is still active.
He talks about pass wording the site, so he can CONTINUE to steal from other people, but HIDE the theft... as if THAT will fix the whole problem!
He freely admits that he has been deleting ALL the e-mail being sent to him, probably because he didn't think this whole issue would become as BIG as it has.
He says he doesn't want to talk about what he's done wrong, god forgive he have to stand up to the plate and do the right thing.
Finally, he wants ME to stop all of you from talking about this, in the hopes that this can blow over so he can probably just go back to stealing stuff and claiming it as his own.
Truly, he's a fucking moron and a liar. Whatever the punishment he will get, will never be enough. Something seems to be going on in the site. The pics are not loading and several links are broken. Your doing?
Yep, it's gone. Proof that it has been deleted in it's entirety though? They could've mearly moved the link...
Though we are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,--
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
That is exactly what everyone else thinks - that he has moved the stolen website to a new area and just plans on re-opening it later behind a password.
Here is a copy of what he wrote to me today... wait until you read this...
For the attention of Mr Brandon Bray.
(Please read the following, it contains legal information that you should be aware of).
Response from Dave Bridge as follows.
Ok, I have apologised, you cannot accept.
I have passed this matter over to one of our members today and they been to my house and removed the problem.
I have tried to be diplomatic with you and correct this mistake in a polite manner, my mistake was trying to be diplomatic with an American, oh boy! am I sorry for that, but hey, you do not request or need apologies and you are obviously not decent enough to simply accept one.
I am sure you are not representant of all Americans, I have met some decent ones, but you do seem to fit in nicely with the War mongering label given to your country by the rest of the world.
I am British, from the United Kingdom (see there is a world outside the US) and I will now stand down, but will instigate the following because of your attitude to my diplomacy.
You have now had your say, you have made your threats, now it is my turn.
Firstly, I am not a fool, please do not take me for one. I have made sure that your demands have been met, you will now return the favour, by taking on board the following and acting accordingly.
1) You will remove all references to Draco Alliance from your website, including your forum within one week (that's 7 days). Failure to do so will result in Legal action being taken by my solicitor (that's a Lawyer by the way) against you as your site is your responsibility.
2) All email received from people with reference to your site (regardless of there origin) from 19th February 2003 and including your response, will be filed and then forwarded to my solicitor, for him to deal with at the end of the one week period. You are responsible for the actions of these people, because of the requests you made on your website.
3) As from 00.00GMT on 19th February 2003, all references to Draco Alliance on your website will be copied and filed and then forwarded to my solicitor, for him to deal with at the end of the one week period.
I now suggest that you comply as I did with you. I told you that I did not know a lot about the Internet, today I learnt what a powerful weapon it can be.
Thank you for your reply and I am sorry to have wasted your time (and mine).
Dave Bridge.
I thank God for giving us the Atlantic ... you should do the same.
Chris: "Way to go dad, fight the machine"
Stewie: "How do you know about the machine?"
--
"I object to you. I object to intellect without discipline. I object to power without constructive purpose."
-Spock, 'The Squire of Gothos'
--
"I'm only 56? Damn, I'll have to get a fake ID to rent ultra-porn".
-Professor Farnsworth, "Teenage Mutant Leela's Hurdles"
Whoa! Goddamn tool. Look at this! Bringing up "American war-mongering" and trying to use legal scare tactics to get YOU to rectify the situation on YOUR site too for HIS fuckups. Is this guy for real?
To Absent Friends
Dalton | Admin Smash | Knight of the Order of SDN
"y = mx + bro" - Surlethe
"You try THAT shit again, kid, and I will mod you. I will
mod you so hard, you'll wish I were Dalton." - Lagmonster
Oh, that's brilliant. Obviously, your justified legal threats scared the shit out of him and so now he's trying to scare you back with some bullshit about lawyers he pulled out of his ass. I would simply e-mail him telling him that you know damn well that the website is still active and that if he doesn't comply quickly you'll sue him, or something.
The End of Suburbia
"If more cars are inevitable, must there not be roads for them to run on?"
-Robert Moses
"The Wire" is the best show in the history of television. Watch it today.
Also, a reminder that all Babylon 5 information on all websites, in all publications and other media is sourced originally, from the mind and pen of Joe Michael Straczynski, only he has all rights (copyrights and otherwise) over the Babylon 5 universe.
Somebody's trying to cover their ass...
The End of Suburbia
"If more cars are inevitable, must there not be roads for them to run on?"
-Robert Moses
"The Wire" is the best show in the history of television. Watch it today.
