Friday, October 22, 2010

Dan "Thieficella" steals from single mom writer!

Mr. "Business Supporter" himself, State Sen. Dan Debicella, apparently thinks it's perfectly acceptable to steal anyone's intellectual property for his own purposes, despite being asked to cease and desist by the copyright owner.

Sarah Darer Littman, a journalist, novelist, and a blogger known as "Saramerica", as well as being a single mom, discovered that video footage she personally shot at a Greenwich DTC meeting was lifted without permission and used in a negative ad by Dan Debicella. Ms. Littman notified the campaign and requested they immediately withdraw the ad from the internet and TV.

After no response from the campaign, Ms. Littman took the step of notifying Youtube that the video in question was undeniably hers and being used without permission. Youtube removed the ad and posted a copyright infringement notice within hours.

However, people are reporting that Cablevision is still running the ad today, a full 24 hours since Sarah notified the campaign to stop using her property. This means that although the campaign is fully aware that they are stealing the property of a private citizen and journalist/writer who makes her living from her intellectual property, they chose to ignore that fact.

How is this "pro-small business", Mr. Thieficella?

From My Left Nutmeg (used with permission, all rights reserved):
So someone sent me a link to a new Dan Debicella ad on You Tube this morning and asked me if I knew that my footage from the Greenwich DTC was in it. I was like "???? WTF ?????"

Watched the offending video. Sure enough, there, lifted directly out of my YouTube footage of Jim Himes' speech from the Greenwich DTC picnic in September, were clips included in Debicella's attack ad.

Had Debicella's campaign contacted me, the owner of this material to ask my permission to use it? No.

They'd just lifted it. STOLEN it, as we say in the intellectual property field.

See, as a writer, I make my living from intellectual property, so I take this stuff VERY seriously. I called Debicella's campaign this morning and asked to speak to his campaign manager. He was "unavailable". Sent a "cease and desist" email, just in case the campaign flack who answered the phone didn't pass on my message.

Never got a phone call back.

But what I did do was report the thieving bastard to You Tube, linking to my original video and showing exactly the place where they'd lifted the footage.
That was yesterday. No response from them at all.

This is from Sarah today:
I've called Cablevision to alert them that Debicella is running an ad using my footage for which he doesn't have permission, and that I've already issued him a cease and desist. I am waiting for a call back from their ad person.

Let me know if you see it running anywhere else.

Since Debicella's team has ignored my email & phone call, I'm consulting a lawyer.
You can't ignore this, Dan! This ain't going to go away! Pull the ads now, and apologize to Ms. Littman for your wrongful and thieving ways!

10 comments:

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Authentic Connecticut Republican said...

Yeah well.....Jepsen's posted a hit piece video using footage he didn't get permission to use either.

I copied it here.

Considering the track record of the Eddie Eagle Program Dean was referring to, it appears Jepsen likes dead children.

CT Bob said...

Hey, if the copyright holder complains to Jepsen's people, they'll likely remove it immediately. Which is how this sort of thing is supposed to work.

What you don't do is ignore a request like that and continue to violate the copyright by running the ad on TV well after you've been notified. Like Thieficella is doing.

Any time a person has notified me they don't want me to use something of theirs, I don't have any problem taking it down immediately. I respect the ownership of intellectual property.

And Youtube has nuked any number of my online videos when they were notified of my use of a song or clip that was owned by someone else. I'm fine with that. Fair use is by nature very limited, and 90% of the law resides on the owner's side. As it should.

Authentic Connecticut Republican said...

He did - they deleted the comment.

CT Bob said...

Wait, are you saying someone complained about a copyright violation in a video comment?!? Seriously?

Jeez, I didn't think it was possible to be so obtuse and still operate a computer. Does he also yell at the sky when it rains?

Authentic Connecticut Republican said...

Hey - I barely know the guy; he's one of my friend's tea party pals.

ccdemuth said...

“…I am proud as hell of what we have accomplished...
…I stand behind what we have done and what we have voted for...
…I stand behind what this president and this congress has been able to do…
…I am proud as hell, not just on the economy…
…I am proud as hell...I’m just proud as hell.” – Jim Himes

Jim Himes voted in favor of the $787 billion dollar stimulus plan. After saddling your family with over ten thousand dollars in additional debt, we still have a ten percent unemployment rate.

Himes voted the healthcare bill into law, a law which is already projected to cost more than was advertised.

Himes voted to increase our national debt by a record $1.9 trillion dollars, bringing our total debt to a new high of $12.4 trillion dollars.

Himes voted with Nancy Pelosi-led Democrats 95% of the time.

After two years of votes that create too few jobs but too big a role for government, most voters in Fairfield County disagree with each of these votes. Two-thirds of these voters think that Washington is on the wrong track. If you want more of the same, then there is an incumbent congressman who is “proud as hell” of our current direction, but if you think that there is a better way, then you should know that Dan Debicella ( http://www.debicella.com ) thinks so too. If you would like to help Dan get across his message of free enterprise and individual liberty, than you can do so here: https://debicella.blue-swarm.com/donate . Please give what you can because Fairfield County deserves better.

CT Bob said...

If Dan's idea of "free enterprise" is stealing a single mom's work, then Fairfield County can do without him.

oldswede said...

Has the candidate manned-up yet or do we start calling him "little debi"?
oldswede

West Haven Bob said...

[This comment was CENSORED]

Because I am an election official; and as such, my free expression of my opinion (wherever did I think I had that right?) must be suppressed.

Sarah (and ACR) must surely approve...as I am clearly an "elitist" and am either "Lame-stream" or "Un-American".

Surely Headless Horseman must agree. Suppression of intelligent discourse is, as now stated, "Real" American. Right, tovarisch?