Forum Moderators: phranque
I write a political blog & was recently involved in getting a political hate site taken down by its webhost for TOS violations.
One of the supporters or perhaps owners of that site has used Blogger.com to create a site which uses my own name in the URL. That person stole a copyrighted image of me (& my young son) & posted it at the site. Some text at the site speaks in the first person purporting to be me. The stuff is vile in a sophomoric sort of way.
I've filed a DMCA notice w. Blogger & they've removed the copyrighted image but refused to take down the site claiming this is an issue bet. me and the blogger.
An intellectual property lawyer says I would have grounds to sue the blogger if people visiting the blog might actually think I wrote it. But that such legal action would be costly.
I am thinking of beginning a blog campaign to try to embarrass Blogger into either taking down the site or at least embarrassing them for supporting such idiocy.
I'm interested in hearing any other suggestions people might have.
The Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act, enacted by Congress in October 1998 (and codified, in part, at 18 U.S.C. §1028) makes identity theft a federal crime.Under federal criminal law, identity theft takes place when someone “knowingly transfers, possesses or uses, without lawful authority, a means of identification of another person with the intent to commit, or to aid or abet, or in connection with, any unlawful activity that constitutes a violation of federal law, or that constitutes a felony under any applicable stat or local law.”
Under this definition,a name or Social Security number is considered a “means of identification.” So is a credit card number, cellular telephone electronic serial number, or any other piece of information that may be used alone or in conjunction with other information to identify a specific individual.
All you need is the unlawful activity. I'd be talking to a regular lawyer . ;)
