My website has been hacked and my music stolen [Archive]

Philzy

10-03-2008, 03:07 PM

Hey Guys

I have to tell you at the moment I'm really pissed off! I have recently found out that my ftp account has been hacked into and my site design and music have been stolen by someone in China I believe.

Basically this guy has taken my exact website with all my content (music videos pics etc) and changed certain details to make it look like this clown has done the music.

the websites domain is www.epicagemedia.cn and he claims his name was michael carlman. it was really freaky going onto this site and seeing my site but with a different name. my site is www.cphproductions.co.uk does this look familiar??? I have had to take my music off the site but I have left the vids because on pretty much all of them it says at the end music by Chris Haigh and them my website.

I'm just so pissed off that someone wants to take the credit for my work. but I suppose that is the music business!!

So I would just like to ask you guys if they see or hear anything that looks like my site or you hear epicagemedia or michael carlman please let me know.

Anyway thanks for listening to me ramble on

And I hope this doesnt happen to any of you guys because I kinda feel like I've been raped

Thanks
Chris Haigh
www.cphproductions.co.uk

p.s the only contact info I got was an administrators e-mail and the webmaster e-mail which are laresoner@hotmail.com and webmaster@epicagemedia.cn so if anyone feels the urge to e-mail this bastard and give him crap be my guest

Andrew Sigler

10-03-2008, 03:23 PM

Wow....what a nightmare. How did you come across the stolen version of your site?

drbassie

10-03-2008, 03:31 PM

My jazz trio had something similar happen to us. When you opened their webpage, our music played. They basically used our music to sell as their own. They used another group's (that we're friends with) website, used their press pack and had our music sold. We had lawyers involved. Fortunately for us, the violators were in California, not China.

Gunnar

10-03-2008, 04:03 PM

Hello Chris,

Looks light a nightmare...

Here is some information which might help you: As you can check at

http://whois.domaintools.com/epicagemedia.cn

the server, which hosts "Epicagemedia.cn", has got the IP address 209.190.24.6 and is located in Lancaster/Ohio/USA. It is registered by a service provider entitled "Columbus Network Access Point, Inc.", which is located in Columbus/Ohio/USA.

I suggest that you either contact the Abuse Desk for the server using the address, which you can find at

http://whois.domaintools.com/209.190.24.6

or that you contact "Columbus Network Access Point, Inc." using the address, which you can find on their website at

http://www.thenap.com

Phone them and let them know that one of their customers is infringing copyright law and that you are going to press charges, if they don't remove your content from their server immediately. Make clear that you are very, very serious and that your lawyer will get into touch with them, if they don't react.

Good luck and best regards,
Gunnar.

PS.: Please don't misunderstand the information above. "Columbus Network Access Point, Inc." is just the service provider. The "bad guy" seems to be one of their customers. If "Columbus Network Access Point, Inc." is a serious company (which I do not doubt), they will take your call serious and will not hesitate to remove the content from their server.

shnurgle

10-03-2008, 04:10 PM

Take this to a lawyer, email the webmaster at the stolen site and let them know that your work and site is copyrighted and if they don't remove the site immediately you will take legal action. Enjoy the lawsuit; you'll be worth millions.

Philzy

10-03-2008, 04:37 PM

Thanks guys for all the great help and support. through a very good and I must say genius friend I think I may have found this Bastard out.
As I cant go blaming this guy straight away I've kindly asked him if he knows who is responsible to take down the site immediately my lawyer will be in contact.

I will keep you all posted

Thanks

Enrique

10-03-2008, 06:52 PM

Wow, that's awful! How did you find the copycat site?

You said you found you were hacked, I am curious to see what steps you used to track this guy down in case it happens to anyone else. What a horrible thing to have happened for any artist making a living of their art....

I hope everything works out, and that these guys get more than a slap on the wrist.

MPDmike

10-03-2008, 07:22 PM

It appears that China has an organisation that deals with copyright and intellectual property disputes, and so it would probably be a good idea to lodge a claim with them:

http://english.ipr.gov.cn/en/index.shtml

I'm not sure how competent they are at investigating problems like this, but China must be under pressure to deal with this growing problem, as it will eventually become a serious handicap for their trade relations.

If they catch these people who have stolen your website they could even be executed.

tango9jeff

10-03-2008, 07:53 PM

wow insane man!!

that bastard needs to go down HARD! Goodluck in taking his ass down!

MPDmike

10-03-2008, 08:03 PM

Chris, I'm not sure if this get a reaction, but I have just written to the Chinese organisation responsible for intellectual property protection.

To: State Office of Intellectual Property Protection of the P.R.C

Dear Sir/Madam,

I wish to report a case of theft of intellectual property, which appears to have occurred in China. The details are that a website has been set up at this address:

http://www.epicagemedia.cn

A person calling himself Michael Carlman, of Epic Age Media, is claiming the copyright for the contents of the website at the above Internet address.

The contents of this website has been stolen from another website based in the United Kingdom, and the copyright is the property of Chris Haigh, who owns the original material that was on his website at:

http://www.cphproductions.co.uk

Chris Haigh can be contacted at his e-mail address:

chrishaigh@cphproductions.co.uk

This is a very serious matter that affects the relations between our two countries, and I expect that the State Office of Intellectual Property Protection will investigate the crime that has taken place and will punish the person or persons responsible for this theft of intellectual property.

This matter has been reported on a forum in the USA and many people will be watching to see how you deal with this crime.

http://www.soundsonline-forums.com/showthread.php?t=16194

Yours sincerely,
Michael Smith

Jeff Hayat

10-03-2008, 08:16 PM

Michael - that's a good letter - did you get Chris' permission to do this first?

Chris - sorry to hear this. Two things:

1) as previously asked, how did you come across this site?

2) To take proper action, you may need to prove that this person is not just screwing with you, but actually has intent to harm you, by claiming to be you and using your music as a basis for services he wil provide. I am not sure that simply having a website that advertises these services is enough to prove intent. On the surface it may seem that way, but legally, you may need more. Someone needs to email this guy and claim to be a filmmaker/whetever, and needs to inquire about the servuces offered on ths site, including rates and so on. If you can't do this - even if you get another email address, he will most likely know it's you because of you ip addy, I will be happy to do it for you. You can PM me if you'd like.

Cheers.

MPDmike

10-03-2008, 08:47 PM

Michael - that's a good letter - did you get Chris' permission to do this first?No, I haven't spoken to Chris about this. It seems a pretty straightforward violation of copyright, as the Chinese website is claiming copyright for Chris's music using a different name - and it is easy to hear that the music is identical by playing tracks on the two sites. Copyright violation is a crime in China I believe, and I think we all have a duty to report such abuses to the appropriate authorities.

Why someone would do this is not clear. Is it likely this is some sort of prank and not intended to harm Chris? I think the changing of the website (company) name, contact details and the supposed composer indicates that somebody is attempting to pass Chris's work off as their own, and possibly that does mean the culprit is trying to gain work in the film industry, or whatever.

In any case, if I took some music from another guy's website, or some soundtrack from a recent movie, and I put it up on my website with my name in the credits - that doesn't seem OK to me, and I would expect the copyright owners to come after me.

Enrique

10-03-2008, 08:49 PM

From Gunnar's post it seems to have come from Ohio, not China, though I don't know if this kind of thing could be hidden through a proxy server and made to look like it's coming from Ohio.

Hello Chris,

Looks light a nightmare...

Here is some information which might help you: As you can check at

http://whois.domaintools.com/epicagemedia.cn

the server, which hosts "Epicagemedia.cn", has got the IP address 209.190.24.6 and is located in Lancaster/Ohio/USA. It is registered by a service provider entitled "Columbus Network Access Point, Inc.", which is located in Columbus/Ohio/USA.

I suggest that you either contact the Abuse Desk for the server using the address, which you can find at

http://whois.domaintools.com/209.190.24.6

or that you contact "Columbus Network Access Point, Inc." using the address, which you can find on their website at

http://www.thenap.com

Phone them and let them know that one of their customers is infringing copyright law and that you are going to press charges, if they don't remove your content from their server immediately. Make clear that you are very, very serious and that your lawyer will get into touch with them, if they don't react.

Good luck and best regards,
Gunnar.

PS.: Please don't misunderstand the information above. "Columbus Network Access Point, Inc." is just the service provider. The "bad guy" seems to be one of their customers. If "Columbus Network Access Point, Inc." is a serious company (which I do not doubt), they will take your call serious and will not hesitate to remove the content from their server.

Philzy

10-04-2008, 05:35 AM

Thanks again guys for all the great support I have gotten from you all, I'm woking to get this site removed and I believe I have found this guy on myspace. I have contacted him and I'm waiting for a reply. This is somemore info my friend found out, this may intrest you guys.

A little more information about this guy,

Unfortunately this guy doesn't share his name much.

He's part of a group that pirate soundtrack/trailer music. They make custom compilations and sells them for profit.
He is the administrator of this place: http://s2.excoboard.com/exco/forum.php?forumid=160823

His youtube profile suggests he is a musician status, http://www.youtube.com/user/laresoner, though we can't be sure if his primary job is to take credits for other people's music or not.

Other contacts QQ (I think this is ICQ): 350849413
email: lareson@sohu.com

This guy is all about the People's Republic of China, so that answers where this guy is located. Beijing to be exact.

There is a name (chinese) associated with the registrant of the domain epicagemedia.cn, but I'm not sure how that will help.

Facebook:
http://www.new.facebook.com/people/L...iu%2Blaresoner

I'm not sure how valid that "San Francisco, CA" in his FB profile is...

I would love to tell you guys how I found out about this ass but I'm worried that if I post it on this forum and I'm assuming he will soon know about this thread, that if he puts the site up again but under a different domain I wont be able to catch him again using the same method. I know this is no good to you guys but I'm really paranoid now of what info I give out.

I'm happy if any of you guys want to know you van PM me and I will tell you and then you guys tell ppl you can trust. as i dont want this clown to find out how I tracked him in the first place. the rest was google, when I knew the user name he used for his webhost. the laresoner@hotmail well it turns out laresoner is a pretty unique username. I have to give a very special thanks to my friend Paul for the great help he has been in tracking this guy.

Thanks again guys
Chris Haigh

MPDmike

10-04-2008, 08:37 AM

I'm not sure if this is the same guy on MySpace, but it look like it is him with his photo:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=348944689

http://www.myspace.com/laresoner

He seems to be calling himself "Mac", as on YouTube, but on YouTube he gives his location as Beijing and on MySpace as the USA. He could have moved, or he could be giving false information?

I have sent messages to Laresoner on Facebook, MySpace and YouTube, and let's see what he has to say for himself

Philzy

10-04-2008, 08:51 AM

Hey Mike well this is the guy I have contacted and am 99.5% ITS HIM, but I didnt want to feed him to the wolves until I had heard from him.
But I guess you may have

Chris

peter5992

10-04-2008, 09:50 AM

Hi Chris:

Sorry to read about this - let me know if you need a lawyer referral in Beijng, I used to work at an international law firm with offices all over the world, including Beiing. I don't what the status is when it comes to intellectual property protection - China traditionally has a horrible reputation where copyright infringement is rampant - but the autorities are trying to cleaning up their business laws, including IP protection. If you really want to put some teeth behind cease and decist letters you'll do good to hire a lawyer rather than rely on authorities (but maybe that is my own professional bias). Be careful that you are clear on hourly fees and expenses upfront - they are probably not cheap.

Take care,

Peter

Andrew Sigler

10-04-2008, 09:52 AM

Hey Mike well this is the guy I have contacted and am 99.5% ITS HIM, but I didnt want to feed him to the wolves until I had heard from him.
But I guess you may have

Chris

Are you kidding?!?!? If it's NOT him, then he'll be fine.

You should waste no time waiting for his response. You can send him an informal 'cease and desist' if you like, but regardless of when and if he stops what he's done is criminal and needs to be dealt with by the authorities.

I'll put it this way, this guy is (effectively) stealing ALL OUR MUSIC so it's our responsibility (EVERYONE READING THIS THREAD WHO MAKES A LIVING AT IT) to be proactive when we see or hear of a crime. If this guy stole your laptop and you found him in a cafe' using it, would you just ask him for it back or would you take it AND get the cops involved? Without the authorities, what keeps him from stealing someone elses site? If his experience is "I can steal someones music and they'll send me a nasty email" then he'll happily do it again and again.

-Andy

MPDmike

10-04-2008, 10:34 AM

Chris, I have to agree with Andy. I don't think you can pussy foot with this guy. Whether he is ignorant of the Law or deliberately stealing your stuff, it is still wrong what he is doing.

I'm not sure you should go down the route of paying lawyers yet, but to ridicule him in public may well be enough to make him stop. Running a website and putting up YouTube and MySpace pages means he is trying to win friends and influence people, and to attack him openly will make his plans fall apart and damage his reputation. After all no customer will want to hire somebody who could be selling them somebody else's music.

Andrew Sigler

10-04-2008, 10:53 AM

Philzy

10-04-2008, 11:15 AM

Yeah I know, look on his comments on his profile. I left him a comment thanking him for the kind words anout my music. He requested me about 3 months ago saying how much he loved my music and that he is doing a forum about soundtrack composers and he wants to do a thread about me, which I think he did but has taken off since. I didnt have time to go see this forum or sign up and I forgot about it. It wasnt until my friend paul sent me the link to the forum he had set up that I put 2 and 2 together and realised it was him.
This guy was super nice. I just thought he was some film music fan that liked that sort of music.
That is the only reason I know who he is. thats why its so messed up. I really dont know what he is hoping to get out of it??

I posted on this forum because I dont want this guy to get away with it and I'm kinda hoping everyone bombards this dick with e-mails and he may think twice about doing it to anyone else. This punishment may not be sufficient but at the moment I'm not sure what else to do. I want to bring this clown to the attention of as many people as I can.

Everyone has been great. as the ourhost.com.cn (which is the webhost I believe he is using) was all in chinese I asked my friend to e-mail the company and tell them about this matter and to remove the site immediatly, which he did but havent heard anything since. I'm not sure whether they will care as long as this prick is paying ontime.

Chris

MPDmike

10-04-2008, 11:19 AM

He must have some sort of agenda in using your material Chris. It doesn't make sense if he has no similar compositional skills to your own to pass this stuff off as his portfolio. He would get found out in the end. But yes, he must be made to suffer some backlash, and perhaps he will stop.

I just noticed another co-incidence. If you check Mac's list of photos he has one titled "My CD". When you check out the photo of the CD cover it turns out to be called Pathogen with the note: 'All music composed by Thomas J. Bergersen and Nick Phoenix'. Our very own Nick Phoenix!

Denny S.

10-04-2008, 12:36 PM

Hey Chris, sorry to hear that. I can imagine that this must be insane.

Getting him known to the people here might be a good thing for the people who read this topic, if that's going to stop him is rather questionable though. As Andy said already, as long as nobody isn't going to take legal action he'll just read the mails, get to bed and back to the routine he gotten into. It's probably not the first time that he gets hatemails so he should be able to deal with that pretty good. It's like making an angry phone call into a call center, it's pretty unlikely that the person you spoke with will quit his job. Just think what King Leonidas would have done... Okay that's a bit far fetched but however, kick him in the face.

Liam

10-04-2008, 01:15 PM

Ok, now he is also stealing trailer music credit from Nick Phoenix as well. Look at his pics HERE (http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewAlbums&friendID=348944689). He has a "CD Cover pic" that he calls "his" which is Two Steps From Hell - Pathogen. That is Nick's trailer music. I have emailed them at TSFH and sent a private message to Nick as well.

This may very well help in bring him down. I hope so. We're all behind you on this!

EDIT: Looking further at his myspace, it shows him as being a big fan of trailer music and even has Nick listed as a music hero of his, but I'm still not sure if that is just a front or not. He also has pics of a bunch of trailer music cds, but as far as I know TSFH has never released a CD, it even says that on their website.....so again, looks bad.

A.Leung

10-04-2008, 02:23 PM

I'm not sure how competent they are at investigating problems like this,

Not very. If you have the time and money you can put up a battle. Remote Controls been after people overseas for YEARS and years. I've seen tons of movies come out of China with dozens of HAns Zimmer scores (and others) ALL over those films. It is really hard to fight people over seas...

Andrew Sigler

10-04-2008, 02:49 PM

I've seen tons of movies come out of China with dozens of HAns Zimmer scores (and others) ALL over those films. It is really hard to fight people over seas...

One way is to only put portions of your demos up instead of the whole thing. It's on my agenda...

A.Leung

10-04-2008, 02:55 PM

Or the horrendous water mark/sound mark.. ugh.

peter5992

10-04-2008, 06:55 PM

(...) I left him a comment thanking him for the kind words anout my music. He requested me about 3 months ago saying how much he loved my music and that he is doing a forum about soundtrack composers and he wants to do a thread about me, which I think he did but has taken off since.
(...)
This guy was super nice. I just thought he was some film music fan that liked that sort of music.

Chris

Well, oftentimes that is how crooks and criminals operate - they suck up to you first (pardon my French), and then in an unguarded moment, they plunge the knife in your back.

I've had this happen to me more than once, and all I can say, be really careful 'cause there many crooks out there ..

Don't let him get away with this -- it may be a long and tough fight, and protecting IP rights overseas and especially in emerging markets like China may be tough, but don't give up too fast.

Jeff Hayat

10-04-2008, 09:18 PM

[QUOTE=MPDmike;146339]

I'm not sure how competent they are at investigating problems like this, [QUOTE]

Not very. If you have the time and money you can put up a battle. Remote Controls been after people overseas for YEARS and years. I've seen tons of movies come out of China with dozens of HAns Zimmer scores (and others) ALL over those films. It is really hard to fight people over seas...

That's because governments overseas - specifically China - are non compliant when it comes to coyright infringement. If you live in China, you almosthave the blessing of the gov. So, why not?

Philzy

10-05-2008, 06:48 AM

Well this all sounds good news. I havent had any reply from any messages sent so that is also a good sign.
What I have done is changed all my xml scripts so he is there is no longer any videos or music playing on the epicagemedia site it is a basic shell of a website. so the guy that created my site has basically been ripped off.

I'll wait to see if anything develops

Chris

Jim Curits

10-05-2008, 07:48 AM

Hi Chris,

I am currently doing a full overhaul of my site in time for the new-year and have thought about using Code / Encryption Tools etc.

After hearing your story I will definitely be using them.

Hope you get it sorted out...(Use it as a learning curve mate and turn this negative into a positive. ;)

james hansson

10-05-2008, 07:49 AM

wow insane man!!

that bastard needs to go down HARD! Goodluck in taking his ass down!

very sorry for you chris !

BigMike

10-05-2008, 07:49 AM

The best way to fight this is to hire a lawyer in Beijing on consignment and have them recover the money (and shut them up). It doesn't work if it's a fight from across the pond--take it local.

Keithho

10-05-2008, 12:40 PM

Keithho

10-05-2008, 12:46 PM

The best way to fight this is to hire a lawyer in Beijing on consignment and have them recover the money (and shut them up). It doesn't work if it's a fight from across the pond--take it local.
eh...
the best way to fight it is to hack* back to his website, and tell everyone that he is a fake one.

*I dont suggest any hacking... :D just a imaginary revenge..

JeZii

10-05-2008, 01:40 PM

Wow, can't believe that kind of stuff really happens!

If you have any problems in proving that it's actually your work, I found out at least one way to do it:

Go to that "epic age" page, and to videos. At least the Nissan ad had your name on it in the end, it did make the thief look quite damn ridiculous... :D Description shows that the author is Michael Carlman, but the video shows it is Chris Haigh.

Good luck in taking that thief down, I hope it all gets alright!

Kaatza_Music

10-05-2008, 09:34 PM

When I do a search of my name on say Google, I find many sites selling MP3 downloads of my music, ringtones and such. Totally illegal. At this point in my career, I am not going to spend a lot of time chasing these guys down. My name is not going to make them a lot of money. However if that changes and I become someone making a serious living at music, I will sue their asses off. Unfortunately though, if they are in China or Russia, it is probably more expensive to go after them than it is worth. Just my 2 cents. Good luck! I know you'd probably like to cut the guy's balls off.

Liam

10-05-2008, 09:55 PM

When I do a search of my name on say Google, I find many sites selling MP3 downloads of my music, ringtones and such. Totally illegal.

I think that can be a problem for all of us here if we keep posting our latest music for all to download. I temporarily have been using my Myspace with Soundclick player set on streaming only until my new site is up.

On top of people trying to sell the music, think of how many indy/student film makers probably come to this forum and others like it, grab a bunch of music, and throw it in their film and we never know it.

Now I'm thinking I may keep all my pieces I post for a listen as streaming only. (will help a little anyway I hope)

Kaatza_Music

10-05-2008, 09:59 PM

I think that can be a problem for all of us here if we keep posting our latest music for all to download. I temporarily have been using my Myspace with Soundclick player set on streaming only until my new site is up.

On top of people trying to sell the music, think of how many indy/student film makers probably come to this forum and others like it, grab a bunch of music, and throw it in their film and we never know it.

Now I'm thinking I may keep all my pieces I post for a listen as streaming only. (will help a little anyway I hope)

Hi, Liam. That doesn't seem to do the trick. I have posted my music streaming only and it still gets stolen. I think it comes down to either posting only 30 second clips or watermark it. I know that there is encryption that some of the music download site use where once you cease to be a member you can no longer play the music you've downloaded, but that is probably too sophisticated and expensive for the average musician.

The internet has given us incredible opportunities for networking and marketing but it has also made it very difficult to protect intellectual property. Think of what Doug and other developers have invested in their products and how they have to constantly fight piracy.

Liam

10-05-2008, 11:20 PM

The internet has given us incredible opportunities for networking and marketing but it has also made it very difficult to protect intellectual property. Think of what Doug and other developers have invested in their products and how they have to constantly fight piracy.

That is a very good point. It has pretty much become a trade off. We as composers/musicians can be heard more than ever before, but the price we pay is being pirated more than ever before. I suppose the key is to try to make the latter the lesser of the two, as difficult as it may be.

fongi

10-06-2008, 11:42 AM

I´m sorry for you. Chris

cain777

10-06-2008, 11:50 AM

Hey Chris,
Man, thats harsh. I hope everything turns out well with this situation. I wish I could offer my help with the situation, but unfortunately I am not very saavy on the business end and wouldnt know what to tell you. But luckily for both of us, we have great people on this forum who are :) I sure hope this guy goes down hard, real hard. This is pretty ridiculous.

Is there any way you can PM me and tell me how you found him. Im still encoding my site and I would love any advice on this stuff. I dont know what I would do if someone did the same to me.

once again, I hope this settles out for you.'

-cain

Philzy

10-07-2008, 06:34 AM

Hey Guys
I cant thank you all enough for the great support you have given me in this situation. But I know this stuff affects us all and it's a situation that we hold close to our hearts.
I feel wronged by this but at the moment I really dont know what to do about it, as you guys have pointed out China's copyright laws are so much slacker than the rest of the worlds, would it be worth hiring a lawyer at like £100 an hour to get the site removed and this guy may get a slap on the wrist?? (maybe I should)
anyway the site has been taken down now and I and myself have had messages from the guy responsible.

here is the message he sent me

RE: Mac
Body:
Chris I am so sorry to broke your copyrights.

I am so foolish and so sorry.

I was a big fans of film music fans,trailer music fans, I know you are great composer, I love your a/v works.

I am in holiday, so sorry reply you so later.

please forgive me. the trailer music is not pay music. they just for the production, I want to pay for CD, but no way.

but not reason make me to do the bad thing as this,

I am so sorry I was a friend of yours before.

I will forget all trailer music becase I am not a real fans.

:( I am so sorry, Chris.

a foolish man, Mac

ToGi

10-07-2008, 01:42 PM

Hi Chris
I hope you sort this guy out because it's a little too late for apologies! This really hits a nerve with me and it makes my blood boil :mad: when untalented people take the credit from others. Can i ask how did he manage to get into your ftp account to steal your website? Are you with any Union, as here in the UK we have the 'Musicians Union' who have dedicated people for 'Copyright Infringement' etc.. I really feel for you, I recently had some of my music used in a student film that i was unaware of, and like you I only found out through a friend. On my website I now have much shorter samples and the 'water mark' sound on all tracks. I really don't like to do this, but because of what's happened I now feel I have no choice. Maybe we all should protect our music more than we have been. I hope this guy gets what he deserves.
ToGi

Philzy

10-17-2008, 10:15 AM

Hey Guys thought I would keep you updated on this arse that ripped my site.
He has taken the copied site down and e-mailed me apologising for everything. Not good enough but at the end of the day I know this kind of thing is riffe in China.
Anyway I feel we all need to keep an eye on this guy as I know he has got a new site under the same domain and although I know non of the music in this is mine it could be something that you guys recognise, so please check it out. www.epicagemedia.cn
He hasnt put any demos up yet but there is a intro video with music that I dont believe is his.

Lets keep hounding this guy

Chris

Nanto Warrior

10-17-2008, 11:17 AM

This guy is a CLOWN! Does he REALLY think he's going to get anywhere by pretending to be these people! I find it hillarious! He's clearly not doing this to get work as a music composer the way he's going, so I think he may be experimenting with websites/bragging to friends/finishing some 'internet coursework' for exams/trying to somehow make a profit off the notion that Western composers get paid a lot of money. (which isnt the case)

Whatever he's upto its pretty ridiculous-to the point where I would not consider him a threat......its irritating having your website ripped off, but nobody who openly steals music from another composer is going to get work.

Incredibly strange.....maybe he was your biggest fan. Maybe he was smoking some seriously good stuff.

Warrior.

Lostin Space

10-17-2008, 11:42 AM

Hi

Sorry to hear about your website and your music, man.

Use this software - you get a looong way with it: Encrypt HTML Pro from Mtopsoft.
I love it.

You keep 9 out of 10 idiots away from stealing anything, and the 10th you cant stop anyway - he`s to clever.
Make sure you always publish samples of your music (about 10-20 seconds), and sound-watermark them if you really have to. Watermarks are not beautiful to listen to, but more beautiful than loosing everything you`ve worked for. The 10th idiot wont steal anything watermarked, and still: your clients may actually like that you watermark your music (on your website, that is).

MY MOMENT OF ZEN: A client told me: "I know you are a serious guy - you always watermark your music".

Your situation made me sad and angry. Hope something good comes out of this - somehow something tells me it will.

Regards

peter5992

10-17-2008, 06:53 PM

Well, I am happy to see that the issue is resolved for you Chris - that saves you serious $$ from having to take recourse formal legal action.

Yes, piracy is still rampant in China - as are other, more serious forms of cyber vandalism (hacking sites, spam, etc). It is a country much in development it seems - on the one hand, they have one of the fastest growing economies on the planet and the government very much promotes that - on the other hand, their views on human rights and free speech are what I consider Middle Ages (think of Tibet, freedom of speech in general, and did you know that they have over 30,000 people alone working in the official censorship bureau which sifts through, and blocks, websites?). It's fascinating -- I really hope they clean up their act and fully embrace western values, not just on the economic side.

nikolas

10-17-2008, 10:22 PM

Yes, piracy is still rampant in China - as are other, more serious forms of cyber vandalism (hacking sites, spam, etc).
Not only in China, I'm afraid! :(

Do you have any idea what happens to the faces of the people I show my studio? They go: "WOW! You BOUGHT all this?!?!? Don't you use cracked software.".

After I explain that I make more money than what I spend, and that I would be, at least, embarassed to be doing cracked software and samples when I "know" people like Doug, Nick, etc... they go "Oh... yeah... makes sense for you BUT for me...". Not to mention the very recent MSN chat I had with someone "Hey! Omni is FINALLY out!", me going "But it's been out for a while, no?", "No, I mean cracked! Don't you know anything?".

:(

DarkIVI

10-18-2008, 12:37 AM

I've been reading through this whole thread and man....this is something where I don't have words for :(
I'm really sorry for you Chris and I hope you don't loose confidence and stop posting your music and all.

Makes you wonder though. How many people are copied without knowing. I mean, you are lucky more or less for finding out.
I have all my stuff registred at PRS but even that isn't assurance for shit like this to happen.

I wish you all the luck in the World.

Sincerly yours,

Niels

Ranietz

10-18-2008, 04:01 AM

Anyway I feel we all need to keep an eye on this guy as I know he has got a new site under the same domain and although I know non of the music in this is mine it could be something that you guys recognise, so please check it out. www.epicagemedia.cn
He hasnt put any demos up yet but there is a intro video with music that I dont believe is his.

Lets keep hounding this guy

Chris

The music in the intro movie is from Armageddon by Trevor Rabin.

Ranietz

10-18-2008, 04:05 AM

Lostin Space

10-18-2008, 08:23 AM

I get the same reactions. People (computer geeks who aren't making music) always laugh and asks why do I pay for my software when I can download a cracked version for free.

Yes, me too.

I hate the growing tendency to download cracked versions of any kind. It eats up the very fundation we all depent on; a market for art, and people willing to pay for art (in any form).

Actually; parents in their 30ies-60ies has laid a bad moral example for their kids these days. I see nice people in all ages now running around with stolen music and software in their pockets.

And the software-business often has a huge doublemoral going on, selling mp3-players (even though there are legal uses) to people well aware that the mp3-files kids put on`em probably arent legal. I am not against mp3-players of course, just saying everything isnt black & white in that business.

Fishy.

peter5992

10-18-2008, 07:02 PM

Not only in China, I'm afraid! :(

Do you have any idea what happens to the faces of the people I show my studio? They go: "WOW! You BOUGHT all this?!?!? Don't you use cracked software.".

After I explain that I make more money than what I spend, and that I would be, at least, embarassed to be doing cracked software and samples when I "know" people like Doug, Nick, etc... they go "Oh... yeah... makes sense for you BUT for me...". Not to mention the very recent MSN chat I had with someone "Hey! Omni is FINALLY out!", me going "But it's been out for a while, no?", "No, I mean cracked! Don't you know anything?".

:(

Oh, I know what you are talking about Nikolas. Last year, I went to a lunch presentation at the University of San Francisco -- this was an informal key note address by an inhouse counsel at Electronic Arts, responsible for global enforcement of IP rights (and a former graduate of USF). Video games are ripped off all over the world, and Electronic Arts is a prime target. She (= the female inhouse counsel) was responsible for coordinating all attorneys worldwide in fighting this piracy, and she mentioned one example of a guy in Athens, Greece, on whom they had planned a raid in the upcoming days -- explaining the difficulties involved, since this guy had an extremely minimalistic setup -- you would walk into his shop and say what you want, and he would burn the illegal copy in his backoffice right then and there. That is a problem if you want to assemble hard physical evidence to build a case ....

And no, China is not alone, and neither is Greece, and there are plenty of countries around the globe where this is going on and will continue ... it's an ongoing battle. And it is education also.

Philzy

10-19-2008, 02:54 AM

The music in the intro movie is from Armageddon by Trevor Rabin.

Yes it is mate, and I dont think that this clown has done the flash animation either, probably ripped it from some poor guy who worked his ass off to do that animation. I'm waiting to hear what demos and vids he puts on the site.
We all need to keep watching this guy and inform any composer who's music he is using. This is shocking and I feel what hope is there for guys like us trying to make our way when we have so many obsticles like these arseholes constantly trying to bring us down.

Chris

Gary Gibbons

10-20-2008, 07:27 PM

Hey Chris,

I am happy you were able to resolve this issue. Your story really sucks! I bet your blood was boiling!

So I live in Hong Kong and I have seen movie, music, video game and software piracy everywhere. It's a crazy amount but I have heard that it's less than 10 years ago. Several months ago I went to the filmart convention and talked with an anti piracy organization about their mission. I must say it would be a tough job but to me it seems like it would be easy to clean up the vendors. Although they told me that police can close down a store and the same day it can open back up!

I think watermarks are the way to go! It doesn't sound too pretty but atleast it's another type of protection.

Anywho... good luck with your career Chris and let's hope that everyone has better luck with this issue!!!!

Cheers

Philzy

10-21-2008, 08:40 AM

Ok so I think the guy who ripped my site and music off is either taking the piss out of me or is trying to make up for what he did!! (not the best way to do it)

check out this link that he has put on his Pirate trailer music forum :eek:
http://s2.excoboard.com/exco/thread.php?forumid=160823&threadid=1942247&page=1#3584158

the info is basically ripped from my myspace profile!!! how is this guy doing this????

I may actually think this guy is sorry for what he did if he didnt start another site using Music from armageddon and Bill Browns music, this guy is unbelievable!!!

:confused:
Chris

thebluemask

10-26-2008, 08:37 AM

peter5992

10-26-2008, 11:00 AM

Seems this kind of thievery happens all the time. Check out this website I've been made aware of:

http://www.sonicscape.ca/

and mine:

http://www.thebluemask.com

Although it's not an identical site, the cheeky **** has nicked great chunks of my text and content - just take a look at the sections of her website. Verbatim text word-for-word in places.

She hasn't nicked my music but makes me wonder if it's even hers. Has she pinched any of your guys music? Lazy and unprofessional.

Well, I looked at her sight, but it looks completely different from your home page (which is really nice btw)?

It looks like they are doing maintenance, got this address: http://archives.sonicscape.ca/sspbackup/ - could be that she has just taken down her page.

thebluemask

10-26-2008, 11:10 AM

Seems she has indeed just taken it down and replaced it with a backup. Looks like my email I'd just sent to her has made her reconsider - bit easier than poor Chris' situation.

This is the second separate incident of 'copycats' I've had in the space of a few months. Very annoying when it happens.

Sp3ctre18

10-29-2008, 12:15 PM

wow....i wish I could say much more but I've got homework to get done and then I gotta leave for class.

It's shocking such a thing happens... now you're making me woried about putting up my own site, but maybe I just hav to accept the risk. I want to put more of my music out there, but my site won't be anythng special; i'm designing it to be nice, professional, but it's just something done in dreamweaver. I don't really have much money to put out there if I need to buy software for encrpytion or security, and with all the other stuff I have to do, i doub't i'll ever learn enough about coding and website design to do stuff myself.... anything more advanced and more secure than something out of dreamweaver and my basic html and CSS editing, will have to be someone else, and I dunno if i'll be able to pay for that... hopefully i'll have friends that maye could do it but... I dunno.... <.<

Philzy, I'll try to keep watching this topic, I hope you work things out and get this guy. -.- Also, if I remember correctly, didn't you say he also stole some music from Nick Pheonix? Is that true? He hasn't posted in here yet.. so if it's true, have you contacted him? Maybe you'll get extra help and somehow team up with EWQL/soundsonine/whatever against this guy?