A Thought Experiment

OK, here's the deal: go read what Kyle Bennett did to some thieves, and then imagine had he called "the authorities" to help him out.

Here's what I imagine. Rather than justice having been rendered in total, by now, Kyle is still sitting there with the guys who've got to "file their report" (in order to justify their budget: use it or lose it, y'know?), and they're still stuck on the part where the thieves hotlinked the image feed off Kyle's own site. "Ok, ok, now...lemme go over this again...ok, ok, how'd you say that works, again?"

Comments

[Kyle Bennett]

I can picture that. Then imagine the cost of the lawsuit, and trying to find a lawyer who will take the case, then trying to explain to a judge and maybe a jury what exactly the problem is...

This is a common practice on ebay, both the thefts and this kind of response to it. Usually it's pictures used in auctions, which makes this kind of justice (which often involves gross pornography, not the milder form we chose) better, because the ebay listing cannot be taken down, and remains for weeks or months after the auction ends.

[mojotek]

Yeah, I seriously doubt any form of real justice would have been meeted out had he tried the "call the authorities" route. While this form of 'justice' is quite appropriate, it is not always available. Suppose the theives hadn't hotlinked the picture? The only real option would have been contacting eBay and getting put in some long queue of problems that will never get fixed.

[Kyle Bennett]

mojo,

We contacted ebay as well, but as you say, we're not holding our breath. They do respond to such things, but inconsistently. Still, they do have incentive to address such problems, unlike the "authorities", whose only incentives are to fill the hours of their day, and a little bit of CYA. And it didn't take a team of lawyers to seek redress from ebay.

Of course, in that situation, we may have handled our visit to the theives a little more aggressively. (See the third comment on my blog article for details)

[Matter]

Do you consider it theft because they stole the image, because they were stealing bandwidth, or both?

[Kyle Bennett]

Matter,

Both, but in addition because they were using a marketing device that differentiated us in our town, and using it in a way that implied it was their own (they are a direct, local competitor).