Sunday, June 15, 2008

George P. Riddick, III we accuse you of trademark violation.


George P. Riddick, III is a man with a mission. A man with a singular and almost fanatical crusade to seek out and destroy those he claims to have violated his copyright and therefore should be burnt in hell (or pay out substantial amounts of cash, whichever the courts decide first, I guess)!

What George P. Riddick, III is possibly unaware of however, is that his collection of bitmap clip art is vastly out-dated crap that no one in their right mind apart from the odd backwater church community or primary school would ever nowadays use. Although he still viciously pursues and targets those as well.

On the other hand, maybe he does realise this and has devilishly discovered that the only way to generate vast amounts of income, is to sue people. For example, say your clip-art was selling for $20 a piece, but you could in fact gain 150 times the value by threatening to sue them for infringement, wow. I would say at least George is a good businessman, maybe he should have been a stock broker instead because he certainly isn't that great at drawing.

With the immense and truly wonderful power of the Internet, search engines as powered by Google and Microsoft collect and index information that makes it easier for everyone to find images. Mr Riddick is ferociously against this as he believes they infringe his copyright by holding his images on their servers, and therefore people can search and use them freely.

(Read his comment to an article here)

Well, I guess of course this would be correct if the images you are so fiercely protecting do not have a visual watermark -as nearly all commercially distributed photos and drawings sensibly have! If not (in the case of Imageline, Inc.), how on earth, with the multitude of clip-art out there, much of it free, do you know who owns it? Could Mr Riddick be blamed of negligence in protecting his work online? Could he also be accused of entrapment? Think about it. I take a photo, then copyright it and throw it out somewhere on the Internet without a watermark, wait for it to turn up on Google then sue them and anyone who downloads it for infringement. What a great way to make vast amounts of money!

Oddly enough, Microsoft, (one of his despised and most targeted companies in his corporate hate campaign) belongs to the Copyright Alliance Organization, of which George is also a proud executive member. However, he hypocritically refers to this organization when dishing out one of his so-called 'official' emails which are full of patronising rhetoric written in an offensively threatening manner.

The ironic (and highly amusing) twist to all this is that the bitter and resentful George P. Riddick, III need look no further for international infringement than within his own collection of shoddy and archaic bitmaps. I noticed one example of the United Nations flag here:

IMAGELINE, INC. TRADEMARK INFRINGEMENT #1

Now, even though such flags are ineligible for copyright they are still protected by 'Article 6' of the Paris Convention (Protection of State Emblems, and Names, Abbreviations and Emblems of International Intergovernmental Organizations).

I wonder if Mr Riddick therefore realizes that depicted images (including but not limited to photographs and two dimensional drawings) representing partly or in whole of the UN emblem, name and flag are STRICTLY PROHIBITED FOR DISTRIBUTED COMMERCIAL USE without going through proper channels of procedure and obtaining permission.

Mr Riddick claims to have never been accused of any violations within the last 25 years, well I have news, now you have. Yes George P. Riddick, III, you too are seriously infringing the industrial property rights of an international organization, how does it feel?

So Mr Riddick, before you continue your tiresome, pointless and self-indulging evangelistic preaching, maybe you should look nearer home, hold yourself accountable and add Imageline, Inc. to that All Company Listing you so condescendingly produce. And how about sending the United Nations a grovelling apology and one of those huge out-of-court settlement fees that you so parasitically claim from everyone else.

And remember, an ignorant plea is never a defence in a court of law.