Supergu .vs Pligg mentioned on plagiarismtoday.com

[Yankidank]

This post can be read in its entirety at PlagiarismToday.com.

According to Eric Heikkinen, the co-founder of Pligg, the code that is in dispute was almost completely the original work of contributors to Pligg and other open source projects, created well before SuperGu’s founder, James Phelps, became involved.

Still, when asked to produce evidence of copyright ownership, Phelps’s attorney responded with a copy of a USCO registration. This has lead some to, mistakenly, claim that SuperGU has “copyrighted” Pligg’s code or worry that SuperGU, if falsely claiming the code, may be able to get away with it.

Fortunately for Pligg, and for content creators everywhere, this is not the case. When one takes a look at the role of the USCO and how it applies to this case, it quickly becomes clear that the registration is almost completely meaningless.
Otherwise, not only would chaos ensue in the world of copyright law, but the United States would be in violation of critical international treaties.

[beatniak]

Thanks for the link yankidank. That article made a lot clear about US copyright.

[chuckroast]

http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2007/...yright-office/


DIGG URL
http://digg.com/business_finance/The...pyright_Office

[dollars5]

But who knows how to stop SuperGu?

I have just sent an contact e-mail to the USCO with the following message:

Hello Sir,

I need information on how to file an opposition to a copyright application that has been filed with your office. The issue is that a company/entity under the name "SuperGu" has filed an copyright application for a work/software that is licensed under AFFERO GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE (http://www.affero.org/oagpl.html) as an Open Source Software named "Pligg" (http://www.pligg.com)

The SuperGu has decided sue Pligg project contributors as a first step have sent a Ceise and Desist notice to them. The details can be found here http://www.pligg.com/5023/

I would personally be interested to file an opposition to their work, so kindly let me know the procedures to stop SuperGu from stealing a prior work and falsifying the details.

If you can look into this issue and prevent SuperGu from copyrighting an OSS project code that would really be kind of you.

Thanks.

Regards

For people really interested in saving Pligg, feel free to send similar message to the USCO at http://www.copyright.gov/help/general-form.html with subject being "SuperGu stealing and copyrighting a prior work of Pligg licensed under AFGL"

Only that should help us. More the messages, more the possibilities that it will get noticed.

[abcdefgary]

wow... too much publicity. too much.

[en3r0]

good find!

[xeno]

Excellent read. I am fascinated by this whole thing. Good stuff. Go PLIGG!