Congressman who wrote SOPA is a copyright violator

Congressman who wrote SOPA is a copyright violator

Someone decided to determine if the stock photo images used on Congressman Lamar Smith (R - TX) were properly licensed or credited, and lo and behold, the author of the SOPA act's official Web site (Texansforlamarsmith.com) is in violation of those stock photo copyrights.

Jamie Lee Curtis Taete of vice.com writes:

I decided to check that everything on Lamar's official campaign website was copyright-cleared and on the level. Lamar is using several stock images on his site, two of which I tracked back to the same photographic agency.

[...]

And whaddya know? Looks like someone forgot to credit [the photographer].

I contacted DJ [the photographer], to find out if Lamar had asked permission to use the image and he told me that he had no record of Lamar, or anyone from his organization, requesting permission to use it: "I switched my images from traditional copyright protection to be protected under the Creative Commons license a few years ago, which simply states that they can use my images as long as they attribute the image to me and do not use it for commercial purposes.

"I do not see anywhere on the screen capture that you have provided that the image was attributed to the source (me). So my conclusion would be that Lamar Smith's organization did improperly use my image. So according to the SOPA bill, should it pass, maybe I could petition the court to take action against www.texansforlamarsmith.com."

Good job Lamar, you couldn't even create a simple campaign Web site without violating a couple photo copyrights, now imagine how difficult it would be for a site of ATS's complexity to try and stay clear of SOPA.

Vice.com has also initiated a hunt for SOPA backers whose Web site's also contain copyright violations;

VICE's "Shop a SOPA" Copyright Hypocrite Hunt

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


Or maybe we should send everyone a more aggressive message if you catch my drift...hang every motha bleep that opposes free speech. Go ahead and pass sopa see if the isps aren't brought to their knee's begging.

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


Nice find, thank you for bringing this up

This is so ironic that I can't help but laugh just a little.

Time to arrest him and throw away the key. I hope he goes to jail for a long time for the laws he is supposedly trying to write.

So is every 'representative' on the take from the MPAA going to introduce some sort of draconian anti-piracy act? Protests effectively killed SOPA and PIPA, and now we get OPEN?