EFF Sues Michael Crook for Bogus DMCA Claims
The EFF has just filed suit against Craigslist copycat scammer Michael Crook for filing bogus DMCA claims. In September, a blog post about Michael Crook on 10 Zen Monkeys (which is run by Jeff Diehl) used a screen shot of Michael Crook from his appearance on the Fox News show “Hannity and Colmes”. Michael then send a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) takedown notice to Jeff’s web host, claiming that he had a copyright on the image. Jeff’s web host then forced him to remove the image or his account would be suspended. Jeff then moved 10zenmonkeys.com to Laughing Squid Web Hosting (the web hosting company that we run). Within 24 hours, our data center was sent a DMCA claim from Michael Crook, requesting that the image be removed. I immediately contacted Jeff to discuss the situation, as well as Jason Schultz, an attorney at The Electronic Frontier Foundation. A few weeks later, EFF filed their lawsuit. Here’s their case page with complaint. Hopefully this case will help set a precedent so others might think twice before sending content providers and web hosts unsubstantiated DMCA claims.
- Boing Boing (Xeni Jardin)
- Valleywag (Nick Douglas)
- Wired’s 27B Stroke 6 (Ryan Singel)
- Thomas Hawk (also on Flickr)
- Reason Magazine (Brian Doherty)
- The Register (Drew Cullen)
- The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY)
- ZDNet (Denise Howell)
UPDATE 1: Holy crap, there is now a Fark Photoshop contest using the Michael Crook image.
UPDATE 2: Michael Crook has now sent a false DMCA claim to Boing Boing.
UPDATE 3: DIIS.net has a mirror of the video of Michael Crook on the Fox News show “Hannity and Colmes”, which is where the image in question came from.
UPDATE 4: Washington, DC attorney Ethan Ackerman provided Boing Boing with some great information on DMCA with regard to ISP’s and web hosts. Wired follows up on it.
UPDATE 5: “Great Moments in the War Against DMCA” (10 Zen Monkeys)
UPDATE 6: Ok, Valleywag is in the club now, Michael Crook sent them a false DMCA notice.
UPDATE 7: Self proclaimed asshole Tucker Max has challenged Michael Crook to a public debate.
UPDATE 8: 10 Zen Monkeys has a follow-up on Michael Crook, which includes photos of him when he was in his High School’s “Internet Club”.
UPDATE 9: Michael Crook now needs to send a virtual DMCA claim to Second Life. That would be perfect, fake DMCA notice for a fake world.
UPDATE 10: Jason Fortuny (aka RFJason), the guy who conducted the Craig’s List experiment that Michael Crook copied, has now weighed in with his opinion after he too was sent a false DMCA claim.
UPDATE 11: Jonathan Bailey writes an An Open Letter to Michael Crook, explaining to him that you do not own the copyright to your image.
UPDATE 12: Tucker Max completely pwnd Micheal Crook at their online debate. After that, I’m not sure what else anyone could even say about this issue.
UPDATE 13: Tech Alley interviews EFF attorney Jason Scultz regarding the case: Intro, Part 1
UPDATE 14: Michael Crook sends Kevin Burton a DMCA notice for a post using an image on his TypePad blog. TypePad owners Six Apart then ask Kevin to remove the image.
UPDATE 15: Jonathan Bailey writes another great post on the subject, this time for 10 Zen Monkeys: “The Crooks of the World Hurt Copyright, Free Speech”
UPDATE 16: “EFF, Bloggers, Everyone, Takes On Web Bully” by Jason Lee Miller (WebProNews)
UPDATE 17: 10 Zen Monkeys is looking for Michael Crook DMCA war stories in order to help in the case against him.
UPDATE 18: Here’s original video featuring Micheal Crook from the Fox News show “Hannity and Colmes”. This is the video where the screenshot was taken resulting in the image that is at the heart of this controversy.
UPDATE 19: PlagiarismToday conducts a Q&A With Michael Crook so he can tell his side of the story. At least he was honest about the part where he hung up on me after I had asked him to stop sending us false DMCA claims.
UPDATE 20: Michael Crook has been retracting all of his false DMCA claims as part of a pending settlement with Jeff Diehl and EFF.
UPDATE 21: The long saga is over, EFF/Jeff Diehl and Micheal Crook have reached a settlement and as part of the settlement, Michael Crook issued an apology video.
filed under: Laughing Squid, Video
32 comments on “EFF Sues Michael Crook for Bogus DMCA Claims”
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on Wednesday, November 1st, 2006 at 5:16 pm
Fuck yeah! Good job!
on Wednesday, November 1st, 2006 at 6:14 pm
The EFF suit can be a great thing because it can lead to more clarity (and more education of the public and ISPs) about what it takes for any random guy to force an ISP to shut down an account.
But as for the weblog coverage, I’m afraid you guys are giving this dirtbag precisely what he’s looking for. He’s clearly trying to piss off as many people as possible, apparently to get as many eyeballs to his offensive domains as possible, to sell them off…
Sean
on Wednesday, November 1st, 2006 at 9:51 pm
HA! I hope Michael Crook pays big-time for his sick triclery, lack of ethics, and most of all for filing a bogus DMCA claim. Rot in Hell, Michael, rot in hell!
on Wednesday, November 1st, 2006 at 10:21 pm
Very cool. Thanks for taking the extra time needed to do the right thing for online content.
on Wednesday, November 1st, 2006 at 11:46 pm
You guys are great. He is now calling you terrorist’s. I think you can add that to your suit.
http://www.michaelcrook.com/statements/statement11012006.html
on Thursday, November 2nd, 2006 at 10:05 am
He say’s noone contacted him. When is the lawsuit going to happen?
on Thursday, November 2nd, 2006 at 12:19 pm
I want a DMCA takedown notice too!!!
http://www.feedblog.org/2006/11/michael_crook_p.html
on Thursday, November 2nd, 2006 at 3:10 pm
Looks like he DMCA’d YouTube as well. That video is gone. Mirror?
“This video has been removed due to terms of use violation.”
on Thursday, November 2nd, 2006 at 3:23 pm
The video can be found on DIIS.net as well:
http://diis.net/article.php/crook-fox
on Thursday, November 2nd, 2006 at 3:44 pm
Hey guys, looks like I’ve been put on notice as well. Diis.net is my site, and I was sent a notice yesterday…
http://diis.net/dmca-diis-nov-1.doc
on Thursday, November 2nd, 2006 at 8:00 pm
I love you.
No, really.
on Friday, November 3rd, 2006 at 9:43 am
Here is the thing. Mike is known for not giving his real address. Therefore May I suggest you actually have someone look up his address. And let us know when he is served. That way he can stop saying you guys have not sent him anything.
on Saturday, November 4th, 2006 at 11:02 am
He now say’s you will lose the suit and he will sue Jeffery and EFF. I want you guys to remove the Tard from the net.
on Sunday, November 5th, 2006 at 10:15 pm
Youtube was hit again.
on Monday, November 6th, 2006 at 1:01 am
The address in the DMCA leads to a UPS store with Mailbox’s. He will never get served there.
on Monday, November 6th, 2006 at 11:57 am
I can tell you right now that it is not his true adress. It MAY be a post office box, but in stronger probability it is just some random made up place.
As far as his name is concerned.. he has gone by Scott Vogel in the past, swearing it was his cousin…that was when he needed to make up supporters for his anti-troops campaign. You can’t imagine the tangled web of lies this meathead has weaved.
There was almost a year and a half where he swore that he didn’t write his article on his time in the army… now that he finally admits it, he is claiming he bombed out intentionally…
the list is longer than you can imagine… including him posing as lawyers trying to get his contact information off of websites, and even going so far as having his wife call the owner of a website posing as a lawyer, that however resulted in tears for the “lawyer”.
This guys stupidity knows no bounds….
on Monday, November 6th, 2006 at 12:44 pm
I agree with you. I am one of hisd hated detractors. He called me the Mentaly Ill Ohio Firefighter. And that is why I run a new blog against him. This deal of him being sued is covering most of my blog. My blog is located at http://americancommunistsarestillalive.blogspot.com/
on Thursday, November 9th, 2006 at 9:17 am
Is the suit even going to happen? He keeps saying that he has not been served. I say you should add charges on the false address as well. And well, the word is possible Michael Crook is not even his true name.
on Saturday, November 11th, 2006 at 3:15 pm
He is now saying he is a champion of DMCA rights and that is why you are suing him. ROFL!
on Sunday, November 12th, 2006 at 9:32 pm
I posted that photo on the Second Life photo sharing site; Crook has in fact filed a takedown notice and the photo has been removed. So yes, he has filed a pretend takedown notice against a site documenting a pretend world.
on Monday, November 13th, 2006 at 10:09 am
Because he is a pretend human being
on Monday, November 13th, 2006 at 9:04 pm
If he is not served by 120 day’s then the lawsuit is null and void. Is this lawsuit even real?
on Sunday, November 19th, 2006 at 6:52 am
I owe you an apology. He said he was served the 16th.
on Saturday, December 30th, 2006 at 7:04 pm
I just watched the Video of Michael Crook on Hannity and Colmes on Fox. That guy is an unmitigated Dork!
Also,someone please tell that idiot to go to a barber and get a decent haircut, he looks loke a troll!
on Wednesday, April 18th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
Very cool. Thanks for taking the extra time needed.