the Free Hypnosis Social Network
HypnoSummit Piracy
Well, it happened again. It was bound to. I’m going to start with an explanation of the problem and then share with everyone my solution.
THE PROBLEM
The HypnoSummit site was hacked and all the videos from HypnoSummit 2.0 were illegally copied. Without getting into the details of how they did it, I will say that the person who did this has created a real problem that I’ve been busy working on for a while now. As some of you know, the HypnoSummit site was attacked during the event and shut the site down for about 7 minutes while we sorted it out. Everything had to be shut down and restarted because of it. They recently came back and got everything, and from what we have seen they plan on putting it on torrent sites.
The thing that makes this more complex is that the HypnoSummit doesn’t actually own the rights to the videos that were stolen. We let all speakers retain the rights to their presentations. This is why we profit share with every single speaker who presents for us and allow them to sell the videos on their own sites as well as giving them a 50% cut of anything we sell on www.hypnosummitstore.com.
This means the individual(s) who pirated our videos didn’t steal from us, they stole from every single presenter. If I don’t do something about it, speakers won’t continue to present at the HypnoSummit. Why would someone share their hard work and valuable insights knowing that they were going to be stolen? This is a big problem for anyone interested in the future of the HypnoSummit.
If the videos are pirated that reduces the value for the presenters, potential ticket sales, and attendance. This impacts our ability to get the quality of speakers you guys want to hear and makes the event financially unviable. If the presenters don’t see this as a worthwhile investment they go away. Simple as that.
The HypnoSummit isn’t Microsoft. Melissa and I invest tens of thousands of dollars and (along with our team) invest thousands of hours of effort and simply can’t afford to compete with piracy. It is more profitable for Melissa and I to see our clients than it is to put on this event. Piracy not only robs everyone involved of the money we have earned, it takes from us the emotional satisfaction we earn from building something valuable for the hypnosis community. As many of you are aware, that is much more important than the money.
I’m happy to give HypnoThoughts and all its content away free for anyone interested. The moderators and I, along with many who post great content, share that freely with the members. The HypnoSummit is something different. It depends on ticket sales to exist. When you download those recordings you undermine the likelihood of us being able to continue to create these events. It also kills our motivation to keep innovating and building new resources for everyone.
I demand that you show the team, the presenters, and all the honest people who paid more respect than that.
THE SOLUTION
My solution is as simple as the problem. It applies to anyone I find out is downloading the pirated material, not just the individual who initially took it. If you know anything about torrent distribution you know that by downloading it you make it more available to others. You also understand how easy it is to track seeders and leechers.
We will make an example out of people who pirate any HypnoSummit data and undermine our ability to continue to share high quality information with others.
If I find out that you stole from us, including anyone who supports the theft by downloading the data, your IP address will be banned from HypnoThoughts, the HypnoSummit, and any future site Melissa and I create, either individually or in partnership. Additionally, I will publicly post your name on HypnoThoughts.com as a person who stole from us and the other presenters by supporting the distribution of copyrighted content. We will send an email to every speaker with your name on a list of people who have stolen from them. That list will also be sent to every hypnosis organization. we will then contact your internet provider with proof that will probably get your internet account terminated with that company.
An interesting point worth noting is that if a few of the presenters get upset, it would only require 3 of them to get together and form a class action lawsuit against any person who pirates the data. Class action lawsuits are paid for by the District Attorney, not the plaintiffs. There are plenty of DA’s out there looking to make a statement about internet piracy. I’m not promising anything will happen, but I do know that the complexity of this issue actually makes prosecution much easier on the presenters.
CONCLUSION
Those of you who know me know that I have a very long fuse and am not quick to be upset. You also know how important loyalty is to me. Downloading these pirated videos is stealing from people who have supported us, and we refuse to sit by and let anyone do that.
The HypnoSummit team and all of the presenters put a lot of work into creating all these resources and providing all this content for the hypnosis community. All we ask in return is that you act out of integrity and show the content and people who create it the respect they deserve.
Please discourage people from downloading this stolen information and help us to continue to grow these resources into things that can help you even more. Be part of something productive rather than part of the problem.
Thanks,
Scott Sandland
Creator of HypnoThoughts.com
Co-Creator of HypnoSummit.com
UPDATE
Although we know they were taken, we haven't yet found any public sites sharing the information. We will remain diligent in looking though.
If anyone has any tips on any sites or individuals that are pirating the information
please contact us at our email: hypnosummit (at) gmail (dot) com
Thank You!
THE PROBLEM
The HypnoSummit site was hacked and all the videos from HypnoSummit 2.0 were illegally copied. Without getting into the details of how they did it, I will say that the person who did this has created a real problem that I’ve been busy working on for a while now. As some of you know, the HypnoSummit site was attacked during the event and shut the site down for about 7 minutes while we sorted it out. Everything had to be shut down and restarted because of it. They recently came back and got everything, and from what we have seen they plan on putting it on torrent sites.
The thing that makes this more complex is that the HypnoSummit doesn’t actually own the rights to the videos that were stolen. We let all speakers retain the rights to their presentations. This is why we profit share with every single speaker who presents for us and allow them to sell the videos on their own sites as well as giving them a 50% cut of anything we sell on www.hypnosummitstore.com.
This means the individual(s) who pirated our videos didn’t steal from us, they stole from every single presenter. If I don’t do something about it, speakers won’t continue to present at the HypnoSummit. Why would someone share their hard work and valuable insights knowing that they were going to be stolen? This is a big problem for anyone interested in the future of the HypnoSummit.
If the videos are pirated that reduces the value for the presenters, potential ticket sales, and attendance. This impacts our ability to get the quality of speakers you guys want to hear and makes the event financially unviable. If the presenters don’t see this as a worthwhile investment they go away. Simple as that.
The HypnoSummit isn’t Microsoft. Melissa and I invest tens of thousands of dollars and (along with our team) invest thousands of hours of effort and simply can’t afford to compete with piracy. It is more profitable for Melissa and I to see our clients than it is to put on this event. Piracy not only robs everyone involved of the money we have earned, it takes from us the emotional satisfaction we earn from building something valuable for the hypnosis community. As many of you are aware, that is much more important than the money.
I’m happy to give HypnoThoughts and all its content away free for anyone interested. The moderators and I, along with many who post great content, share that freely with the members. The HypnoSummit is something different. It depends on ticket sales to exist. When you download those recordings you undermine the likelihood of us being able to continue to create these events. It also kills our motivation to keep innovating and building new resources for everyone.
I demand that you show the team, the presenters, and all the honest people who paid more respect than that.
THE SOLUTION
My solution is as simple as the problem. It applies to anyone I find out is downloading the pirated material, not just the individual who initially took it. If you know anything about torrent distribution you know that by downloading it you make it more available to others. You also understand how easy it is to track seeders and leechers.
We will make an example out of people who pirate any HypnoSummit data and undermine our ability to continue to share high quality information with others.
If I find out that you stole from us, including anyone who supports the theft by downloading the data, your IP address will be banned from HypnoThoughts, the HypnoSummit, and any future site Melissa and I create, either individually or in partnership. Additionally, I will publicly post your name on HypnoThoughts.com as a person who stole from us and the other presenters by supporting the distribution of copyrighted content. We will send an email to every speaker with your name on a list of people who have stolen from them. That list will also be sent to every hypnosis organization. we will then contact your internet provider with proof that will probably get your internet account terminated with that company.
An interesting point worth noting is that if a few of the presenters get upset, it would only require 3 of them to get together and form a class action lawsuit against any person who pirates the data. Class action lawsuits are paid for by the District Attorney, not the plaintiffs. There are plenty of DA’s out there looking to make a statement about internet piracy. I’m not promising anything will happen, but I do know that the complexity of this issue actually makes prosecution much easier on the presenters.
CONCLUSION
Those of you who know me know that I have a very long fuse and am not quick to be upset. You also know how important loyalty is to me. Downloading these pirated videos is stealing from people who have supported us, and we refuse to sit by and let anyone do that.
The HypnoSummit team and all of the presenters put a lot of work into creating all these resources and providing all this content for the hypnosis community. All we ask in return is that you act out of integrity and show the content and people who create it the respect they deserve.
Please discourage people from downloading this stolen information and help us to continue to grow these resources into things that can help you even more. Be part of something productive rather than part of the problem.
Thanks,
Scott Sandland
Creator of HypnoThoughts.com
Co-Creator of HypnoSummit.com
UPDATE
Although we know they were taken, we haven't yet found any public sites sharing the information. We will remain diligent in looking though.
If anyone has any tips on any sites or individuals that are pirating the information
please contact us at our email: hypnosummit (at) gmail (dot) com
Thank You!
Tags: Consequences, HypnoSummit, Legal, Piracy, Presenters, Sandland, Scott, copyright, theft
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Tom Nicoli on -
www.Torrentz.com - they post material that is sold like hypnosis CDs, DVDs, etc. They have hit people hard that I know personally. When I was reading "torrent" this is what I was thinking about. Look at the number of downloads of some of my stuff on this page. It's all piracy... http://www.torrentz.com/search?q=tom+nicoli
Antonio said:Tom what website are you talking about? Any website that has torrent links are completely legal, as they do not actually hold any pirated content. I heard a few weeks ago that some government (overseas maybe) actually made everything worse by trying to "stamp" out pirating via torrents. It was something along the lines that they found a legal loophole to get something shut down, which in turn helped to spawn off an even more efficient torrent system.
I got to know the head of the legal dept at NBC because as people leveraged off of me they were also using the Dateline NBC material without permission on their websites to get traffic.
How were these people(s) using the Dateline NBC material on their site? Were they using some kind of embeddable video content? I would imagine if they were using a youtube video then it would be completely legal (albeit sheisty).
NOTE: I am not a lawyer but I would like to play one on T.V.
Tom Nicoli said:Thanks Antonio - when I went to the website after receiving a Google Alert for my name, there was a page that talked about what to do if you believe the material is posted is yours and was posted without permission. I think they put that there just to make it look good because I went through the process and got nothing.
When I appeared on Datelne NBC hypnotists had an explosion of business but that wasn't god enough for some. I got to know the head of the legal dept at NBC because as people leveraged off of me they were also using the Dateline NBC material without permission on their websites to get traffic. It was a nightmare. I came to the resolution you can't police the world - especially the internet electronic world. There is more of this going on than anyone even realizes.
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Permalink Reply by John Maclean on -
Really sorry to hear about the rip-off Scott. If i find any sites offering downloads I will pass it on.
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Permalink Reply by Antonio on -
Tom I was going to reply to this last night after work but I was dead tired. When I went on torrentz.com and searched for your name the only thing I found were the "sponsored links" at the top. I think the sponsored links are actually fake links to get people to pay for a service thinking they are going to get the real files. Think about it, this a "great business" plan (albeit sheisty) because a person may pay to become a member of said site that advertised the sponsored links, only to realize that the "member site" is a scam site. Who are they going to complain to? The person who created the material, the actual site?
Tom I would suggest that you search sites such as megaupload and rapidshare for your material and ask them to be removed. That is much easier than getting torrent material down. Also I would suggest that you set up a google alert with something along the lines of "tom nicoli torrent" or even "tom nicoli rapidshare". This might help to get them taken down as fast as possible.
Antonio
Tom Nicoli said:www.Torrentz.com - they post material that is sold like hypnosis CDs, DVDs, etc. They have hit people hard that I know personally. When I was reading "torrent" this is what I was thinking about. Look at the number of downloads of some of my stuff on this page. It's all piracy... http://www.torrentz.com/search?q=tom+nicoli
Antonio said:Tom what website are you talking about? Any website that has torrent links are completely legal, as they do not actually hold any pirated content. I heard a few weeks ago that some government (overseas maybe) actually made everything worse by trying to "stamp" out pirating via torrents. It was something along the lines that they found a legal loophole to get something shut down, which in turn helped to spawn off an even more efficient torrent system.
I got to know the head of the legal dept at NBC because as people leveraged off of me they were also using the Dateline NBC material without permission on their websites to get traffic.
How were these people(s) using the Dateline NBC material on their site? Were they using some kind of embeddable video content? I would imagine if they were using a youtube video then it would be completely legal (albeit sheisty).
NOTE: I am not a lawyer but I would like to play one on T.V.
Tom Nicoli said:Thanks Antonio - when I went to the website after receiving a Google Alert for my name, there was a page that talked about what to do if you believe the material is posted is yours and was posted without permission. I think they put that there just to make it look good because I went through the process and got nothing.
When I appeared on Datelne NBC hypnotists had an explosion of business but that wasn't god enough for some. I got to know the head of the legal dept at NBC because as people leveraged off of me they were also using the Dateline NBC material without permission on their websites to get traffic. It was a nightmare. I came to the resolution you can't police the world - especially the internet electronic world. There is more of this going on than anyone even realizes.
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Permalink Reply by Tom Nicoli on
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Thanks Antonio.... and yet another Google Alert or 2 to add. : )
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Permalink Reply by Antonio on
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Tom if you are using firefox you may want to try out some of the file sharing addons that allow you to search some of the more popular sites.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/search?q=rapidshare+search...
Tom Nicoli said:Thanks Antonio.... and yet another Google Alert or 2 to add. : )
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Permalink Reply by Roy Hunter on
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Although I am a giver, I know from experience what it is like to have others steal my work.
I for one am very willing to join in a class action lawsuit if you find out who hacked into the website.
Roy Hunter
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Permalink Reply by Pattie Freeman CH.t, MST on -
Scott I wish I knew this earlier I received a email from someone in UK naming their DVDs hypnosummit...I thought at first it was strange it had the same name as hypnothoughts summit used...but since I haven't heard of anything on here I disregarded it I will try to see if I have the email on my server so I can forward it to you and you can check it out....so sorry scott and I understand it is no fair to you and the others......
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Permalink Reply by Doreen Cohanim C.Ht on -
Hi Tom,
I just checked the link, and wow... I don't know what to say, but I've browsed and they have this message, bellow and I am wandering if this protects them? What do you think? It sure sounds like it is approved from you., since it says you need to have the permission of the copyrighted owner.
It says: Please Share Responsibly!
Use of our service is expressly conditioned upon your agreement to not knowingly use our member’s area or any software therein to share files that are protected by copyrights. Use of our services constitutes your acceptance and agreement with all of the terms of the license.
We do not provide a license to upload and/or download copyrighted materials, thus you are still required to abide by local and international copyright laws and regulations.
To use our services legally, you must have the permission of the owner of the copyrights for each file in your possession.
Beside that I enjoyed your presentation today on Hypnosis World Summit Live Event, and you have a very soothing voice.
Respectfully, Doreen Cohanim C.Ht
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Permalink Reply by Tom Nicoli on
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Doreen - there is no way I allow or have allowed anyone to use the products I sell online to be posted on any other website. That jargon is all a smokescreen.
And thank you for the kind comment and feedback on my presentation yesterday.
Tom
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Permalink Reply by Antonio on
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Actually yes Doreen that does protect them...it falls upon the person who is uploading the material.
Doreen Cohanim C.Ht said:Hi Tom,
I just checked the link, and wow... I don't know what to say, but I've browsed and they have this message, bellow and I am wandering if this protects them? What do you think? It sure sounds like it is approved from you., since it says you need to have the permission of the copyrighted owner.
It says: Please Share Responsibly!
Use of our service is expressly conditioned upon your agreement to not knowingly use our member’s area or any software therein to share files that are protected by copyrights. Use of our services constitutes your acceptance and agreement with all of the terms of the license.
We do not provide a license to upload and/or download copyrighted materials, thus you are still required to abide by local and international copyright laws and regulations.
To use our services legally, you must have the permission of the owner of the copyrights for each file in your possession.
Beside that I enjoyed your presentation today on Hypnosis World Summit Live Event, and you have a very soothing voice.
Respectfully, Doreen Cohanim C.Ht
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Permalink Reply by John Cressman on -
First... I'm not a doctor and can't give medical advice and I'm not a lawyer and can't give legal advice. Results may vary and results are not typical.
With that said...
While I hope you find out who hacked you and who is distributing the files, I would appreciate it if you used correct legal terminology.
No one STOLE or SHOPLIFTED anything. It was unauthorized copying, as I assume you - and the original presenters - retain a copy, of a copyrighted work. What the person is guilty of is copyright violation - which may differ in different parts of the world. They are also guilty of violating various computer hacking laws - again, depending on country. If they distribute them, they may also be guilty on infringement and or unauthorized distribution.
But they are not THIEVES... they did not STEAL. It's a personal pet peeve, but having been the victim of both REAL theft and copyright infringement, trust me... there's a HUGE difference. Knowing someone might have a copy of my eBook out on their computer is very different than walking up and finding your car gutted by REAL thieves.
Kathleen, they are BETTER than muggers. Talk to someone who has been mugged... the emotional trauma it deals at being held at knife point or gun point, not knowing whether you will walk away alive or if they are going to take you somewhere and assault you. If you experience that sort of trauma from finding your copyright violated.... I can recommend a good number of therapists -> most of them here! =)
Also, MIKE...they are NOT terrorist. I live 2 hours from NYC. I have seen first hand the devastation wrought by terrorists. Calling someone who crashed a website that provides a non-essential service a terrorist, spits in the face of every victim of TRUE terror. Seriously... get some perspective! If you need help, go down to your local VA hospital and talk with some vets who have returned from Afgan or Iraq and are victim of IED bombs.
Instead of spending resources trying to track down and prosecute every single file sharer, I suggest you do something useful. Trying to track down file sharers through various countries with various laws is an effort in insanity... trust me... I know.
I suggest figuring out a way to embed the hypnosummit site and the authors site into the video feed so that even if it happens again... and quite honestly, I can probably think of several ways to do it without someone hacking the site... with your website and the author's name and website, if it does make it on the web, they will at least get some free publicity and possibly sales from people who innocently download it - not ALL downloads are illegal.
I've gotten more than a few people who have found my eBook on various torrent sites... or other places... and then come to my website with question. Some I sell other products to, some I don't. But I've given up trying to trace these people down though former soviet block countries and wasting money on lawyers that do nothing.
There's alot of great information at HypnoSummit and I feel the pain - knowing my own work is floating around, but I like to turn lemon into lemonade and figure out ways to take advantage of that exposure. In a way, I do feel kind of good that someone obviously enjoyed my book enough to post it. I haven't seen any of my CDs up... and my iPhone apps can't really be hacked, so that's not an issue.
Personally, I think everything on HypnoSummit should be released as a video on iTunes or some other service 3 months after the event. If the presenters wanted to make money, that's a great way since times you miss things and some times there's something really valuable that you'd like to be able to go back and watch.
Having personally published many hypnotic iPhone apps, I think the iTunes store is a great market and a great way to get more exposure for hypnosis, HypnoSummit, and for the presentors.
Again, I think you need to spend more time on branding the videos so that people know WHERE they come from and WHO gave them. One, that gives more exposure to HypnoSummit and the presentors, and TWO, it tells people who may have downloaded it innocently that this the videos come from a professional site - because let's face it, many of them are coming from website and don't look any different than what you mind find on YouTube. Not a criticism, just an observation.
So, I do hope you find them. But I hope you take my other advice first. Because as Nongard mentioned, having anything electronic for sale, you need to realize that piracy is the cost for doing business... but you don't have to sit back and take it. Use it to your advantage to advertise. Sure, it's not a very big consolation, but it's better than nothing. And it just might get more clients. And if nothing else, it's MUCH more difficult to remove embedded video strips of identifying information.
What was done is bad... but seriously... chill.
Cheers!
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Permalink Reply by Doreen Cohanim C.Ht on
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Dear John Raven,
Great Advice :)
Thank You, Doreen Cohanim C.Ht
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