The Ethereal War Part V www.dwarfshentaigames.com had 2 of my Eros Hawk books posted on their website. For $19.95 a month (now 29.95!) you get to do all kinds of nonsense and (unbelievably) see the contents of my work. Let me clarify that I do not see any money from this. I spent several days emailing my legal notice to Dwarf with no reply. I emailed his provider and got an immediate response. The following has been edited for clarity.
Hi, I informed the Webmaster of the site in regards to this issue and he will take care of it. HentaiKey does not own or is in no way responsible for content on sites not owned by hentaikey.com I will look in to this matter and make sure the Webmaster will remove It (the work) ASAP.
Regards,
Chris (The Rowan)
PS: is licensing available for online content from you?
I appreciated the comment about licensing content but I was still waiting to resolve the issue of my work on Dwarf's site. Later this email arrived.
Greetings, I have removed your comics (Eros Hawk) from my site. Sorry for the delay - I'm not checking my mail every day. Please, if it is possible, include the URL in the future. Two others also update the site and I just can't know every comic they upload.
Best regards,
Dwarf
Now from WHERE exactly are Drawf’s people uploading the work? Not only does Dwarf not know what's happening on his site he wants me to do the research and provide him with proof that he's a THEIF! The funny thing here is not only did he post my work but also much of the EROS COMIX line! That's what prompted this reply from me.
Dwarf, Let me help you with this:
YOU DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE COMICS POSTED ON YOUR SITE AND I WILL BE NOTIFYING ALL OF THE PUBLISHERS ABOUT YOUR VIOLATION OF THEIR COPYRIGHT!
You should know better.
SB
Now you would think that would be enough but Dwarf just didn't want to believe he was in the wrong and so this followed.
Hello Steven, If you wish to spend your time (notifying Publishers) feel free... Any publisher who cares could send me a demand to remove their materials and I would remove them. Mostly they just don't care. Anyway comics can be downloaded through any peer2peer network,(edonkey for example) so what's the point?
Best regards,
Dwarf
You know something, he does have a point. It seems many Publishers don't care about the posting of their works. Still I couldn't resist a little righteous judgment.
Dwarf, This will be my final note to you and I do not wish to engage in any further conversation with you because it is obvious that you are an EXTREME FAN. It is my personal mission to find and remove people like you from the Internet who steal the work I and so many other cartoonists have created. I've had many sites shut down because of what you have done. It does not matter to me what a publisher thinks. I created the work you felt you had a right to post and profit from. That is called THEFT. Slowly I am making all cartoonists know that they have rights and they too will be looking for you and any group that thinks that because they buy a comic they can do with it as they wish. Continue on in the theft of our work...sooner or later you will end up in court. I look forward to it.
SB
In retrospect I could have toned it down a bit. The reality is that I stand on solid ground in this matter. And so far I have 13 kills to my credit while the enemy has not even made a direct hit! It will be exactly one year on December 15th 2004 that the Ethereal War began because of the actions of one silly old man in a newsgroup called Whyld Goose. You want to blame someone for the anger of many cartoonists then he's your man.
***
Late last January (2004) www.hentaiglobal.com was posting my comic book EROS HAWK. It seemed to me that I've spent most of my time fighting websites with the word 'hentai' in their web-name. It was also an association I have little respect for. Adult hentai-anime is really too explicit for my tastes and I don't really see the value in it as a comics art form. I've seen several mainstream super-heroes drawn in this style and I just find it bizarre. www.hentaiglobal.com didn't have a contact link (these geniuses think I can't get at them) so I decided to hit the join button and see where that led me. The link led me to www.adultbouncer.com (the PAY interface) and to my unbelieving eyes a direct link to their attorney! I'd never seen that before so off went an email. While I waited for an answer I also sent my copyright notice to the Webmaster of adultbouncer.com Once again I asked the question, does the Webmaster of this particular site have the rights to post these comics?
A day latter the attorney for adultbouncer.com phoned (!) me and asked what my concerns were about www.hentaiglobal.com. The following is an accurate representation of our conversation:
SB: www.hentaiglobal.com is posting my first issue of EROS HAWK. I own the copyright and it is registered with the Library of Copyright in Washington D.C. Attorney: Would you be able to provide proof if we required it?
SB: I can fax it over to you if you'd like.
Attorney: That won't be necessary. Is there anything else that is your copyright posted on this site?
SB: No, but anything with the Eros Comix logo is not this site's copyright. Understand that I'm only concerned with my copyright. What the publisher does is his affair and I will notify him of this infringement.
Attorney: We take the issue of copyright infringement very seriously and we'll simply have the site shutdown until the owner can prove he has the rights to post the works.
I thanked him and true to his word www.hentaiglobal.com was shut down and at present has yet to return. This attorney did what others have failed to do, he put the burden of proof at the doorstep of the website owner!
Now if only Yahoo! could see it as plainly.
***
While sitting in a movie theater waiting for the feature to begin a curious preview played. A painter for motion picture sets spoke about how downloading movies hurts not only the studio executives but also people like him who don't make the millions motion pictures generate. The preview ended with the text, www.respectcopyrights.org. It wasn't the first time that I thought; don't we (as comics creators) have the same copyright issues? Don't we have the same rights when it comes to the protection of our works?
***
So here we are in late 2005 and I’m still at it. Many friends and acquaintances don’t understand why the comics industry hasn’t taken up the fight. I can’t even imagine at this point what they’re thinking.
And what of the two major criminals of the theft of comic artist’s works from the newsgroup ABPEC?
Whyld Goose seems to have truly vanished but I do see two of his supposed aliases from time to time in the newsgroups. I don’t know if these are the same person but I do know that my work has disappeared from the newsgroup and I am considered persona non grata. That suits me fine. As long as no one posts or attempts to profit from my work they will have no problem with me.
Ed Macman continues to show his arrogance on Yahoo! Group, ComixBookMuseum. At this point I’m not sure who to be angry with, Ed or Yahoo!
Oh, by the way, both individuals are located in the New Orleans area!
As my attorney said, if your work is not being posted then you have no actionable lawsuit. But what about my fellow colleges, when will you wake up and realize that the Internet is more than what it appears to be on the surface. When will you take the time to try and find out about your works?
It’s up to you.
Steven Bové • CT 2005
