False DMCAs Fizzle – Kalel Venkman Fingered !!!

by Alphaville Herald on 27/02/10 at 4:55 pm

Typepad ‘fesses up – some DMCA-disputed images, text have gone missing

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Gregory Eugene Turnbow (Kalel Venkman in Second Life) has been identified as the complainant who submitted a DMCA request to Typepad that resulted in removal of content from six Herald stories covering the Second Life Justice League Unlimited.

Mr. Turnbow’s copyright infringement claim was disputed by the Herald on the grounds that the materials were a clear case of fair use for journalism.

After Turnbow failed to file a copyright infringement claim in court within 14 days of the Herald’s counter filing, Typepad staff restored parts of the disputed content. However, in correspondence with the Herald, Typepad revealed that they were unable to restore portions of the content which they had removed – all images were missing from their server, as were sections of the disputed text. The Herald staff has restored this content from our backup copies.


Jen, Feb 26 05:00 pm (PST):

Dear Mr. McCahill-

The complainant who submitted the DMCA request is:

Gregory Eugene Turnbow
[address elided]
Simi Valley, CA 93065
gene@kryptonians.net

We have restored the available textual content to the posts but the full chat transcripts and data table were not available, and we are were not able to restore the unavailable content.

Sincerely,
Jen
TypePad One
Six Apart Ltd



Mark McCahill, Feb 26 04:48 pm (PST):

Jen,

It is very disappointing that the image files have been deleted. Please let me know when you have completed restoring the disputed text content.

I have repeatedly asked you to identify of the person(s) who filed the copyright infringement claim that led you to take down materials from my site. You are obliged to provide my with this information now.

It is illegal under Title 17, United States Code Section 512(f) to knowingly send faulty DMCA notices.

Who sent the notice that led to the take down of materials from my site?

Mark McCahill


Jen, Feb 26 03:55 pm (PST):

Dear Mr. McCahill-

We are restoring the textual content to your blog but that the image files were deleted from our servers and, as a result, we are unable to restore them.

Sincerely,
Jen
TypePad One
Six Apart Ltd



Mark McCahill, Feb 26 05:13 pm (PST):

Jen,

Thank you for providing the complainant’s identity.

In my counterclaim, I listed the materials that were removed in error. Could you refer to that counterclaim and tell me what you were able to  restore?

Mark McCahill



Jen, Feb 26 05:24 pm (PST):

Dear Mark-

For the post here:

The chat transcript:

- Show quoted text -

[18:49] Heinrich Arun: There is a Jewcamp
[18:49] Heinrich Arun: on Sl
[18:49] Gaara Sandalwood: Oh gawd seriously?
[18:49] Heinrich Arun: Zeide Camp
[18:49] Heinrich Arun: Yes
[18:49] KFCMan Nexen: so where are we trollin
[18:49] Gaara Sandalwood: Okay screw these fail plans KFC’s been doign I’m
checkign that out
[18:54] Leebra Mai: backup
[18:59] Gaara Sandalwood: JLU faggot right here
[18:59] Gaara Sandalwood: In the zeide kamp sim
[18:59] Heinrich Arun: Oh man
[19:00] Heinrich Arun: On mein way
[19:00] Gaara Sandalwood: WHOOOO
[19:01] Heinrich Arun: Hey, shit getting hot down here
[19:01] Heinrich Arun: Requesting /b/ack up
[19:02] Gaara Sandalwood: Two JLU here
[19:02] Gaara Sandalwood: Everyone fail plannign gtf here
[19:02] Atheron Alter: Where are the JLU?
[19:03] Heinrich Arun: Zeide Kamp
[19:03] Heinrich Arun: Jew town
[19:08] Leebra Mai: and being drunk
[19:08] Lyra Gravois: I JUST ADDED
[19:08] Leebra Mai: please join us at WU
[19:08] Lyra Gravois: COBY TO THE EQUATION
[19:08] Lyra Gravois: lololol
[19:08] Leebra Mai: oh shit

was restored to the comment posted by: Thanks JLU Wiki on January 11, 2010 at 07:33 PM.

For the post here:

The excerpt of the chat transcript:

Meeting of October 07, 2007 morning

[9:40] Plexus Linden: Ok…just for clarifications sake
[9:41] Kalel Venkman: Yes?"

[10:03] Kalel Venkman: [20:25] Barbara Onomatopoeia: may i share that with kalel venkman and other members of the group?
[10:03] Kalel Venkman: [20:25] Plexus Linden: Certainly ;-)

was restored to the end of the post.

For the post here:

The excerpt of the text and chat transcript:

Not the leader of the Linden Labs Governance and Response Team, but
certainly one of its more influential members. Of the G-Team, Plexus is
the most conversational and responsive, and is currently listed in the
Brainiac database as an external operative. This gives him access to our
communications system, and the ability to wear and use the avatar key
logger in the commlink (which he uses in full knowledge of what it does)
and the ability to use the Brainiac Mini terminal he now wears on his
right shoulder.

[9:24] Samantha Lowell: I suggest, for the time being, we keep a very low profile in the field

was restored to the end of the post.

For the post here:

the original letter with the takedown notice was re-added to the post.

Sincerely,
Jen
TypePad One
Six Apart Ltd


69 Responses to “False DMCAs Fizzle – Kalel Venkman Fingered !!!”

  1. GreenLantern Excelsior

    Mar 4th, 2010

    @ Danziel Lane

    “Did he win anything positive from his actions?
    I doubt that. People on the contrary will be more and more angry about self justice groups, especially, when these groups take the biggest part of their self confidence from some kids comic books.”

    JLU has been contacted by several people recently asking how they can help us or wanting to know how we can help them. They cited the articles in the Herald as the reason for contacting us. Apparently we owe the Herald a big Thank You for the publicity.

    @ Judge Joker

    “@GLE “People JLU assisted were visited by griefers and threatened.” Prove that statement.”

    I have no proof to offer you, because the information came to me from someone else. Allegedly one of the people in charge of a sim was visited by two residents who told him it would be in his best interest to stop working with JLU. He told them to go away, or something similar. As for the idea that all residents are perfectly able to deal with griefing by themselves with no outside help, in a perfect world that would be true. In this world it’s not. There are people in Second Life who have never seen a griefer attack or written an Abuse Report. Many times when we show up in a sandbox to write ARs, residents will come up and say something like “What the hell is going on? Are you doing this?” So the answer is Yes, people do need help, maybe not from JLU or even from superheroes, but the knowledge of what to do in a griefer attack is not there in most cases.

    @ Tux Winkler

    “That sounds like a subtle hint to Neo . . I mean Kalel.”

    It’s a hint to the Herald and no one else. Even after TypePad removed the DMCA material, there was more than enough left to write another DMCA, but we didn’t. I enjoy reading the Herald, and I would not like to see it go away. Others don’t share my opinion. Please be careful.

    “Anyways, at any point should they need a UK mirror, I would provide it. And guess what, our laws are different.”

    They are now, but maybe not for long. From Slashdot today:

    “During today’s debate in the UK’s House of Lords on the much-criticized Digital Economy Bill the unpopular Clause 17 (that would have allowed the government to alter copyright law much more easily than it currently can) was voted out in favor of a DMCA-style take-down system for websites and ISPs. The new amendment known as 120A sets up a system whereby a copyright owner could force an ISP to block certain websites who allegedly host or link to infringing material or face being taken before the High Court and made to pay the copyright owner’s legal fees. This amendment was tabled by the Liberal Democrat party who had so far been seen as the defenders of the internet and with the Conservative party supporting them. The UK’s Pirate Party and Open Rights Group have both strongly criticized this new amendment.”

    Pleasant dreams!

  2. We

    Mar 4th, 2010

    @GreenLantern Excelsior
    “JLU has been contacted by several people recently asking how they can help us or wanting to know how we can help them. They cited the articles in the Herald as the reason for contacting us. Apparently we owe the Herald a big Thank You for the publicity.”

    I’ll be looking forward to the next wiki-leak these people provide as well. I’m betting the wiki has gotten worse since these events.

    “So the answer is Yes, people do need help, maybe not from JLU or even from superheroes, but the knowledge of what to do in a griefer attack is not there in most cases.”

    I’ve provided alternate solutions to this, which the JLU at it’s current capacity is not meeting, so far they have been seemingly ignored in favor of showing up and pretending to be Super heroes. The wiki would serve you better as a public site, not a secret spy forum. But as I’ve said before, I doubt that the JLU will do this, because it interferes with the Superhero roleplay. And yes it is roleplay, it’s simply roleplay inflicted on others and done without the explicit knowledge that it’s fake and for fun. The JLU requires members to dress up like superheroes, and I’d call running around the grid trying to “save” the people of SL from “villains” as pretending to be Superheroes, as much as the SL Police who drive around in police cars, wear uniforms, and attempt to police people in SL are trying to roleplay real police.

    Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for life. If the JLU is interested in helping, how about you do less giving of fish, and more teaching to fish? But then if everyone else can do what you do (And they most certainly can), it makes it hard to swoop in and play Superman doesn’t it?

    “It’s a hint to the Herald and no one else. Even after TypePad removed the DMCA material, there was more than enough left to write another DMCA, but we didn’t. I enjoy reading the Herald, and I would not like to see it go away. Others don’t share my opinion. Please be careful.”

    Another DMCA on what? The first one was bogus as all hell, so if you mean you had the ability to file another DMCA in general, sure. JLU can fire DMCAs all over the place for whatever they want; They can send DMCAs to DC Comics if they want for infringement of their group name. Doesn’t mean any of them are valid. It’s just cyber-bullying via abusing DMCA, not unlike how the JLU abuses Second Life’s abuse report system by calling in multiple people to file abuse reports, most of which were not a part of the griefing or even know the full details of the event.

    I’m really curious as to how other members of the JLU feel about Kalel abusing and potentially breaking the law to bully others into taking down the wiki content.

  3. Kiddoh

    Mar 4th, 2010

    “JLU has been contacted by several people recently asking how they can help us or wanting to know how we can help them. They cited the articles in the Herald as the reason for contacting us. Apparently we owe the Herald a big Thank You for the publicity.”

    Correction: “Apparently we owe the Herald a big Thank You for the spies and 14 year olds.”

  4. Tux Winkler

    Mar 4th, 2010

    @GLE

    Up to this post I actually enjoyed your comments, but now you begin to rise up on a superhero pedestal. Shame really. Let me explain:

    “It’s a hint to the Herald and no one else. Even after TypePad removed the DMCA material, there was more than enough left to write another DMCA, but we didn’t. I enjoy reading the Herald, and I would not like to see it go away. Others don’t share my opinion. Please be careful.”

    Please be careful? Lol, there is nothing to be careful of.

    “The new amendment known as 120A sets up a system whereby a copyright owner could force an ISP to block certain websites who allegedly host or link to infringing material or face being taken before the High Court and made to pay the copyright owner’s legal fees.”

    120A is for the COPYRIGHT owner, there is no copyright (unless DC Heros request the take down of course). 120A is of course an important ruling, and will definitely set the ISP/Host world in a spin. But, it is aimed at software and music industries. Unfortunately I think Kalel will try to cry amendment 120A for a take down. But, it will not remove the wiki because he will be asked for proof of copyright.

    Thank you for raising 120A to public knowledge though. I got it live, and was sent the proposal prior to its announcement. Although a bit of a butchers tool at the moment, with a little work I think it will be a good thing.

    “As for the idea that all residents are perfectly able to deal with griefing by themselves with no outside help, in a perfect world that would be true. In this world it’s not.”

    Ok then why not set up a mentor group? Teach people? Instead the JLU use weapons against griefers (and against the TOS I should add). Is it a case of ‘do as I say, not as I do’? I think it is LL’s fault people have no idea how to deal with grief, and as they (LL) have given you no authority then what gives you the right to break that which you claim to uphold?

    “They cited the articles in the Herald as the reason for contacting us. Apparently we owe the Herald a big Thank You for the publicity.”

    Haha, how many supporting members will be aiming for the wiki? An army of griefer special ops alts infiltrating the JLU! OMG, I bet Kalel is super-paranoid about vetting now:

    “As part of our membership info, we need your credit card numbers, social security number, driving license number, finger prints, DNA profile, psyc evaluation, and family tree to fourteen generations. For your own protection!”

  5. Bubblesort Triskaidekaphobia

    Mar 4th, 2010

    Please, please let intlibber serve the papers. That would be epic!

    Deliver the papers via penis helicopter, like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRslKeT0EmQ

    Of course, it would be a hilarious reversal if Turnbow was actually wearing a superman costume IRL when it happens.

  6. Tux Winkler

    Mar 4th, 2010

    haha, English commentary: Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vEFpTETuNs

  7. IntLibber Brautigan

    Mar 4th, 2010

    “JLU has been contacted by several people recently asking how they can help us or wanting to know how we can help them. They cited the articles in the Herald as the reason for contacting us. Apparently we owe the Herald a big Thank You for the publicity.”

    LOL. I doubt this very much. Name one.

    Unfortunately Kalel isn’t giving anybody new access to the wiki anymore, so its usefulness is dead. Some day he’ll learn that secrecy of anything limits its utility.

    See, now, if Kalel were smart, the JLU would use the second life wiki to document who is who on the grid, and lobby the lab to list each avatars abuse reports, evidence, and dispositions on their SL wiki page, and let the public vote guilt or innocence to confirm or override the gteams preliminary judgement.

    I have long advocated an open and transparent justice system in second life. People like the g-team and the JLU oppose such because it puts public checks on their power and influence.

    Jack Linden specifically asked me at one of his office hours (during the whole adfarm ban debate) if I wanted abuse reports against me made public. I said, yes, of course, along with the evidence, who the accuser is, etc like real justice systems operate, because I have nothing to hide and I always tell people the full truth about things. He went silent at my response to his challenge, did not pursue it and obviously nothing has been done since then. Evidently he, the Lab, and the JLU have much more to hide than I or my company, or Woodbury do.

    They conspired to destroy me and BNT. Of that I have no doubt. They certainly do NOT want the records on their side made public. The JLU’s reaction to wikigate is sufficient indication of that.

  8. Gaara Sandalwood

    Mar 5th, 2010

    “There’s no claim of fair use here at all, and “Pixeleen”, who as far as I can see is just a cross-dressing”

    Yea I forgot to fully notice this part btw. My response: I happen to have a very well made female Hatter outfit in SL that looks rather good, thank you. I am rather offended at your remark(hehe). Oh yea, and everyone with a brain knows this, but dressing as a chick in the virtual world does not necessarily mean you are wearing frills and ribbons at your desktop.

    “Whats great is that, in performing this act under aegis of federal law, we can wear our afrosuit and Suiseisuki outfits while doing so, and not have the cops called on us… trick or treat, Kalel…”

    And the courtroom process just got funnier.

    “I have no proof to offer you, because the information came to me from someone else”

    Okay, completely fucking random, but a guy I know on youtube who makes some of the best rant videos recently made a video series about Lockerz being a scam. I want to quote something he said(I think in his comments, not in the vid)as a comedic reply to this(it’s midnight, I’m fucked up, and I’ve had a cold for a week, spare me).

    “I don’t care about the 19 game consoles and blowjob from a porn star that your friend got, I wanna know what YOU got.”

    “As part of our membership info, we need your credit card numbers, social security number, driving license number, finger prints, DNA profile, psyc evaluation, and family tree to fourteen generations. For your own protection!”

    Hehe….good old insanity.

  9. Senban Babii

    Mar 5th, 2010

    @GLE

    “JLU has been contacted by several people recently asking how they can help us or wanting to know how we can help them. They cited the articles in the Herald as the reason for contacting us. Apparently we owe the Herald a big Thank You for the publicity.”

    Could you actually BE more blatant? This is nothing more than an attempt to imply that the various Herald articles are in fact drumming up support and new recruits for the JLU.

    All you’re attempting to do here is get us to say “whoops, these articles are in fact helping the JLU and so really we should be stopping them”.

    But there’s a flaw in your logic!

    As I’ve told you repeatedly, the Herald is not here to attack the JLU (in my opinion). The Herald is here to report a story. If these stories are genuinely creating a huge recruitment boost for the JLU then that’s newsworthy! So why haven’t you come to one of us with this great news story? I mean, you do know I’ll rip any claims to pieces to make sure they’re genuine. You do know that, right? So bring me the facts and I’ll gladly write it up :)

    Oh and “several” is as much of a twisty word as “many” because it can pretty much be used to create implication where none exists. I use words like that all the time when I’m talking to my manager 8P So how many *actual* people (and not alts of current members etc) have approached you with a view to joining the JLU AS A DIRECT QUANTIFIABLE RESULT of reading the Herald articles?

    Chatlogs or it didn’t happen my little green fruitcake :)

  10. Senban Babii

    Mar 5th, 2010

    @IntLibber Brautigan

    “See, now, if Kalel were smart, the JLU would use the second life wiki to document who is who on the grid, and lobby the lab to list each avatars abuse reports, evidence, and dispositions on their SL wiki page, and let the public vote guilt or innocence to confirm or override the gteams preliminary judgement.”

    This is an interesting point but one thing really jumps out as a huge potential problem.

    Look at the meatworld justice system. We don’t put the defendant on trial and get the whole population to decide guilt or innocence. We create a jury of the defendant’s peers. If we had a situation as you’ve put forward, we’d soon have people gaming the system and the concept of guilt or innocence would in effect be a giant popularity contest.

    Some kind of transparency is desirable I agree and also some kind of accountability.

  11. IntLibber Brautigan

    Mar 5th, 2010

    @Senban:
    “Look at the meatworld justice system. We don’t put the defendant on trial and get the whole population to decide guilt or innocence.”

    This is true, but only because a few centuries ago, doing so was not feasible. It was still a popularity contest of sorts. If you were black, or an immigrant from a non-anglo country, you automatically were guilty. They still called it justice.

    There is no reason they could not formalize it so anybody who wanted to vote had to read through and check off item by item all evidence. But yes, it would be possible for vigilante groups to pig pile on people they dont like. The lab could easily have a random system like the surveys you randomly get at login occasionally, to draft people into jury duty and have a limited jury size.

    Either way, a justice system that is open, transparent, and involves the community is long overdue, and given the Lab is legally subject to Marsh v Alabama, would put it in compliance, for once, with the US Constitution.

    I very much doubt LL would implement such a system. Particularly when it comes to people like myself, who have previously documented prior corrupt actions against me by LL staff:

    a) for instance, Plexus Linden trying to claim I copybotted a megaprim owned by Michael Linden, when he has never used a megaprim and abhors them, and at the time, copybotting megaprims was technically impossible. Despite orders from Marty Linden to clear the offense, Harry Linden continued to claim the charge was valid but unbanned me after a few hours (For “good behavior”) because I had a clean record.

    b) Jack Linden attempted to order Agent Linden to ban me from SL for 48 hours during the Open Space Sim Tier Revolt, which I helped lead, while I was speaking to fellow demonstrators at Linden Estate Services Island, for doing nothing but talking to fellow demonstrators. (The particular person operating Agent Linden at that time quit LL the next day in protest of Jack’s actions)

    c) Frontier Linden deleted content of mine at a store on the mainland that was not in violation of any rules, while next door a store was openly selling explicit adult content that should have been restricted to Zindra.

    If there were an open justice system in SL, then all of LL’s dirty laundry would come out, their inside dealings with a FICish few, their corrupt bannings of people who compete against their friends and employees in their private ventures, their persecution of people who go against G-team “War on e-terror” policy and actually solve the griefing problem with tried and tested juvie crime techniques that police departments use all the time (like myself and Woodbury), and their intentional manipulation of my own residents to move out of my sims in order to starve my business. If there were an open and transparent justice system in SL, public enemy number one would be Linden Lab itself.

  12. Darling Brody

    Mar 5th, 2010

    Counterfiling against a DMCA is fine, but publishing the RL details of the person who filed against you is low.

    You just demonstrated why so many creators are too scared to file a valid DCMA against copybotters.

    If you did that against an Australian citizen you would find yourself being extradited from the USA to face charges of cuberstalking in Australia.

    I dont agree with what the JLU did in their wiki, but I find your behaviour here far more sinister.

  13. Brody is a Retard

    Mar 6th, 2010

    @Darling Brody,
    “Counterfiling against a DMCA is fine, but publishing the RL details of the person who filed against you is low.”

    Hey dummy, any legal documents are considered under the law to be public domain. If someone decides to set off the DMCA land mine, they are voluntarily disclosing their identities.

    That said, you are a double dummy, cause Kalel’s RL identity is already well known and documented on Encyclopedia Dramatica.

    Sheesh, it seems to be not possible to overestimate an SL users potential for retard…

    Now, get back on the short bus to la-la land…

  14. We

    Mar 6th, 2010

    @Darling Brody

    Also, the Herald posted Kalel’s real name, which as was said, was already posted to Encyclopedia Dramatica, and known by probably all Second Life griefers already anyways. The JLU on the other hand, collects and posts real life information, face book pages, phone numbers, addresses, etc. of people they don’t like and share them with their entire group on the wiki. I imagine Pixeleen’s real name, address, phone number, are all shared openly on their wiki now due to this DMCA.

    Also, I highly doubt that posting a name on the internet after the person knowingly filed a false DMCA (which means they accepted these results of a counter-file as a possibility), is going to get you extradited to Australia for “Cyberstalking”. Kalel tried to bully people with fraudulent DMCAs in the expectation that no one would fight back against it (largely for the same reasons that you list I imagine, to counter-file you must give your real name and address, which means that Kalel would almost certainly take that and store it in the wiki, and do god knows what with it), and found someone who wasn’t going to take that shit. He lost, and that’s the results, he should be glad that’s all the results, because abusing DMCA like he did is a crime.

  15. [...] the Kalel Venkman and the Justice League Unlimited – a group of vigilantes known for filing frivolous DMCA takedown notices, gang abuse reports, and courting game god favors. Plexus in particular appears to have been a [...]

  16. [...] in LA, I’m hoping for an in-person interview with the Justice League Unlimited’s Kalel Venkman to discuss the fine points of the copyright fair use doctrine and the drawbacks to filing frivolous [...]

  17. [...] their way through Google+ reporting accounts they hope to see banned. I noticed that my old friend Kalel Venkman of the Justice League Unlimited still has a working Google+ profile – presumably because his [...]

  18. anti JLU

    Sep 15th, 2011

    Gregory Eugene Turnbow…..

    No wonder he had no life, all he can do is open a faggot little JLU blog, with 0 comments and listing “griefers” The fun part is, he is guilty on each of his own rules as we speak.

    HE is the one provoking, i love it btw that the list leaked with names of the reporters :) This will come in handy to “fight” crime you fucking idiot….

    Way to go superman.

  19. [...] despite the confidence that a superman-of-steel avatar with a weakness for frivolous DMCA complaints inspires, I do have a few questions. Did Venkman ever consider what sort of [...]

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