Open letter to all moderators and members of P&Q

As the days go by, it is becoming more and more obvious that it is not possible for members, acting in their own behalf, to make the slightest dent in the activities of Yunes Ramahi (aka gooftastic). Dealing with individual poets with regard to individual poems is something completely non-threatening to him. If fact, I suspect it is a part of his "game" that he relishes.

Has Janis been informed of this situation and, if so, what is he willing to do in an effort to keep our work safe and his members from being victimized? I believe there are only two people who have the clout to get Mr. Ramahi's operation shut down. One is Janis Krumins in his capacity as administrator and owner of the site and the second is Larry Chamberlin as a moderator and the only one of us I know of who can legally use the word "attorney" after his name.

This problem is never going to be solved by a few people managing to get a few of their poems removed from goofbutt's blog. He is not just one little pipsqueak at a computer in his basement stealing a poem here and there to impress a girlfriend. Plagiarism is his BUSINESS and a thriving one at that. He steals not only poetry but artwork, photographs, music, video and anything else that suits his fancy. If any of you doubt what I'm saying, click on the link below, then scroll down to the entry on March 15th where it says "my blog hits are raising", enlarge the picture of the graph and take a good look at how many hits he gets on his various blogs. Multiply any of those numbers by just a penny. The page you are looking at is a screen shot taken by him of a record sent to him by Google. If you're not mad as hell now, you will be.

https://plus.google.com/105193206756858968512#105193206756858968512/post

This kind of information might be what some of the rest of us could do to help Larry or Janis put together their case.....I'm willing.

Respectfully,
Anna Stephens

If I can help by signing anything, or sending anything just let me know. I am all for burning this sucker down.

Thanks for that info and I totally agree with what you are saying. This guy gets me angry and I have every right to be angry at him.

I know people out there have a different view on the situation and are not as furious as others which is fine for them, but if people want to fight for their own work then let them. I've got no problem with people wanting to protect their own work - I want to protect my own work. If others don't then so be it.

I think the mods on this site have tried to contact google (as mod reps) but I don't think they have replied to them yet. I know that there were a lot of poems taken off from what I sent to them and hopefully the others I've sent today will get taken off but I also have mentioned to possibly remove his blog completely. I guess we keep fighting.

x

The problem is that for every poem that Google takes down without shutting him down, he just steals five more. There are steps that can be taken that will convince Google to ban him from everything he has on Google+. Otherwise we're all just spitting in the ocean thinking we can raise the tide.

(Edited and expanded upon)
Here are some informational links and suggestions as to how to go about seeking additional protection under the The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998, as the first step of complaints by individual authors had only limited success and it seems the mods complaints have so far been not responded to/ignored:

Material below is largely abstracted from:

http://www.chillingeffects.org/ (The independent organization run by 7 different prominent Univ, to which Google sends a copy of each legal notice re: copyright infringement)

Here is Google's policy/obligation under the law as quoted on their own form:

"In accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), we only accept copyright complaints from content owners or someone officially authorized to act on their behalf. ...)

Comment: The PnQ moderator team represents everyone involved collectively, and should probably pursue the second step outlined below.

Here is a link to understand the process with DMCA complaints, DMCA safe harbor provisions (which requires Google to give the blogger a legal notice/subpoena - like a show cause notice) and how to request Google to bypass them. Safe harbor notices may not be required as he is a repeat offender with multiple daily infringements. I suspect these safe harbor notices are delaying the process of taking him down:

http://www.chillingeffects.org/dmca512/faq.cgi

Some important lines requoted from this page:

--"Subsection 512(g) provides a safe harbor for ISPs and OSPs when they remove or disable access to material, but only if they have a good faith belief that it infringes copyright, even if it turns out not to. The ISP or OSP must notify the alleged infringer and copyright owner."

--"In addition to informing its customers of its policies (discussed above), a service provider must follow the proper notice and takedown procedures (discussed above) and also meet several other requirements in order to qualify for exemption under the safe harbor provisions."

--" To qualify for exemption under the safe harbor provisions, the service provider must give notice to its users of its policies regarding copyright infringement and the consequences of repeated infringing activity. [512(i)(1)(A)] "

--"What happens if an individual is found to repeatedly infringe?

Answer: The safe harbor provisions require the service provider to include in its copyright infringement policies a termination policy that results in individuals who repeatedly infringe copyrighted material being removed from the service provider networks. [512(i)(1)(A)] This termination policy must be made public in the terms of use that the service provider includes in its contracts or on its web site.

...Hopefully, Google has the above required notices sent to Mr. Goof.. or have posted them somewhere on its Blogger agreement page to take him down.
--------------------------------
Suggestions:

At this point, perhaps a simple letter needs to be drafted by the mods (who represent the copyright owners collectively) and sent to Google address by fax/mail requesting that:
-The website needs to "takedown" the blogger's page immediately, as he has demonstrated malintent by repeatedly infringing on copyright materials from this website, blatantly and with utter diregard to the DMCA act of 1998. He should be therefore considered a repeat offender and qualifies for immediate removal, bypassing the safe harbor notices.

-that they have previously sent all the links of the webpages of the individual owners to Google, but have not been contacted./responded to, which by itself could be a violation of the law (if they have crossed a reeasonable stipulated time limit to respond to such complaints....interestingly they responded only to Lioness so far and heeded her complaint and I assume provided her a contact. I am curious if any of the other members ever filled out the DMCA complaint form (posted by Sibyllene)and if any got a response? Also, I am curious if the mods included the required attestation in the complaint that they represent the website administrator and the individual copyright owners collectively...which they indeed do. If they did not, it may explain easily why Google has not heeded their request).

Anyway....hopefully, an action plan laid out for everyone. I sympathize with you all and wish you the best. If anyone wishes to individually draft a complaint, I had earlier provided a link to the semi-legal format I found and linked on the other page. Here it is again:
http://webdesign.about.com/od/copyright/a/google_copyrigh.htm

Google DMCA in response will be required to follow the following provisions:

--"The ISP (hopefully this includes website) must stop storing the material if it receives notice that the material infringes a copyright, or if it has reason to believe so. The ISP must also designate an agent to handle claims of copyright infringement and make the contact information of that person available to the public. Paragraph (3) of subsection 512(c) sets out the requirements for sending a ?notice and takedown? request.

How is this for starters. Easy enough to draft? Does not need a lawyer to write a simple "takedown" request and fax it. But, with due respects, Larry and the mods should draft it in the correct legal mumbo-jumbo to be really effective.

Apparently, page 4 of 7 of this informative article ( http://webdesign.about.com/od/copyright/ss/fight_theft_4.htm ) states that "Google requires that all reports of copyright violations on Blogger or Picassa be sent to them via postal mail or fax. While this may seem tedious, I have found that submitting reports to Blogger works much better than simply emailing them as in step 2."

Address for Blogger Complaints:

Google, Inc.
Attn: Google Legal Support, Blogger DMCA Complaints
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043

OR fax to:

(650) 618-2680, Attn: Blogger Legal Support, DMCA Complaints

For individuals & site administrators Google explains their role as required to be a Safe Harbor, and other information about the DMCA, including their involvement with ChillingEffects. They also explain how to send them a takedown notice here.

http://support.google.com/bin/static.py?hl=en&ts=1114905&page=ts.cs

Addl Links of sample letters (from other hosting websites) for the mods:

-- http://www.free-legal-document.com/internet-copyright.html
-- http://dmca.cs.washington.edu/sample.html
--http://www.brighthub.com/office/entrepreneurs/articles/78385/p2/

For individual/mods:

--http://www.free-legal-document.com/copyright-forms.html
-- http://www.hostgator.com/copyright.shtml

You do realise that what you just wrote kinda sounded like Lawyer mumbo jumbo anyways lol Thanks for that David, you've done an awesome thing posting the above!!!

x

JK, but really, if theres anything anyone of us can do that besides bitch at him or bitch about him, personaly Im game, Ill back anybody up on this

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Joke or no joke, stay off my thread until you grow up!!!!

Have all the plagiarized members sent a "Cease and desist" letter to Mr. Yunes Ramahi (aka gooftastic) at Yunes.ramahi@yahoo.com , which is generally the first step (but not required here, as he has multiple infringements to his credit).

Here is a sample Cease and Desist Letter that can be edited to your liking. This letter was copied from a 2006 post on Plagiarism at this site (http://www.poems-and-quotes.com/discussion/topic.html?topic_id=51900):
---------------------------------------------

Dear [name]:

It has come to my attention that you have made an unauthorized use of my copyrighted work entitled [name of work] (the "Work") in the preparation of a work derived therefrom. I have reserved all rights in the Work, first published in [date], [and have registered copyright therein]. Your work entitled [name of infringing work] is essentially identical to the Work and clearly used the Work as its basis. [Give a few examples that illustrate direct copying.]

As you neither asked for nor received permission to use the Work as the basis for [name of infringing work] nor to make or distribute copies, including electronic copies, of same, I believe you have willfully infringed my rights under 17 U.S.C. Section 101 et seq. and could be liable for statutory damages as high as $150,000 as set forth in Section 504(c)(2) therein.

I demand that you immediately cease the use and distribution of all infringing works derived from the Work, and all copies, including electronic copies, of same, that you deliver to me, if applicable, all unused, undistributed copies of same, or destroy such copies immediately and that you desist from this or any other infringement of my rights in the future. If I have not received an affirmative response from you by [I would give him 48 hrs!] indicating that you have fully complied with these requirements, I shall take further action against you.

Very truly yours,

I hate to say that we really can do nothing about that. One poem is deleted, 20 are uploaded instead. And if google shuts down his blog, he can still make zillion others... on wordpress.com .... blogspot.com .... any place! Who knows?
He would publish a book!

But whoever is exerting any kind of effort, he/she is surely to be thanked and appreciated. The thing needs persistence and a lot of collective efforts.

I apologise for sounding immature earlier, I have a tendencie to try to make light of bad situations in order to keep from actually getting worked up and angry. These poems, art, pictures, ect. that he stole are the long hours many people stay up late to create then they use the internet to share their art with people, not to have other people claim it for themselves. I may not be a victim, but that dose not mean that I dont care about the people who are.

Now, LP, I do agree with you that it will be hard becouse of the vast resources and blog websites I am pretty sure that there are actual laws about what hes doing that are grounds for a good amount of jail time, we need to find a way to stick him with actual charges. It will have to be a collective effort and of course we cant back down, but it can be done, im almost sure of it

All I can say is that I fully empathize with the two of you, in sharing your anger. Unfortunately, US laws do not make it any easier to prosecute or enforce on anyone, given the required notifcations, the right to free speech and all the other niceties there are for the rights of an accused. Everyone is assumed innocent unless he/she can be proven guilty, and there is always a "procedural" thing, which delays enforcement. No wonder this DMCA stuff is not easy to enforce on this guy, given the fact that Google has agreed to participate in "safe harbor" to avoid easy penalties and harassing lawsuits by people. And as LP said there is no guarantee either he will not resurface on another website carrying on the same racquet ...but one can periodically check for his reappearance using the Copyscape and Google tools (mentioned in other post), which by itself are search engines to search for plagiarism. To compound the issue he is in a country without an economic treaty with the US, so one cannot threaten him with economic/criminal penalties that exist here in the US.

So to answer your dilemma, if the mods fail to defend the plagiarism of your work on PnQ, and for unknown reasons Google does nothing more, and you want to see the likes of him punished for their deeds in the International blogging/poetry community, I have an alternate suggestion...not as radical as proposed earlier in the original Plagiarism thread, but will work to stop him and the likes of him, nevertheless.

Front page his deeds on blogger, by posting a "polite" blog about Plagiarism and famous Plagiarists. A humorous blog which respects all rules of the website and still condemns (not condones) the thievery, with humor (not chop his head off or cut his b....), e.g.

Title of Blog: Worlds most Infamous Plagiarists

First entry: Yunes Ramahi (aka gooftastic) can be reached at Yunes.ramahi@yahoo.com .

Profile: Paste his photo if you like or anything that identifies him....the flipside of not doing so, will be allowing him to reappear elsewhere in no time in a different guise.

Occupation: Master Heistman, of people's emotions and art. Location : Amman, Jordan

Published works: Mosquito dt. xxxx
(lifted from PnQ page xxxx)
etc, etc

Praise & Comments: Here is where the rest of you get in and leave your lovely comments, which do not violate website policy, are effective, bring out the point that such people are not tolerated, and are not hopefully crude. Perhaps post some quotes, short poems about his accomplishments, etc. End with something like, can we nominate you for master heistman Oscar, etc...funny stuff.

Then perhaps leave an open link on the blogsite for the second one you see who commits flagrant plagiarism anywhere, under a subtitle
"Who wants to nominate the next one"

If the blog stays polite (and you can be the moderator of the comments to make sure it does), you have found an answer to such characters....and effectively dissuaded many more from carrying out their filthy occupation blatantly. After all the net is a free place, and the rules for social decency are made by its users, based on their real world experience.

(LP, Clown and whoever else who feel they can handle running a humorous blog...consider taking this innovative challenge, after another 1-2 weeks have elapsed and Google has done little to stop him.)

I fear that I have failed to impress upon you nice folks the size and scope of the operation run by Yunes Ramahi. He began putting together his empire of shame in 2008 and has expanded it into what seems like every corner of the internet. Google? He's there. Yahoo? he's there. Bing? He's there. Go Daddy? He's there. There is no way that a handful of individual poets filing a few Cease and Desist Orders is going to impact him in any way. All he does is take down those poems, then steal 3 times as many. And he's making money on you, on me, on our friends and fellow poets!!!!! Not just nickels and dimes, people. He's making THOUSANDS of dollars!!!!!
The ONLY way this can be solved is by someone with the authority to speak for this site and its members, the willingness to speak on our behalf.....someone willing to carry a very big stick and who has a whole lot of moxie. Someone who will go as far up the Google hierarchy as is possible and make the case that it is in their best interest to get rid of this cancer and all the tentacles it has grown.

I would love to be able to jump on the bandwagon of one person against the giant. I would love to think that we could scare him or shame him or cajole him into changing his ways, but that just isn't going to happen. That route will only lead us into a constant state of fear that we, or someone we know, will be his next victim.

"The ONLY way this can be solved is by someone with the authority to speak for this site and its members, the willingness to speak on our behalf....."

^ Post #5 does address that exactly, but through the legal route required (Please read it completely, I think Larry is researching them too, and will come out with the mods action plan pretty soon). You cannot just throw him off blogger or yahoo or Bing, without going through the DMCA complaint/takedown requirements, as these big websites/search engines are legally bound to follow each line of the law to the n'th extent before throwing him out. The reason Google did not listen to the mods was discussed above, but is simply a presumption, as we know very little of what the mods wrote to Google.

Post # 9 is a basic required 1st step in this process, unfortunately, for an individual (The PnQ representatives/mods can circumvent this by representing us all, which they did, but probably not in the right legal format...as cited above, so may have to redo their letters stipulating/attesting that they represent the entire PnQ authorship).

Post # 12 is an alternate, innovative plan for the adventurous, as you all are right. He is a Professional at this and will resurface again under a new guise to make money or whatever. But, awareness will bring all the websites together to ban his IP/IP's and seek financial/criminal penalties using their influence.

I do understand your frustration, but at this point it is best to let Larry and the mods think about this and give them some breathing space to draft an action plan and present it to the entire PnQ community. I think all of us are willing to help, and in all likelihood they have got your and other PnQ members message loud and clear. Perhaps, they can start by posting the letters they sent to Google and the one they would like to send for suggestions/review by the community they are representing, before they actually send them off. But, it is really up to them.

I have a question that maybe someone can answer.

Sorry I am going a little off topic in your thread Anna but something just came to mind and I am wondering if this is possible or not. And perhaps may be a solution to the P&Q poems being plagiarized.

Is there a way or is it even possible for Janis to prevent copy/paste and print screen on our submitted poems? I'm sure people would find other ways to steal the poems but if they had to go through a lot of work to steal them, perhaps they wouldn't even bother if it took a lot of work to do so.

With all due respect LS, hearing your assessment of what the mods are or are not doing is not something I find particularly helpful or soothing. Nor do I find it appropriate for you to speak on their behalf. If they are simply ignoring the situation, or planning a strategy or, perhaps, already have put a plan into action, they need to speak for themselves.

Lu,
I don't consider any suggestions to solving some part or all of this situation to be off topic. I think your idea should be explored. Anything to slow this moron down would be helpful, even in the short run

I agree, Anna. We need one representative such as Janis or a mod who can speak for us. This pig is making so much money off of us and unless the mods are talking behind the scenes, it seems no one in 'charge' really cares.

Oh I thinkit is a brilliant idea for the site to ban copy and paste!!! That is awesome. I hope it canbe done as this as$ is taking advantage of us poets!!! So angry!!!

When all of this started I brought up the idea of removing copy and paste in the mod forum. It's something I'm really hoping will be changed and it'll definitely stop a lot of poems being plagiarized from our site. The only con that is involved with this is when a member leaves a comment they will not be able to copy and paste or quote lines of the poem. I think that's a small price to pay for the safety of our work.

Sibs as a mod representative of this site has contacted Google but don't believe she has heard anything back. Also thanks to Lioness who had some of the poems removed from the site, it's a start in showing we're going to fight to protect our work.

I noticed on the link that Anna shared for us all that when this guy posts a poem people are able to share it on their own blog or Google page which is even more irritating as he's spreading everyone's work around. Anna is right, I had a look around and he's on basically every social or feed site out there, from Facebook to twitter and a couple of sites I hadn't even heard of. I noticed he puts a lot of his personal information out there too including a phone number so I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't receive a thousand phone calls from people who have had their work stolen by him.

Janis has only just returned from his trip, he's been quite sick but he has stated he'll begin working on site issues once he's feeling better. I'll re-suggest the idea of removing the copy and paste ability from the website. If I can do anything else as a mod then please let me now.

Edit: I have just taken a look at our list for Janis to do and Sherry and Larry have both recently re-suggested this idea to Janis so hopefully it'll be implemented as soon as possible. We're looking at ways to make plagiarism harder, any suggestions would be appreciated.

Now that wasn't so hard was it? LOL Thanks for the update Mel, I really appreciate it....as I'm sure we all do.

When Kay and I started following every link we could find that was affiliated with this guy, I was completely mind-boggled at the extent of his network. The fact that he has his phone number and email address posted in so many places just shows how arrogant he really is. Unless the phone number belongs to his worst enemy.

I sincerely hope we all can come through this with only a few tiny scars.

I suggest you remove the homepgae of this site when someone enters. instead, if someone wants to enter, he(she) should have a username and password. (believe me, when people see that they have to make an account to do something simple on any website, they quickly run away)

And making an account should have so many details, and maybe contact info.

Along with what was said before, banning the copy and paste, will decrease plagiarizing a looot.

Sorry I kind of dropped off the planet for a bit. It was my spring break last week, and I spent it flying out to two different grad schools (before Easter) to check them out. Now I'm back! It might be a bit spotty until next week, because I have to pick a school like... now... so I've been spending a bunch of free time researching. And I'm visiting another school this weekend.

It's good to see more ideas being thrown out here.

Guys,

We are not ignoring you. We have told Janis of the situation, but until we hear back from him we can not go and send out leaglized letters to these companies.

If so, then we could be getting ourselves in trouble, personally. Please, be patient and let us try to figure this out. Janis has been ill and we are waiting for him to get well again.

In the meantime we have brainstormed and proposed some ideas to hel prevent thieves from stealing your poetry.

There is nothing in the world that can stop someone 100%; however, we are working on making it as hard as possible and trying to gather ways to get your work back for you.

Keep posting your ideas!

Well, the little blood-sucker struck twice in the past 24 hours. Both poems stolen from the same author. I think our patience has been stretched just about as far as one should expect it could. Get our work back to us? Really? He has scattered it to the ends of the earth and while we sit here "being patient" he's continuing to steal our property, while his checks just get bigger and bigger and bigger.

I think as long as someone comes out and at least states what's going on, like you all just did, we know the issue is being worked on and not ignored. I understand this has a lot of stuff you all will do that we can't and won't outwardly see, but communication with us who can't know all the details is nice :)

Until then, plagiarized individuals should at least consider reporting the copyright infringement on their poems individually, using this Google DMCA copyright infringement portal.

http://support.google.com/bin/static.py?hl=en&ts=1114905&page=ts.cs

Maybe if there are enough complaints, and "takedown" requests showing that he is a repeat offender, Google and other sites will take him down anyway, with or without mods/administrator help.

There are also ways to report him to the major search engines, to have his webpage blocked from searches on your poems, particularly when his page appears higher in hierarchy than your own when searching your poem by title.

David;

can you help me exactly what to do with the link above me?

---

And.. if someone knows in such stuff;

Which side do I contact?

Do I contact the Jordanian Embassy here, in Lebanon to get help ?

or Do I contact the Lebanese Embassy, there in Jordan to get help?

And... this whole embassy issue, do you think it may work in reporting the infringement?

* Edited: sorry David, but I went through what you said above (what one can do)... was so much confused.

I have been contacting links and websites, trying to get this guy removed, but so far I've heard nothing.... its getting very discouraging... I'm all for the No copy and paste, and I hope it gets implemented.

Communication could have been better with you guys. Sorry. I think we just figured "well, nothing is happening, so there's nothing to update." In the future, we'll let you guys know what ideas we're throwing around.

I do think, as "a site," we have to wait for the OK from Janis on some fronts. However, that should not stop any individuals from taking whatever means they wish to follow to try to contact Yunes, his host sites, or copyright sites/experts. That all can be in your hands, if you want it to be. As a site, we probably have to be more cautious, thus the waiting.

I think the copy-paste idea would be a pain, but it might be worth it. I wonder if there's any way to allow pasting within the site, but not from this site to another. Anyone? I don't know computers, so I don't even know if that's a dumb question.

Abed: No embassy or Govt to contact. I do not think I mentioned that above. But, if you are concerned enough to bring him to the attention of authorities...it would be the Jordanian Govt. You will contact their local consulate in your country, as a concerned citizen of a neighboring country, to report him as a thief, since he is brazenly committing theft of your and others artwork. Here is a link to contact them in your country.
http://www.embassypages.com/missions/embassy17524/

Otherwise, each new complaint has to start with the link provided just above your post , it will guide you to this page ultimately:

http://support.google.com/bin/request.py?&product=blogger&contact_type=lr_dmca

Follow instructions and attestation requirement on this form. Ask Lioness, as she has done this successfully, I have not.

Essentially, the steps should be:
1) Reporting your copyright violations. Provide them the links, etc
(They have complete instructions, I believe on the form).
2) Request a "takedown" of his webpage, as he has repeatedly plagiarized your work, and to your best knowledge many others from this website, which is a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The word "repeated" infringements will be the one to pursuade them to take action, bypassing the safe harbor notifications to him.
3) If you get a "contact" assigned, ask him/her how you can have the infringer's plagiarized work banned from Google search engine and other websites he has been sharing his work. I am sure, they will give you a more Professional answer than I have.
4) Make sure you complete the required attestation.
5) Lastly, if they still need you to fax/mail the request with signature (which I suspect that they do after reading all the stuff), do fax at # above, or PM me and I will assist you to fax via pdf loaded form. (EDIT^: Just realized looking at the Google form, that they accept digital/electronic signatures, and also have a step-by-step guide link on the form itself).
6) It may be also be perhaps prudent for people who have an access to a fax machine to send the same letter in a semi-legal format using one of the sample forms (if one is not provided on the Google DMCA link). I can assist with that as well via PM or post it here later tonight if you wish.

All the best.

Andrea: Have you actually filled out Google's DMCA complaint form, electronically attested it and sent them? If not, they are unlikely to act, given the reverse liability they carry if the plagiarist ever sues them. If you have already sent the electronic form, your next step is probably faxing Google the request in the prescribed format for DMCA complaints.

Before doing anything with the copy paste feature it really needs to be thought out completely. There are writers who do not have hard copies nor computer copies of their poems and when suspended or when they want to close accounts, how would they copy their poems in order to keep them. (As a note the copy paste could be a feature of the Windows operating system and if it is, not sure Janis could do anything about it.)

Sibyllene & Sherry Lynn: I have to respectfully disagree with you on the responsibility that you folks have, as site moderators on waiting for Janis for the following reasons:

1) Reporting plagiarism (theft) which is very visible to all of the PnQ members including the rightful owners of the poems can be done without waiting. You are simply reporting an observation (respectfully) to another sister website in the capacity of moderators of what is actively occurring and has been reported to you by members.
2) In fact you (Sibs) already said you did it on the other thread. But, did you electronically attest and sign identifying yourself as a moderator of the website (it does not require an owner to sign)? If you indeed did everything correctly, including the attestation and electronic signature and identified yourself as a site moderator, you should simply follow up with a second request, to include a "takedown" of his webpage request, perhaps this time with a faxed copy as well, and that should do it.
3) There can be no legal repercussions to you folks personally, when you are reporting an observation which is backed by hundreds of PnQ members. You are not threatening any legal action (yet) but simply filing a copyright infringement report and a "takedown" request on behalf of members (not owner). It is Google's DMCA dept responsibility to investigate your complaint and act against him, not yours.
This guy is in Amman, Jordan, a criminal no other than a common thief (edited) in lieu of a better word to describe him) who is committing broad daylight robbery of people's priceless art, and then taunting everyone by providing his name, photo and E-mail, and yet you consider him a legal risk? I am really puzzled on this one.

Check this out please: http://theosmblog.com/2010/03/05/file-dmca-takedown-notice/

I like the idea of removing the copy and paste feature. Could it be possible to still copy and paste within the edit feature of our own poems though? I think that would solve the issues with those that don't have copies of their own poems and still make posting poems on here easy.

Per Abed's request above, I am posting a pre-formatted Copyright infringement letter to Google for those individuals who wish to submit it by fax/mail. This should only be used if you had difficulty completing the easy online Google DMCA form or did not get a response. This letter was formulated using language from sample letters, I found on various webpages, including those of 2 attorney websites:
------------------------------------

Date: [Month, Date, Year]

Google, Inc.
Attn: Google Legal Support, Blogger DMCA Complaints
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043

VIA FAX: (650) 618-2680, Attn: Blogger Legal Support, DMCA Complaints

Subject: A) DMCA Notice of copyright infringement, and B) Takedown request of webpage of repeat infringer, hosted on Blogger as below:

URL of Infringer's home page:
Name/Address of Infringer:

To Whom It May Concern:

A) This letter is a Notice of Infringement as authorized under section 512(c) of the U.S. Copyright Law under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). I seek the removal of the aforementioned infringing material from your servers by the above mentioned individual. I am reporting the following instances of Copyright infringement, which appear on his Blogger pages, a web hosting service, for which you are the designated agent. I request that you immediately notify the infringer of this notification and inform them of their duty to remove the infringing material immediately, and also notify them to immediately cease and desist with any further posting of infringing material to your host server in the future. Action is requested within 48 hrs of receipt of this notice.

Please be advised that law requires you, as a service provider to the webhost, to remove or disable access to the infringing materials upon receiving this notice. Under US law a service provider, such as yourself, enjoys immunity from a copyright lawsuit provided that you expedtiously investigate and remove ongoing copyright infringement and its perpetrator. If service providers do not investigate and remove or disable the infringing material this immunity is lost to them. Therefore, in order for you to remain immune from a copyright infringement action it is your obligation to investigate and ultimately remove or otherwise disable the infringing material from your servers with due speed should the direct infringer, your client, not comply immediately.

(OPTIONAL) B) This letter also serves as a legal notice/request to entirely remove the webpage of the said infringer, as he is a repeat offender, of my work and many of my fellow Poet's works from the website "poems-and-quotes.com" (PnQ). His account was suspended/disabled by my website administration, once he was identified to be responsible for stealing over 50 poems from PnQ members, backdating them and posting them under under his own name on his personal webpages on Blogger. A partial list compiled by PnQ members can be found under comments section of his one and only poem (probably stolen from somewhere as well) here under his pseudoname Gooftastic aka Yunes Ramahi (http://www.poems-and-quotes.com/author.html?id=487294). This can be further verified by contacting any of the moderators of the website (http://www.poems-and-quotes.com/moderators.html) and reviewing the partially compiled listings of the poems he stole earlier (but were removed by Google after earlier similar complaints by individual members) on the following page of the website (http://www.poems-and-quotes.com/discussion/topic.html?topic_id=134872). Unfortunately, this list will never be complete, as he continues to steal poems till date from PnQ. The poems listed in the link above have been removed upon prior complaints, but replaced by new stolen one's by the infringer (I believe all from mebers of PnQ). He will not stop.

Therefore, under the law, I am asking that his blogger account be permanently suspended/disabled and work posted under his name be permanently removed from Google owned websites and search engines. Because he is a repeat (many times over) offender his log-in IP's should be banned from your websites as well, to prevent him reappearing under another name.

1. The following copyrighted material, belongs to me and appears illegally on your blogger website:

Name of Poem: URL : (Insert Link)
Name of Poem: URL : (Insert Link)
etc

2. This unauthorized material that belongs to me can be found here:

[insert link/s to the stolen contents similarly from your pages]

This site appears in Google search results for "[Name of Poem, author]" as well as other search terms, but has been infringed upon by the above mentioned individual.

3. I am providing this notice in good faith and with the reasonable belief that the copyrighted materials as described above were not authorized by me the copyright owner, or my agent, or the law.

4. I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner and hold exclusive rights on the aforesaid material that is being allegedly infringed by your client and hosted on the above mentioned webpage.

Please forward me the details of action/s taken and a contact ID/name, in this matter, as provided under the law.

Thank you for your prompt attention in this matter.
Sincerely,

Electronic Signature or Signature (if mailed/faxed) [Electronically type your name or Sign]

My contact information is as follows:
[Your Name and Physical Address]
[Your Email] (Your telephone contact #)
-----------------------------------------------

Here are the required contents of a DMCA complaint:

(i) A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
(ii) Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site.
(iii) Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to locate the material.
(iv) Information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address at which the complaining party may be contacted.
(v) A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
(vi) A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
-----------------------------------------------------

Hope it helps all of you who wish to pursue this route. PM me if you have qns, or better still ask Larry our real legal consultant!

The sample letter by David is legally appropriate. You must send it by certified mail, return receipt requested (email notice to you by the US Postal Service will suffice). Keep a copy of what you send, attached your proof of mailing to the copy. Later, attach proof of delivery. Scan the entire demand letter & notices as a single document & have it ready.

(Smile :) To be recognized by a legal authority!
Din't do too bad of a job, did I? The letter is indeed lengthy and there are many shorter versions on the web, but without the section B), which I crafted in, that will really get him out of webspaces owned by Google.

Just a comment from personal experience in other fields. Big companies rarely ignore letters sent by ordinary mail or fax, as they carry risk of penalties and liabilities, if they instruct their employees to do so. So for people who do not want the inconvenience and expense of doing it by the legal fullproof method of certified mail, as suggested by LArry, I would simply print, sign in ink and fax it. Most fax machines give you a fax confirmation printout if you know how to operate their controls, and that is the equivalent of a certified mail, generally. Also, if you do not get an acknowledgement in your stipulated time (72 hrs in above letter), you can always do what Larry suggested. :)

I still think that using Google's online DMCA form correctly is still the easy way. I wonder if it gives you a complaint acknowledgement # or submission confiramtion by E-mail once received? If it does, all you need to do is retain a copy of the complaint by copy and paste method in your records.

{I wish it was that easy to get acknowledgement/comments back when you put nice comments on nice poems by some PnQ members.) (Nevertheless :) }

(Off to an all day meeting I go, singing lyrics...
Dum Dam Da Dum... That's the way you got to go. So put your hands in the air and say I would not give up on a thief (pipsqueak).

David, I did not confer a law degree.

Now, define "succinct" in 5 words or less

:8- |

^^ Law degree: I am not at all actively seeking it, but thank you for your consideration, though. :) I wouldn't pursue it in my afterlife. I rather be happy with my more vegan (humane) pursuits and trade.

Succinct=opposite of verbose, wordy

Aha! now isn't that (verbosity/logorrhea) what most lawyers have to be really good at to be successful in the courtroom to pursuade the judge/jury. It must be my lawyer alter ego which made me produce the draft.
Thank God, I am satisfied with my simple analytic/teaching skills, to help people understand the mumbo-jumbo in various fields (science, philosophy, law or psychology). I do use brevity, where appropriate, but if I practiced it here to explain DMCA, a legal document not written for simpletons like me, my fellow law-naive PnQers would still be baffled on what to do next, left on their own. So here I enjoyed being sententious than laconic. (Is that explanation "succinct" enough?) X-D

Sibs: Your poems are lovely :-P, so you are welcome to have a laugh on me. As long as you do not pick up Jane's silver whip and chase me with it :) I thought of knocking on Jane's door one of these days, to see what she is really like in real life, but she threatened to let loose her rottweiller on me. Would you do that to me too if I came visiting you? >:D

Isn't this awful to blame a guy who is punished enough, by being artless and so unable of creating them, yet recognizing them, loving, appreciating, them this much, this much?
god poets are such self absorbed and nada heart crowed!