If you have been over to the SWBN blog and seen a blog suspended notice, you might be wondering what is going on. Yesterday the author of Twitter Rocket (TR) filed a DMCA (Copyright Infringement notice) with the domain host regarding the post titled “Twitter Rocket Spam Report“.
The standard procedure for the domain host when this happens is to take the site down for breaking the Terms of Service. If the person who has been reported, disagrees, then they make a statement in a counter DCMA and the host brings the site back up and the complainant makes the decision whether to resort to the legal system. If today was a week day the site would be back up and all would be as it was with the blog post still there. Alas the Gods of the Weekend have intervened and BlueHost’s legal department are off till Monday.
So until then, let’s look at the facts -
In the emails that went back and forth between us it was apparent the author, Ashley Morgan (AM), was not worried about negative reviews, he believed that the TR process itself was covered under copyright. If I had published any of the words, typography, written instructions then he would have a point. But I didn’t. I made a careful and thoughtful review of each of the steps using none of the published material. The numbering isn’t the same, the order isn’t the same; there are 5k words plus in that eBook and the only word I quote directly is “dramatically”. In short, no leg to stand on (terrible pun there)
To further clarify, here is what the UK Copyright Service says about situations like this (AM is in the UK)
“How do copyrights differ from patents?
Patents apply to inventions or ideas, whilst copyright applies to written or recorded work.
In the example of a document detailing an invention or idea, the patent protects the concept, idea or invention itself whereas copyright would protect the written document. An infringement would occur if the written description was copied, whilst a patent would protect the idea being put into use. “
and further
Are ideas covered?
No, but dependent on what the idea is, i.e. an invention, it may be possible to apply for a patent…
Copyright does however protect the physical content of drawings, diagrams or plans for inventions but it cannot prevent the invention/idea from being used elsewhere. “
That is pretty clear, if I copied the words and description I would be in trouble with copyright law. If the process or concept had been patented and I was trying to sell it or pass it off as my own, then I would be in trouble with patent law. There is no issue with copyright and the author has made no mention of patent so my assumption is there isn’t one (not even sure if you can patent a process like this anyway).
AM mentioned in one of his emails to me that what I was doing was revealing the recipe for KFC chicken; fyi recipes cannot be copyrighted OR patented. You can however create a Trade Secret, which KFC chicken is, and enforce it with a non-disclosure agreement for all who come in contact with it. Still there isn’t any such agreement included with this matter.
The Other Stuff
There are a few interesting (well I find it interesting) points about all of this. The first point is I am totally flabbergasted that AM would even get upset at all after his own “expose” of a Twitter follower method.
Always eager to burst the bubble of scam programs like Brute Force Twitter I’m going to share with you the contents of the program. Before any lawyers, or pretend lawyers, get all frustrated and squirm in their ill fitting suits, I’m only going to share with you what I have learned from reading the ebook and watching the videos. I’m not going to copy and paste the Brute Force Twitter method, I’m simply going to tell you honestly what I learned from it and how it works. Of course, this means I’m going to reveal all the big secrets, like the piece of computer equipment that everyone has that makes getting Twitter followers much easier.
And then he goes on to describe it…. so it’s OK for him to do it to someone else, but not OK for it to happen to him. A harsher person would cry “hypocrisy”, I will just continue to be gobsmacked. AM mentioned in email that he was OK to do that because he believed the other Twitter following scheme was a scam, and what he proposes isn’t a scam. I’ll leave it up to my readers to make a call on that one.
Next are the product evangelists for AM. Awesome that he has generated such a enthusiastic and supporting following, but there is the issue with integrity and authenticity with one or more of the members. This won’t be AM’s fault unless he has given instructions to his followers to behave in a certain way. Example – the responses to the post by one of the followers appeared to be either trying to cover up the contents of the eBook, or didn’t know the contents themselves. They were adamant that I did not know the contents and that I was guessing. Of course AM wouldn’t go to such lengths to put in a DMCA if I had “guessed” the contents, so I do wonder where that follower gets their strange ideas from.
AM also asserted in the email exchange that I did this purely for traffic. Have to say an absolute unequivocal No to that one. I really try with every post I write, to answer a question or issue, a person in small business has, or may have. Several people had asked what my verdict was on this product as the TR contents are not available for perusal before purchase (if anything is scam-like, that little gem is it). I even offered advice to AM about how he could make the product better so it would work for small business people in the comments of our blog, and queried why he was selling so CHEAPLY life-time support (do NOT sell your self for life for a one time payment $97). I tried to point out this is an opportunity. Maybe he will think so too in the future, it could be the win-win that he mentions when discussing creating syndicates.
Lastly I will admit I am annoyed at myself for wasting a lot of productive time writing this post and the other. As you know my recent mantra is, will this activity lead to making me money? Well yes it probably could, but definitely not in the way I want to. When I create content I don’t want it to be a dead end, a statement and nothing else. I should have also pointed out how others can make similar products and pulled apart the marketing methods so others could incorporate them (not just advice for the author). I will do so next time.
Planned and executed my exit from the corporate world. Walked away with a 6 figure payment to boot.