Breaking my own rules... sort of...

[elfs]

"Elf Sternberg" actually wrote me back. Now, normally I'm loathe to post someone's email, since I consider that a terrible violation of privacy, but hey, since this mail is coming from "me"...

Noone is using YOUR name. Elf Sternberg is not the unique name. For example, there are several Bill Gates's in USA, don't you know about it? I use the name "Elf Sternberg" as my online pseudonym. NOTHING ILLEGAL!

I have purchased the halcyon account as everyone can pucrchase ANY avaiable account. The money has been paid, i don't violate the TOS of halcyon.com. NOTHING ILLEGAL!

Don't try to threat me, it has no sence. Just say me, what do you want? Point by point.

The only thing i can do is to change my online pseudonym as you think that providing click-throughs to hardcore pornography sites by the person with the same name as yours will tarnish your reputation.

To which I remind him:

Revised Code of Washington, 9.35.020:

(1) No person may knowingly obtain, possess, use, or transfer a means of identification or financial information of another person, living or dead, with the intent to commit, or to aid or abet, any crime.

(2)(a) Violation of this section when the accused or an accomplice uses the victim's means of identification or financial information and obtains an aggregate total of credit, money, goods, services, or anything else of value in excess of one thousand five hundred dollars in value shall constitute identity theft in the first degree. Identity theft in the first degree is a class B felony.

I sure hope he's made more than $1500 off his click-throughs. Unfortunately, I've since learned that he lives in Ontario, Canada., so it will probably be hard to get anything out of him other than his silence.

Comments

[abostick59.livejournal.com]

This situation seems less to be about identity theft than it is about branding and intellectual property.

The big problem with online porn sites is that they're pretty much all alike. There are exceptions; and there are questions of genre: hentai != gay male != Par1s H1lt0n v1d30s. But within a genre, it's real tough for a sex site to set itself apart from the pack.

"Elf Sternberg" has a substantial reputation on the Internet for quality in sex and porn. It has branding power.

This worm isn't stealing your identity (SSN, credit cards, etc.) so much as he is stealing your reputation. It is akin to someone using the likeness of a sports figure (say, Ichiro) to sell a product without actually having secured an endorsement.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you're probably right. So far, though, all of the services I've dealt with have more or less agreed that his misusing of my identity is not something with which they want to associate and they've pulled links and accounts. I sent a notice of abuse letter to Yahoo, claiming impersonation, which they're apparently pretty serious about, and we'll see if I can get satisfaction from them.

Not sure how it helps....

[blaisepascal]

I'm uncertain he's violated that law. While he may have knowlingly optained, possesses, used, or transferred a means of identification or financial information of you (living, I presume, not deal), I'm not sure he has committed (or aided or abetted) any crime. After all, is there any crime against setting up web redirectors, or hosting adult web sites?

I'm not saying that he is right in what he's doing, but it might not be covered by that law. If I was trying to pull the scam he's doing, I wouldn't be cowed by that citation.

Re: Not sure how it helps....

[omahas.livejournal.com]

While he may have knowlingly optained, possesses, used, or transferred a means of identification or financial information of you (living, I presume, not deal), I'm not sure he has committed (or aided or abetted) any crime. After all, is there any crime against setting up web redirectors, or hosting adult web sites?

Actually, that isn't the crime he's committed. There is a question of whether he has the right to use the name "Elf Sternberg" since Elf has actually published under that name. Legally, he has the right to use that name. It has become his trademark. And he doesn't have to register it with the government for that to happen (I've been doing a bit of research into trademarks recently, so have a little experience in this). By using the name Elf Sternberg, this guy has violated Elf's trademark.

Also, he sent a letter threatening legal action against someone else for having the alt.sex FAQ up. Now, the alt.sex FAQ is public domain...it's been copylefted. Which means that, though this guy could use it on his site and even get money from its use, so can anyone else. But he sent this letter telling her that she had to take it down because only he had the legal right to use it. In other words, he's claiming the copyright on this document. He does not, in fact, have the legal copyright to this document. He therefore has, to begin with, misrepresented the situation for financial gain, and committed fraud.

[(Anonymous)]

You might want to look into finding some case law. It seems to me that this is exactly the same as one artist using the stage name of some other better known artist. There must have been some lawsuits about that, both in the states and canada.

Btw. I'm just a fan of your work and I read your live journal now and then. You usually have interesting news items.

Dutch_master73

[cadetstar.livejournal.com]

In the United States, the Actor's Equity Association (the stage performance union) specifically prevents a member from using the same name as another member. This claim to their name extends after death to (I think) 20 years. This is in part to prevent the very situation that is occurring.

-Michael

[(Anonymous)]

i know how you feel elf
i have had a problem with people Using WarStoke now i have realy registered it as a trademark cost me $35 to get it done via a lawyer (yes now i know that was a waste) and i own the domain but to this day you can find one person out there who claims that he is warstoke and saying that he is apearing in a gay porn movie yahoo was very helpful in getting all his accounts with them and ebay removed he was selling the taped on ebay

[(Anonymous)]

Click-throughs most likely are considered commercial content. Since he was using a 'personal' website to relay profits to himself, this most likely violates the providers AUP, which should not allow commerical content or profit via personal webspace.