Have your ATS threads been hijacked?

Greatly Understood Guys! I'm sorry for the problem I have caused.. But i can tell you that from now on i'll provide the proper information, such as the user name and posted on Abovetopsecret.com if i choose to post a thread.. but i don't think i will do that anymore... I'll make it where users can post their own posts if they like.. So ill let the users of the internet if they want the article to show up on our site. I just think that everyone should be able to hear great info anywhere! Well thanks and i hope you guys won't look at my site like a joke

Update: well it seems like my site has been taken down (all posts lost.. so fresh start )

Originally posted by conspiracymann
Update: well it seems like my site has been taken down

It's possible that your hosting provider received a DMCA complaint regarding content copied from another source. Given the amount of content that was pulled from other sources without attribution, it's a strong likelihood.

Considering I do not like the idea, of my opinions being spray painted all over a virtual board on the internet, is usually what holds me back from really getting so deep in my opinions. Things like this just reinforce my creed, to how I respond to topics on here. Most times with a jest and a small portion of my intellect. People really do take your material and do whatever they wish with it these days. Put it books, movies, etc. etc. who knows, rule of thumb for me is to sound like everyone else and at times, if its really worth drop a pearl. Besides most times when you do drop pearls for no free, they don't listen anyway. Choose your battles carefully. Taking peoples threads thou without their permission and using it for your gain, is selfish. Yet it should not be surprising to you in the first place. Internet=the conscious of mankind.

I don't think this was about personal gain; maybe just excitement for a new website and the desire to fill it up with pertinent content.

In the end, I am glad that this was resolved and we were able to hear conspiracymann's side. I believe his intentions were honorable. We have all learned a great deal from this and only grow from this experience.

Thanks to all who participated in the thread!

Understandable argument but the point of a forum is to exchange information. I always post stuff from here on my Facebook. Does that mean I hijacked a thread?

Wow, I spent a whopping 2 minutes putting together my sphinx thread and someone copied it...???

Oh well, I went to the hijacked thread of mine and it was 404ed so I guess they are shutting them down.

reply to post by SeventhSeal


It's more of a matter of linking the original source and author. I am sure you take great care to do so on your FB. The website in question did not take those steps, in our opinion anyway.

reply to post by SeventhSeal


It depends, If you are posting the full text of a persons post without permission or linking back to the original post or not crediting the poster then yes, it is copyright infringement

Here is a message posted on their front page.

USAHitman Was Censored???

Well Today is Friday October 1, 2010 and Yesterday Our Website Was Taken Down or in Other Words Censored… We were upset to find out that 6,000 Posts have been deleted and as-well our database was deleted! We don’t know if this was a copyright issue or the Government took our website due to the content?? It took a little bit to upload our software.. But we are up and running again!! If your looking for any of our old posts, There GONE! We are starting a new chapter here at the website. We are now allowing users to upload their own content! So join our website and become a poster! Thanks and Please Continue Support Us!

Originally posted by Oneolddude
Well,quite of bit of the threads here have just been taken from other forums anyway.
Many of the new users are not mature enough to do their own research and start their own threads with that research.
I am positive and actually will prove this.
I am doing research and plan on posting the information on numerous other forums,but NOT ATS.
It will eventually show up here I am sure.
Somebody will copy and paste the information here to get as many stars and flags as possible.

This site will insure their threads are not used but does not do anything when members post information from other forums.

Basically live with it or do not post threads.

(I "oranged" the sentence that concerned me.)

Oneolddude, you haven't learnt much about this site in the year you've spent here.
The mods here are very strict about plagiarism. I'm pretty anal about attribution, and frequently point out when copied text is not correctly attributed. On every occasion the mods have promptly fixed the problem.

So my first thought on reading the OP was: "lucky he didn't try that here. He'd have been corrected fast and been thrown out on his arse if he kept it up".

reply to post by Ben81


A star for your service to others posts...................credits don't matter, only the message.

Originally posted by conspiracymann
Well after long debate... I decided to post on this thread... I'm the owner of this site usahitman.com and i have been reading all of your comments... It made me realize what i have done...

Kudos for stepping up, and it is appreciated

I promise to not judge too harshly as maybe your intent was good and the drive to share information across a broader spectrum was the goal. Please do not think ATSers are stingy with the material we choose to research and share, I don't think this is entirely the case.

Conspiracymann,
Also, you don't have to be a stranger to the ATS community, either. You obviously have some degree of passion for the conspiritorial aspects of our shared reality, and I can also respect that in character as well. Maybe ignorance of certain laws is forgivable in the eyes of us laymen (I don't know how many laws there are, either).

Hopefully you can find a place for your website and still be a participating member on ATS, also .

Thanks again for stepping up and claiming responsibility and sharing your thoughts with us, I find it refreshing.

My humble condolences to this small speed bump in your efforts to expound certain possible truisms with a larger community on your website, I hope this does not effect you too dearly on a personal level.

Kind Regards,
John Paul

I'm glad to hear what people have to say... I'm proud to say that we are starting over... We have about two real authors on the site as of now that contribute their own thoughts and now that's our ONLY focus.. Making unique usahitman posts.. I have made it possible for anyone to sign up and add their opinion if they wanted to, so if the person feels like they want to share it, they can! I'm truly inspired by ATS and it's members because they think outside the box and i need to become more like the members on here.. But I'm glad to say, i feel better about myself and my website now.. So ATS thanks for waking up the hitman!

reply to post by sheepslayer247


Someone is full of themselves today. In the vastness of cyberspace we are all just 1's and 0's.

Anyways, since you use a pseudo name then your words are not protected from hijacking. For all we know, you hijacked someone else's material before you posted it on ATS.

Did you apply for a copyright on your threads? No copyright means you have no rights to your own words. Furthermore, you gave up your rights once you registered. You're rights actually belong to ATS.

reply to post by Come Clean

Full of myself? Maybe, who knows. Maybe it was a bad choice to even bring this up. My only goal in this was to let people know that this was occurring. I was a bit surprised and thought others may be as well.

In the end, conspiracymann engaged in the conversation and the matter was resolved. If I am wrong, so be it. My intent was to simply share the information. What happens from there is not up to me.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


I don't think pseudo names can get legal proper credit. Screen names are fictitious by nature unless they use their real name.

But I'm sure ATS might be a little intimidating to them. ATS can claim its their material but I don't think they can claim it's a members material.

WHY? You better make sure that member didn't steal it from someone else. Then you would be supporting copyright infringement. Weren't you guys getting sued for that a little while ago?

Let's look at this legally.

If I write, "I agree" then I can't go around suing people for saying that.

Intellectual property is another thing. I don't think conspiracy sites count as intellectual property. WHY? Because most of the post use cited material from someone elses intellectual property.

Come on here with your OWN intellectual property then you might have a case. Right now, ATS are the only people who can complain. Even then, why would they? Why should they rather? Do they not want internet traffic flowing to their site?

I think this whole thread is a racket to promote another website.

Gimme a break, conspiracymann jumps in and all he does is advertise his own website...think about it.

reply to post by Come Clean

I can only refer you to the OP. I never stated at any time that I questioned the legality. In fact, I even made the comment:

I was flattered that my thread made it to another website, but at the same time I feel that I should have been asked. I know that when I post on ATS it becomes fair game, but common courtesy would be to ask.

Also, I never asked in the OP for any action to be taken.

Originally posted by Come Clean
Let's look at this legally.

Clearly, you're not.

When someone authors a piece and posts it to ATS, that is a protected form of authorship, even when using a pseudonym.

Basing a post on content from other sources is creating a derivative work, also a protected form of authorship.

ATS is a publisher with copyright protection, the member are authors with copyright protection, and we've often worked hard to ensure that our members receive proper citation if their content is copied elsewhere.

Our law firm for intellectual property matters is Bryan Cave, an internationally renowned firm on such matters, and I can assure you the above is correct.