dmca/2016/2016-08-25-essay-seeds.md

**Are you the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf?**  

Yes; I wrote everything in my `essay-seeds` repository.

**What work was allegedly infringed? If possible, please provide a URL:**  

https://github.com/JessiaSutton/essay-seeds is a fork of https://github.com/drostie/essay-seeds under a user who is also using a fake photograph that they likely don't have permission to use as their avatar ([private] is using a popular headshot of [private]). The only file that has been changed is the readme, which attempts to take credit for all of my work, hence if I *did* decide to use a Creative Commons Attribution-style license, it would still be infringing.

Please take careful note of my argument. I *do know* that I am giving an abstract license for someone to press the fork button, by creating a public repository on GitHub (GitHub ToS F.1). However this person/computer (I will simply say "she") has **also** revised the repository by publishing commits in which she claims to be the author of the work and uses it to try and advertise her own essay-writing service. *That* is the infringement. Carefully understood I would say that in the case of an un-open-sourced public repository the only things GitHub licenses one to do are to view the content and fork it; it does not automatically open-source your work or Creative-Commons it, much less public-domain it.

**What files should be taken down? Please provide URLs for each file, or if the entire repository, the repository's URL:**  

https://github.com/JessiaSutton/essay-seeds

**Have you searched for any forks of the allegedly infringing files or repositories? Each fork is a distinct repository and must be identified separately if you believe it is infringing and wish to have it taken down.**  

Yes, this is the only fork I know of and Google does not show these files on anyone else's repositories.

**Is the work licensed under an open source license? If so, which open source license? Are the allegedly infringing files being used under the open source license, or are they in violation of the license?**  

No, I had vague plans to open-source these things later but they are not provided under any license at present. If they were released under CC-AT-* then they would still be infringing.

**What would be the best solution for the alleged infringement? Are there specific changes the other person can make other than removal?**  

I honestly think that this work was used against my wishes to present the co-opter as a false identity, to boost their sales on the associated website. In my opinion the *best solution* would be to torch their account completely. You have that express right in the GitHub terms of service, and this account is not used for any redeeming purpose: it appears to exist purely to infringe on both my and [private]'s copyrights. If you weren't going to do that, removing her fork of my repository is probably the best solution. I honestly wouldn't have minded a fork that seemed to have a legitimate purpose but this one does not; it seems to be trying to advertise her services on a domain by misrepresenting her as some mashup of me and [private]. Now assuming that you feel like this sets a dangerous precedent against a general "right to fork" which exists on GitHub, the weakest resolution of the problem I could see would be to blow away all of the commits which she has made to the fork to personalize it and use it for advertising. That is the least acceptable option for me since it retains the most worldsuck, but I'll take whatever I can get.

**Do you have the alleged infringer's contact information? If so, please provide it:**  

The only information I have, and this is completely speculative, is that she rewrote the Readme to point at a generic file on the domain essaydoc.com, and the WHOIS for that domain suggests that perhaps her name is [private] and she might live in the city of Nicosia in the Republic of Cyprus:
 
Name: [private]  
Organization: [private]  
Mailing Address: [private]  
Phone: [private]  

However that has a very speculative character to it. It is also possible that she is one of many people with accounts on that website attempting to help other people plagiarize their essays, and is trying to appear smarter and prettier with the copyright infringement.

**Type (or copy and paste) the following statement: "I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials described above on the infringing web pages is not authorized by the copyright owner, or its agent, or the law. I have taken fair use into consideration."**  

I have a good-faith belief that the use of the copyrighted materials described above on the infringing web pages is not authorized by the copyright owner, or its agent, or the law. I have taken fair use into consideration. I am the copyright owner of the fork and I do not have any agents, and wholesale misrepresentation is not covered under fair use. I cannot say the same for [private]'s likeness, of course, and cannot suggest that you remove that image; it is merely another reason why you might want to burninate her GitHub account.

**Type (or copy and paste) the following statement: "I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in this notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner, or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner, of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed."**  

I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in this notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner, or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner, of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed. More specifically I have not transferred the copyright for these essay seeds.

**Please confirm that you have you have read our Guide to Submitting a DMCA Takedown Notice: https://help.github.com/articles/guide-to-submitting-a-dmca-takedown-notice/**  

I have read and understand GitHub's Guide to Filing a DMCA Notice.

**So that we can get back to you, please provide either your telephone number or physical address:**  

My phone number is [private], but I will probably let it go to voicemail after not recognizing the incoming number. You can also mail me via snail mail at [private]. Ironically emails are likely to reach me much slower than either of these methods unless they go to my work email (GitHub is tied to a personal one for obvious reasons) -- [private].

**Please type your full legal name below to sign this request:**  

[private]