I posted this note to three forums: I am a moderator of this forum and I need your help.

The C . . . I Am Organized Tech Organizer My BackUp Book is my intellectual
property in all its forms. I authored it. I designed it, it is my concept,
it is my idea and my property.
It is registered and owned and copyrighted by my company ePower Organize IT,
Inc.

The copyright as per the readme file in the CIAM PDA version acknowledges
that the copyright is owned by ePower Organize IT, Inc., and the system has
a registered ISBN number. Our arrangement with the fellow who wrote the pda
program was that he would provide the key code and program support using a
link to his site as a forum link, so all the pda owner's would benefit if
they ran into any "install" glitches.

That link is down, and it is not possible for us to provide key codes for
the PDA program because he SOLD his web site without notifying us.

We have been unable to locate the new owner of the initial web site, and the
fellow who wrote the pda program for us says he does not know who he sold
the company to and has no method of contacting them. Through a third party
with his wife,
he indicated that he had sold all the programs that were on his web site and
suggested sending the new site owners an email from the site support/contact
us link.

We have, however, only been able to locate the name of the site
administrator for
the (sold) web site that is now merged with another web site. Although using
his original web site name, the site now offers a multitude of services such
as
mortgages, find an agent and others, but emails bring no response. We have
endeavored to make contact with all concerned, with no response.

It has at the same time, just come to our attention that the fellow who
prepared the
initial pda program for us, without our permission took each "segment"
of
the C . . . I Am Organized hard copy binder system (he has a hard copy), and
turned each segment
into a mini pda program and sold them in individual segments, even showing
his wife's
picture on the module (she is a real estate agent who is an ePro), and sold
them independently without
ever notifying us.

If anyone purchased our program in modules by any other name, through anyone
but me or our
acknowledged resellers, or any portion/segment thereof, you have bought
stolen property. Permission was never granted for selling "segments" or for
developing them, thus the new owner is perhaps unknowingly now selling
pirated Palm Pilot pda
software on their site.

Of course our attorneys are now involved, but in an effort to expedite
matters - Does anyone have any suggestion how to find out who he sold the
web site to? who actually "owns" it?

I have not named names in this post, but the fellow participated in forums
periodically, and I cannot imagine that a colleague would do such an
underhanded thing. We have learned that he has returned to teaching high
school apparently, but will not return my calls personally. One would have
to wonder "what" he is teaching? with teaching being such an honorable
profession. I hope he doesn't teach business practices. He allegedly worked
as a program developer for the past thirty years and apparently worked for
major companies like IBM and others, so he would know better than to work in
this
underhanded manner and the ramifications of so doing, but would also know
how to do
back-door business it seems, under cover.

If anyone out there in the forum knows someone who can write a new PDA program
for us or how to re-activate the key code apparatus, I would be pleased to
hear from you at ciam@netrover.com (off list please). It is only the PDA
version that has been
affected. The binder system version of the organizer is perfectly fine, as
is the eBook. I just want to reassure folks who may have questions.

Fortunately only one pda version order has been affected, as this all
transpired only within the past few weeks; the buyer does not want to return
the pda version
for a credit, although we offered to reimburse him, but does want to
activate the pda program. He is a REALTOR
with much patience, and I do appreciate him. Later I will release his name
with his permission so you can all send referrals to him. He has been more
than kind.

I also authored, designed and created a program called PINK. A friend even
provided the graphic. It is a tiny personal reminder program that was done
as a gift for the NAR convention give away, and is still available on my
site for FREE. He refused to release the copyright as being mine. That
should have been my first clue as to whom I was dealing with. The new site
is now giving it away as well. IT IS MINE! also.

It is my intent to do a press release regarding this issue if it is not
resolved promptly, so other folks do not have to go through a situation
similar wherein their intellectual property is outrightly STOLEN, much less
by an industry colleague who knows what I have already gone through
personally in the past few years, and that I am only now just returning to
work full-time.

Feel free to contact me off list for details. I appreciate any and all
advice regarding this issue. I can use all the help I can get. I know there
are some very skilled folks on the forum
. If you can help, please advise. Much appreciated. Carolyne


=========
Carolyne - Brampton real estate = http://www.carolyne.com
"Where'd I put my stuff ?" Search Key words - Tech Organizer
C . . . I Am Organized = http://www.MyBackUpBook.com/
You can't practice time management till you get organized
=========


------------------
Small Company but we're BIG in Brampton. Relocation Transfer packages for anywhere in North America Homes For Sale All Sizes All Prices

Wheww, that was a lot of data. But if I understand this correctly, one of the main issues is who owns the website?

If you know the domain (or even only an IP), you should be able to find the owner. The first place to start is at a domain registrar's whois. Granted, there are a lot of bogus or dated registrations out there, but it shouldn't be tough to find the true owner.

You first check the validity of the registered owner and contact information. If it's bogus, you go to the tech support contact information. If that's bogus, you can do a "trace route"('tracert' is the unix command), find out all the IP nodes of the host's upstream providers and the host itself. With just a little work from here, you should be able to determine the hosting organization. If their info is bogus, you can go upstream until you eventually find a verifiable organization. Then, you do a little detective work (not much) to get the contact info. Once you get a valid organization, they should be able to provide you organizations on their downstream and you should be able to trace the identity of the subject domain's host. Either get the contact info immediately or a little more detective work will get it.

When you contact the hosting organizations, you mention that something illegal has occurred and they are hosting it, and this will get them to expedite. Hosts are sensitive to illegal activity that they may be hosting.

It's possible for a domain owner to provide unreliable contact information even to the providers. But a subpoena (later on) will get you what you need (later, in court if necessary), as surely the host will have some data that will get you on the trail of the domain's owner.

It's pure detective work. Once you get any names, even if the contact info is bogus, you can run investigative searches on them. If you have a name and a city, you have an excellent chance of finding out where the culprits are living. There are plenty of public databases that you can sift through, with a lot of data available mostly at the County government level (real estate tax data, marriage data, fictitious name filings, criminal records, etc.) There are outfits that consolidate data and available to the public, like USSearch.com.

You can do some of this yourself, initially, if you are so inclined, but if not, your attorney should hire a reputable private investigator with a specialty in cybercrime.

(Also, it's suspicous that the seller of the website doesn't know who he sold it to. Later on, a subpoena on him will probably uncover a lot.)

If you have time, another thing to do is find out related sites of the current owner and see what kind of business is going on. Then send out some pretext emails, using various email addresses and different disguises, inquiring about business. Once you get a response email, you can capture the email header data and have a techie track down the source. If you're brave (and know what you're doing), you can even initiate a meeting --- and presto! -- in front of you will stand the culprit in broad daylight. Make sure you have backup. Or, let a detective do this for you.

Best of luck to you!

------------------
Ruperto Elpusan, MBA, e-Pro
Broker/Officer
Beverly Hills-Malibu-Palos Verdes Real Estate
Torrance/South Bay Real Estate
Rancho Palos Verdes Home Values

The fact that the current owner is likely to be doing some kind of business makes the investigation easier. Genuine business names at some point have to be disclosed, and there's a lot of data sources you can check out about businesses.

Once you identify related businesses, you can run pretext emails or phone calls and should be able to get exact addresses eventually.

------------------
Ruperto Elpusan, MBA, e-Pro
Broker/Officer
Beverly Hills-Malibu-Palos Verdes Real Estate
Torrance/South Bay Real Estate
Rancho Palos Verdes Home Values

Sorry, there's more to say. It's an intriguing subject.

I'm sure you already have yourself covered in this regard, but a good attorney who is appropriate for intellectual property rights and has experience in prosecuting cyber crimes is essential. You can usually find out about them by going to websites where webmasters hang out.