But Mr Ross has failed (for what ever reason) on many occasions to post on his website various groups rebuttals and also has failed to correct false, misleading and out dated information of many groups that he has labelled as a cult, extreme or controversial group. Listed below are such groups:
- Youth With A Mission (YWAM)
- An extensive and exhustive insight into one mans dealings with Rick Ross
A successful photographer who posts his work on the Internet at: http://photo.net/shared/community-member.tcl?user_id=34182 has an interesting story to tell about Mr Ross who appears in his "List of Weasel's" (sub titled "Hall of Shame") website. List below is the e-mail transactions between the two men over Mr Ross' unauthorised use of photographs. Please take note of Mr Ross' attitude and belligerence in replying.
Correspondence with Mr. Rick Ross, who runs an anti-cult network that claims the yoga group I belong to is, in fact, a dangerous cult. Ross used a photo of mine without permission; and when asked to remove it, replaced it with an illustration of Swami Kriyananda with the head from my photo pasted-in. Cute.
Frankly, this sort of disharmony hurts my feelings; but, nuts, this is the first time in my 30 years as a photographer that anyone has used a photo of mine, then claimed with acute belligerence that I have no copyright, and that I'm harassing him.
Pretty weird. I'd like to give Mr. Ross the benefit of the doubt maybe he's conditioned by his encounters with other groups. But facts is facts I hold copyright, and he's blatantly infringing it.
Signed.....
Mr. Ross:
I have absolutely no intent to harass you. However, I <do> hold copyright to the aforementioned photo. And it was your webmaster, not the artist who created the cover illustration for the San Francisco Weekly's article, who replaced the original drawing of Swami Kriyananda's head with a cropped section of my photo.
If you do not understand copyright law, or wish to ignore it blatantly and then cry "harassment," I will adjust my opinion of you and your organization accordingly. However, the law is clear: you may not use a photo, in any form, to which I hold copyright, without my prior permission.
I certainly will not take this matter to the courts; it is, as you say, too trivial to merit the expense and trouble. I more or less expect normal, honest people to behave dharmically, however; and in over 30 years as a professional photographer, this is the first time I have ever encountered a reaction such as yours--though I must say, it seems rather typical of the anti-cult cultists, who tend to believe that the ends justify the means, however a-dharmic. But then, that's your problem, not mine.
I will, however, report this matter to photo.net, the leading web site for professional photographers, which receives over 10,000 hits per day.
Sincerely,
Signed.......
Rick Ross wrote:
My understanding of this issue is that there is no copyright infringement for what is an obvious parody. This is no longer your picture per se and like many composite humorous pictures published is simply a joke.
Frankly, it seems at this point you are simply claiming copyright infringement in order to harass--due it seems to your devotion to said swami.
This strategy of harassment has been employed before (e.g.Scientology) and is well-known on the Internet and it occupies a position of "shame" and critical disrepute.
Frankly, your point seems needlessly petty. If you have some legal claim that even a parody specifically presented through humour at a website somehow violates photographic copyright law please let me know and have your attorney contact me. I will then run this by my attorney and if proven valid will request that the picture be revised within the provisions cited by law.
No usage fee appears to be indicated.
Thanks for your interest (though somewhat obsessive) in the site.
Rick Ross http://www.rickross.com
The Photographer wrote:
Dear Mr. Ross:
As I previously informed you, I hold copyright to the photo of Swami Kriyananda previously displayed on your web site, on the page: http://www.rickross.com/groups/ananda.html Your webmaster has chosen to replace this photo with the illustration from the recent article about Ananda published in the San Francisco Weekly, replacing the head with my photo. Unless you wish to pay a substantial usage fee and be listed on photo.net's "Hall of Shame" for unauthorised use of copyrighted material, please remove this photo from your site.
Thank you.
Signed.....
http://www.oceansofenergy.com
