As many of you know, I support my family through the sales of construction forms and documents that I have created myself and sell at my website http://www.construction-business-forms.com and that I offer FREE help, support, encouragement, and advice to construction contractors and other business owners through my other two websites http://www.TheContractorsGroup.com and http://www.download-construction-forms.com.

And as many of you know, over the past couple years my family’s existence has been shaky at best, and my family’s health has been pretty bad for many years. My sales have dropped dramatically over the past couple years and I have been struggling to keep making ends meet as I try to figure out why my sales have gone so downhill.

I thought it was due to the tremendous slowdown in the construction industry and I’m sure that some of it DOES have to do with the slowdown in the industry.

However, I have just tonight made a shocking discovery ...

1) DocStoc.com is allowing my copyrighted material to be posted at the DocStoc website, forms that I have created myself and sell at my website, for anyone to download and use free of charge, thereby allowing people to obtain and use my copyrighted material without paying for it, causing my family lost income, vitally needed financial support. I am sure that the people downloading my documents from DocStoc are not aware that DocStoc.com is enabling them to steal from me but that doesn't stop the government from pursuing those who have illegally downloaded copyrighted material. This was proven by all the Napster users who were nailed by the US government. Users of DocStoc may find themselves at tremendous risk.

2) DocStoc.com is encouraging people, its users, to illegally post my copyrighted documents by paying these same users 50% (that’s right, FIFTY PERCENT) of DocStoc earnings from Google ads posted at the DocStoc.com website, because DocStoc is not verifying that the people posting these documents have the legal right to do so. This is income that could be going to pay to support my family, income from Google ads that I could be earning but instead DocStoc.com is collecting this money by illegally posting my copyrighted documents without my permission.

3) DocStoc.com is costing me even more money because my own ads that I pay for to Google are appearing on DocStoc.com webpages, and when anyone clicks on those Google ads, I am charged by Google. Ironically, my ads that I am paying for are actually posted on the very same DocStoc pages that my forms are available for illegal download! I lose income on sales of my forms, I lose income on advertisement earnings, AND I'm paying every time one of my own Google ads that I've purchased is clicked on at DocStoc (and DocStoc collects a portion of that money that I am paying)!

I have already followed DocStoc’s reporting guidelines but WHY IS DOCSTOC ALLOWING MY COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL TO BE POSTED?? WHY IS DOCSTOC NOT MONITORING THIS? My copyright is RIGHT ON THE FORM at the bottom. IT IS CLEARLY MY COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL. WHY IS IT MY RESPONSIBILITY TO MAKE SURE THAT DOCSTOC AND ITS USERS DON’T STEAL FROM ME??

I venture to guess that it is NOT my responsibility; were it to go to court it would be DocStoc that would lose, as, unfortunately, would its users.

Here are only a few of MY copyrighted documents that I have located at the DocStoc website:

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/22581422/Construction-Proposal-Form

I thought further and decided to remove the rest of this list that I had posted because I suspect DocStoc will use it to remove my copyrighted documents that they have allowed to be illegally posted, thereby enabling DocStoc to state that my copyrighted material was never posted at the DocStoc website and that I am slandering DocStoc. Gotta love those high-power corporate attorneys that willingly crush the little guy (or gal)...

Many of the copyrighted documents stolen from me by DocStoc via its users have actually been listed at DocStoc as “Elite Document”.

In the FAQ section of DocStoc, the definition of “Elite Document” is (and I quote, including the typos and bad grammar):

“Elite document as specific document that have surpassed a certain total number of views and downloads.”

Now, I know the forms I create and sell are good, super easy to use, and very helpful because my customers tell me so all the time. Apparently DocStoc and its users agree!

There's no way that Docstoc mistakenly thinks its users have the right to post my forms because there is NO connection between myself and those people, none of its users email addresses include @thecontractorsgroup.com in them and yet TheContractorsGroup is clearly printed at the bottom of the form.

And again, it is NOT my job to make DocStoc aware of this, it is DOCSTOC’S RESPONSIBILITY to verify this information.

In addition it says Diane Dennis Enterprises on the forms and again I assure DocStoc that its users are not Diane Dennis Enterprises, and again it is not MY job to assure DocStoc of this but rather DocStoc’s RESPONSIBILITY to verify this.

DocStoc has cost my family and I income, our DESPERATELY NEEDED financial support.

As many of you know, my son has Autism (and what most of you don’t know is that he is now being tested for cancer); my husband has Epilepsy; and I have Fibromyalgia (and what many of you don’t know is that I also suffer from severe depression and debilitating anxiety; diabetes; and now I am being tested for cancer myself and soon will be undergoing testing for congestive heart failure).

How many downloads have there been of my “Elite Documents” that have been stolen because DocStoc has not verified legal rights? How much money has been stolen from me?

No wonder I am struggling to keep my kids fed and my family medically insured (we obviously cannot go without health insurance but it has become increasingly difficult to pay the insurance premium, over $1200 each month, and then we have to pay the portion not covered by the insurance that we are paying for), and my taxes paid, and a roof over our heads.

This is just like Napster ...

DocStoc and ALL of its users who have uploaded and/or downloaded my copyrighted forms have stolen from me ...

With Napster, those who uploaded the music, and those who downloaded the music, were all stealing from the respective artists even though many of the folks who uploaded and downloaded didn’t know they were doing so illegally.

Yet the US government didn’t nail just Napster, it nailed many, many individuals for illegally uploading and/or downloading and sharing copyrighted material, even though many of Napster's users didn't know they were stealing...

The main difference here is that DocStoc has financially disabled an already physically and emotionally disabled family.

I wonder how many other people’s copyrighted material DocStoc has allowed to be posted illegally?

It is sad how many of DocStoc’s users could possibly be ruined should the government go after them for illegally downloading copyrighted material that DocStoc has allowed to be illegally posted at the DocStoc website!

I would hope that DocStoc would be out of business REAL quick.

Unfortunately though, so would many of its users, and it's all due to the irresponsibility of DocStoc ...

On the webpages that DocStoc has allowed my copyrighted documents to be illegally posted, and anyone else’s copyrighted documents (as well as non-copy-righted documents), DocStoc is making money from Google ads that are posted on the DocStoc webpages when a Google ad is clicked on.

In addition to this, because of an arrangement that DocStoc makes with its users, each person who has uploaded any documents, including my copyrighted documents and anyone else’s copyrighted documents, to DocStoc is sharing in the earnings that DocStoc makes from these Google ads that are posted on DocStoc webpages, including the DocStoc webpages where my copyrighted documents are available for download (as mentioned, DocStoc pays its users 50% of all monies DocStoc earns through Google).

This is income that would not be earned by DocStoc if my copyrighted forms were not illegally posted, and in all probability this is additional income that DocStoc is stealing from my family and I.

DocStoc is encouraging people to illegally post my copyrighted documents, and possibly other's copyrighted documents, by

A) paying its users FIFTY PERCENT of the earnings that DocStoc makes from the Google ads that DocStoc has posted at its website, and

B) by not checking to make sure its users who are posting these copyrighted documents even have the legal right to do so

AND, to add injury on top of injury, because I advertise my forms through Google, ironically my own Google ads are appearing on DocStoc webpages, including DocStoc webpages where my copyrighted forms are illegally posted, and every time one of those ads is clicked on, Google charges me for the click.

DocStoc earns a portion of the money that Google charges me, and then DocStoc pays the user, who illegally uploaded my form to a DocStoc webpage, 50% of the payment that DocStoc receives from Google (that Google got from my wallet) and then DocStoc pockets the other 50%!

How ironic, and sad, and wrong, is that?

This is yet one more way that DocStoc is stealing money from my family and I.

I am disappointed, disillusioned, disgusted, and shocked that a company such as DocStoc would participate in ripping off people/businesses.

I am only one person, one mom, one wife, one sole-proprietor business owner, and I do not have the resources or time available to search through the (quoted directly from the home page of DocStoc) “23 million public documents” that DocStoc has available for download, to find all of my copyrighted documents that have been illegally posted (and might I ask ... "Public?? How can they be public if they're copyrighted and posted without permission??).

Now that DocStoc is stealing income from my family and I, I have even less time available because the more that DocStoc steals from me, the harder I have to work to try to keep supporting my family.

I will be providing user names, of those who illegally post my documents to DocStoc, to every newspaper, online reporting agency, networking site, and government official that I send my plea to.

Below is a partial list of DocStoc users who have illegally posted my copyrighted materials to DocStoc for others to download free of charge, costing my family the financial support that we so depend on:

collie953
icc15401
Eric Parish
joshfurieeatspoop <-- yep, that's a user name
undul847
epmd

Again, these very same people, and others, are being paid by DocStoc, FIFTY PERCENT of the earnings DocStoc makes from the Google ads posted on the DocStoc pages containing my documents, and DocStoc pockets the other 50%.

And again, as I mentioned earlier in this message, my own ads that I pay Google for are posted on the DocStoc pages, even on the DocStoc webpages where my forms are illegally posted, and therefore DocStoc is stealing more money from me, and pocketing that money, by the mere fact that every time someone clicks on one of my ads I am automatically charged by Google, even though the person who clicks on the ad does not purchase from me (and why would they purchase from me when they can get my forms for free at DocStoc?).

It's almost like Google and DocStoc's users are involuntary colluding with DocStoc to steal from me, and possibly from other people.

A HUGE PLEASE to everyone reading this message, PLEASE help my family survive, PLEASE post this link (you can copy and paste it) http://www.thecontractorsgroup.com/is-docstoc-stealing-from-my-family.html to your Facebook, MySpace, Tagged, LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogs, etc. pages for your readers to click on.

And if you’re comfortable with it PLEASE copy and paste this message into an email and send it to your friends and family, and encourage them to do the same.

My family, with all of its physical and emotional disabilities, already struggles to stay afloat, and now DocStoc is putting the final nail in our coffin.

Please help me to stop DocStoc and its users from stealing from me and burying my family and I any deeper than it, and they, already have.

If you agree, please go back to the top of this page and click on the Like button(s) for any of the social networks listed that you belong to and/or post this link (you can copy and paste it) http://www.thecontractorsgroup.com/is-docstoc-stealing-from-my-family.html to your Facebook, MySpace, Tagged, LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogs, etc. pages for your readers to click on. .

Thank you so much for any help you can give my family and I by helping me to make this story public!

Sincerely,
Diane Dennis
http://www.TheContractorsGroup.com

Back to the top of this webpage "Is DocStoc Stealing From My Family?"

Back to my home page www.TheContractorsGroup.com

To my Yahoo store www.Construction-Business-Forms.com

To my other website that gives loads of free answers and support to construction contractors and home owners www.Download-Construction-Forms.com

And to my website that talks about my son's Autism/Asperger's Syndrome: http://www.aspergers-and-pdd.com and my family's struggles

Thank you,
Diane