HELP!

[Guest C-Bacon]

ok, i;ve been selling burned matthew good band live and video cd;s on ebay for a year now, and today i got a letter saying this:

 

This is Jonathan Simkin. I am the lawyer for Matthew Good and for the

Matthew Good Band. I can be reached at ------ or by e-mail at

-------. The item you are selling on EBAY is illegal, and unauthorized. It constitutes a breach of copyright, amongst many other intellectual property rights.

>

> My clients intends to take all lawful means to stop your sale of this

product including, but not limited to:

>

> -contacting EBAY security to demand that your EBAY priviledges be

PERMANENTLY suspended

>

> -contacting the Canadian Recording Industry Association, EMI Music

Publishing (publisher for Matthew Good), and Unversal Music to advise of

this serious breach of their intellectual property rights

>

> -commencing an action against you for, amnongt other things, breach of

copyright.

>

> To avoid these and other civil actions being commenced, please reomve the

item from EBAY IMMEDIATELY and contact me by phone or email no later than

noon tomorrow (Monday). If you email me, I require your full name and

contact information. Please note that if you remove the item but do not

contact me, the above steps will be taken EVEN IF THE ITEM IS NO LONGER

OFFERED FOR SALE.

>

> We may be able to resovle this matter before it gets nasty, but that now

depends on you removing the item and contacting me.

>

> Yours truly,

>

>

> Jonathan Simkin

>

 

i replied by saying:

 

Jonathan,

 

I removed the item from Ebay, and have no intentions of putting it up for sale in the future. I apologize for pursuing such an endeavour, as I have much respect for Mr. Good as to oblige to this request. I also, do not want to see this taken further and hope that by removal of the item, can no longer cause any confusion.

 

Chris

 

which led to....

 

 

 

OK…however this is an illegal bootleg, and I would appreciate it if you could send the product to me at the address below, along with a signed statement that you have not kept a copy, and that you will not in future sell unauthorized Matthew Good product. We will then consider the matter at an end. Please advise.

 

Yours truly,

 

w

 

im so paranoid right now! im a 19 year old trying to get through university! what could they do??!??!!?

[Guest HBK16]

Just make sure you contact by phone! It may not seem like there is a difference but there will be and you will be glad you contacted him by phone instead of email. Also apologize as many times as possible.

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

Im going to go out on a limb here and say that something isn't right about the first letter. The spelling is all messed up and there are a lot of other errors. It doesn't look like something a lawyer would write.

 

I don't know why someone would go to all this trouble, but its still odd nonetheless..

 

EDIT

 

It could be a scam to get your name and address and other personal information, not to mention a free copy of the CD.

[Guest pinnacleofallthingsmanly]

You must be some kind of a dumbass.

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

who?

[Guest KingOfOldSchool]

Have you ever considered that this could be a hoax?

 

Because unless you summarized things, no "professional" lawyer would ever reply with -

 

OK…however this is an illegal bootleg, and I would appreciate it if you could send the product to me at the address below, along with a signed statement that you have not kept a copy, and that you will not in future sell unauthorized Matthew Good product. We will then consider the matter at an end. Please advise.

 

Yours truly,

 

w

 

Simply because, it would be just as formal than the first mailing. He wouldn't respond with an informal greeting like "OK". Nor would he only sign one initial or nickname, he'd sign his full name just like the first time.

 

You can never be too sure though.

 

EDIT: And I just noticed what Marvin was talking about... Which lends more evidence that this could be a scam.

[Guest C-Bacon]

Im going to go out on a limb here and say that something isn't right about the first letter. The spelling is all messed up and there are a lot of other errors. It doesn't look like something a lawyer would write.

 

I don't know why someone would go to all this trouble, but its still odd nonetheless..

 

EDIT

 

It could be a scam to get your name and address and other personal information, not to mention a free copy of the CD.

shit, well i have no way to prove other wise, and i dont want to fuck around with this guy if he's the real deal. so i should probably just co-operate until i know otherwise

[Guest C-Bacon]

i was thinking about the hoax thing, but i did email AND call. no one answered though, but i left a message for a mr. simkin. so who knows

[Guest pinnacleofallthingsmanly]

If you are going to partake in illegal activity, advertising it is generally a bad idea.

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

I figure its a scam, but I could be wrong. But, if thats how he writes, then I think I need to figure out which law school he went to so I can go there myself.

 

If you want, you could try to get someone else to make a phone call to verify who their lawyer is (you wouldn't want to do this yourself). I'm sure the band would be interested if it turns out they have a guy posing as a lawyer for their band sending out these notices to people, even if in the end its stoping people from selling bootlegs on EBay.

[Guest C-Bacon]

I figure its a scam, but I could be wrong. But, if thats how he writes, then I think I need to figure out which law school he went to so I can go there myself.

 

If you want, you could try to get someone else to make a phone call to verify who their lawyer is (you wouldn't want to do this yourself). I'm sure the band would be interested if it turns out they have a guy posing as a lawyer for their band sending out these notices to people, even if in the end its stoping people from selling bootlegs on EBay.

Very true. Another thing i found odd was that Matthew Good previously said he had no problem with it when the topic was brought up on a message board a few months ago. hmmm

[Guest pinnacleofallthingsmanly]

I wouldn't have a big problem with people trying to listen to my music for free, but I don't know if I would like someone trying to sell my stuff in front of my face while I dno't get a dime.

[Guest MarvinisaLunatic]

Id say it was a scam then if that is true.

 

Quite a clever scam...

[Guest KingOfOldSchool]

I just did a google search, and a guy by the name of Jonathan Simkin does apparently represent the Matthew Good Band.

 

I still think it's suspicious though... the one sending the mailings could still be posing as him in an attempt to get free stuff.

 

Which address is that email from? If it's JSimkin@whatever, JonathanSimkin@whatever or something like that; then it could be real.

[Guest HBK16]

You don't want to take any chances in finding out if it's a scam or not. Just cooperate and and see what happens. Quite frankly I would rather give my copy of a CD and be on the safe side.

[Guest DJ Jeff]

I think it's a scam myself. However, to be on the safe side, I'd send the CD back and cooperate.

[Guest DrTom]

That letter looks very suspicious for something ostensibly written by a lawyer. It has numerous mistakes that any spell-checking program (or competent legal secretary) would catch. One thing in particular jumped out at me, though:

 

The item you are selling on EBAY is illegal, and unauthorized.

Matthew Good is a Canadian act, right? And it stands to reason they'd have a Canadian attorney. Wouldn't a Canadian say it was "unauthorised," with an s? Just wondering.

 

You've already taken the auction item down, which is enough to satisfy most lawyers. I can't see an attorney asking for a copy of the CD in question, though. And why was his return email signed "w" when there doesn't appear to be any w in his name?

 

I'd call his bluff, but that's just me. If he is a lawyer representing a band, he already has plenty of grounds to sue you for stupidly selling bootlegs on Ebay, so telling him to bugger off at this point won't get you in anymore legal hot water.

[Guest Spaceman Spiff]

S C _ M

 

Need to buy a vowel?

[Guest C-Bacon]

ok, no new replies today, but i was wondering if i should tell him how many i sold over the year (30-40) or should i straight out lie and say only a few? is there a way they can check and find out? ahhhhh im going crazy!

[Guest DerangedHermit]

S C _ M

 

Need to buy a vowel?

I'll buy an U.

 

Seriously, C-Bacon (cool name), it's most likely a scam. The spelling and grammar mistakes are atypical for a lawyer. It's a clever person who just can't buy the CD regularly.

[Guest LooseCannon]

What I would do is send him an email or letter, and keep a copy, stating that you would gladly comply with the conditions he stated, but that you have reason to believe that he has misrepresented himself both as to his identity and as to his profession. The latter of which, I believe, is a fairly serious crime. Indicate that if he can furnish proof that he is who he says he is, than you will gladly do as he asked.

 

NOTE: the preceding does not constitute professional legal advice, and should not be relied on as such.

 

EDIT: was there any sort of confidential warning at the bottom of the emails? like:

 

"The information transmitted is intended only for the person or

entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or

privileged material. Any review, retransmission, dissemination

or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, this

information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient

is prohibited. If you received this transmission in error, please

contact the sender by reply e-mail or by telephone (xxx-xxx-xxxx)

and delete and destroy all copies of the material, including all

copies stored in the recipient's computer, printed or saved to disk."

 

Even personal e-mails I've gotten from lawyer's official e-mail accounts usually have that tagged at the bottom. So the abscence of such a warning would tend to lend credence to the skepticism. But it's not conclusive.

[Guest Big Poppa Popick]

You're looking at a scam...100%

 

Should there be a legality issue in question, a lawyer or legal representative would contact E-bay, who would then notify you. That is the procedure for most online auction/sales merchandisers

 

Whoever this guy is, he is fake. This incident should be reported to the band, in as much as there is someone who is posing as your attorney, and send them what you can without signaling you are SELLING the CD's as they may not appreciate that if they're above the cost of your manufacture.

 

C-Bacon, this is a scam, but a very poorly executed one. One last thing, find the IDE trailers embedded in the e-mail. It should tell you where the e-mail was sent from. Any local and good computer freak can find out where the IP is located, so if this Simkim is contacting you from Miami, there's your confirmation it is bogus.

 

Good luck and take care!

[Guest Daredevil21]

As someone who was banned from ebay for a month for selling wrestling bootlegs, I can pretty safely say that this is a hoax. In my time on ebay, I've had about 10 wrestling tape auctions canceled, and was only suspended one time (which was because I had two auctions canceled within days of each other). Other times, I simply got an email explaining why my auction was canceled. It just basically said that they wanted to protect their sellers, so they canceled the auction to prevent any legal actions being taken. If I can have so many WWF auctions canceled without ever getting some sort of legal documentation from them, then I'm pretty sure that some small musical act isn't going to take serious legal action, especially when your item wasn't even canceled. I just think someone saw your auction, wanted the cd, but didn't want to buy it, so they came up with this scam.

 

As a side note, I'd just like to say that piracy of things like WWF TV could be seriously decreased if Vince would release some of it on video or start finding a way for it to air on TV.

[Guest MentallyNormal]

Wow this guy is surely going out of his way to obtain a cd. If he really wants a free cd that bad just friggin download instead of putting on some elaborate hoax.

 

Indeed Matthew Good band is a good band. Listen to some of their songs and I must say I really enjoyed them.

[Guest Ravenbomb]

I think it's a scam

 

and btw, I have never heard of Matthew Good

[Guest J*ingus]

Don't give this guy a thing, don't cooperate, tell him nothing but lies. On the 1/1000 chance that it IS real, you don't want them to know how many you've sold, and unless they want to try and get Ebay to break its confidentiality policy (and good luck to them, they'll need it) there's no good way for them to find out how many you've sold.

 

This is someone who's just trying to scare you and fuck with you in general. No lawyer would write you something like that. Tell this assclown to go fuck himself.

[Guest Ram]

Send him a CD with a big "FUCK YOU" on the package, and data side of the disk.

 

He CAN'T sue you for that!

[Guest C-Bacon]

ok, i'd like to belive this is a hoax, but there some important points that lead me to believe otherwise:

 

1. as noted, Jonathan Simkin is a real lawyer, and one for Matthew Good, Nickelback, Sarah McLaughlin, etc.

 

2. his email IS "[email protected]"

 

3. I called the number he left and left a message on an answering machine for a Mr. Simkin

 

4. I told him i'd send him a copy and he replied Just to be clear, when you say “a copy”, what do you mean? . if this was an elobarte hoax, why would he care about this?

 

some of this doesnt add up.

[Guest DrTom]

1. as noted, Jonathan Simkin is a real lawyer, and one for Matthew Good, Nickelback, Sarah McLaughlin, etc.

 

Anyone can claim to be a lawyer representing a musician. Almost all of them disclose their legal counsel in the cover notes of their CDs, so this information is readily available.

 

2. his email IS "[email protected]"

 

Unless whatever.com sounds like the name of a law firm, I wouldn't put a lot of stock into it. Ask him what firm he works for, then call that firm and tell them you think you got a letter from someone misrepresenting one of their attorneys. They'll be happy to give you a proper email address.

 

3. I called the number he left and left a message on an answering machine for a Mr. Simkin

 

You leaving a message for a Mr Simkin is nothing remarkable. Does his message say you've called Jonathan Simkin, attorney? If it does, try to find out if that's his home or work number. People rarely advertise their professions on their home answering machines unless they're doctors.

 

4. I told him i'd send him a copy and he replied Just to be clear, when you say “a copy”, what do you mean? . if this was an elobarte hoax, why would he care about this?

 

To maintain the hoax. He's reeled you in pretty well so far, so why should he stop now?

 

Ask him a few questions in your next communiquae with him...

 

1. If you're a lawyer, how come your original letter to me contained so many spelling errors, errors that any spell-checking program or legal secretary would have caught?

 

2. Why did you sign your first reply with a "w?"

 

3. How come there is no disclaimer about the confidentiality of information at the bottom of your email messages?

 

4. (This presumes he's Canadian) Why did you spell "unauthorised" wrong?

 

I still think this is a scam.

[Guest J*ingus]

Just insist on having thorough proof that he really is who he says he is before you do anything else.