NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- NSBNEWS.net filed an incident report with the New Smyrna Beach Police Department against the NSB shadow website Friday after a copy of its breaking news story on the departure of Southeast Volusia Chamber of Commerce President Steve Dennis was allowed to be posted without NSBNEWS.net's written or verbal consent. A copy of the police incident report is attached to this story.
NSBNEWS.net posted its story at 6:37 p.m. NSBNEWS.net's story was copied and pasted onto the Shadow's site at 7:05 p.m., which is operated by Nahum Litt, a retired federal judge who was forced to resign amid an investigation alleging wrongdoing that was dropped when he left the bench. For the past half decade, Litt has operated his website, which is critical of government and community leaders alike.
NSBNEWS.net was alerted that its copyrighted story had been lifted and placed on the Shadow's web site. This prompted NSBNEWS.net at 7:47 p.m. to issue the following request in writing that automatically posted on the Shadow's Website:
"To NSB Shadow website operators/Nahum Litt: The post by No. 602 must come off the Shadow's Website immediately. The story is copyrighted under NSB News LLC. It is a criminal offense to post copyrighted material without express written or verbal consent of the owner of the published story. We are registered with the State of Florida as a tax-operated business."
NSBNEWS.net followed that request up with a call to Litt regarding not only the unauthorized copying and posting of NSBNEWS.nets story, but also the fact that no attempt was made to identify it as the property of NSBNEWS. net or its corporate name, NSB NEWS LLC.
Litt was informed by NSBNEWS.net that if he didn't remove the posting of its copyrighted story that NSBNEWS.net would document the theft with the New Smyrna Beach police and seek criminal prosecution and civil remedies, if necessary.
Litt refused to remove the posting and told NSBNEWS.net to "go to hell," before abruptly hanging up.
NSBNEWS.net called the police and filled out an incident report, asking that, if appropriate, criminal charges be referred to the State Attorney's Office for posible prosecution for infringement of copyrighted material and/or theft of intellectual property. NSBNEWS.net clearly states on its home page that all local content is clearly marked as copyright of NSB NEWS LLC.
NSBNEWS.net provided copies of documented evidence of the theft to the responding police officer along with the signed and sworn police report.
At 8:26 p.m., NSBNEWS.net's request that its lifted copyright story be taken down, NSB NEWS' request was removed and substituted with yet another posting of NSBNEWS.net's story, even using the word "copied" across the top of the posting.
The Shadow message stated: "NOTA BENE: THIS ARTICLE WAS COPIED FROM THE NSBNEWS, AND WAS WRITTEN AND PUBLISHED BY HENRY FREDERICK!"
NSBNEWS.net operates as a going concern registered with the state of Florida under NSB NEWS LLC. The website has provided around the clock news to greater New Smyrna Beach since April 2008.