If you use CILM for tubes please read.

[Dixie641]

Over the last year CILM has been very quiet when it comes to copyright violations. My copyright department manager and her staff work tirelessly behind the scenes chasing links and investigating reports however nothing really is reported to our customers about what happens and why. In light of recent discoveries we feel it is necessary to inform our customers about what has been taking place.

Since CILM began marketing tubes to the PSP community in 2006 we have only had to revoke 2 or 3 license numbers. Within the last week CILM has revoked at least 5 license numbers and we are currently working on more. By the end of this week that number could climb to 10 or higher. The reason: Illegal usage of tubes or more specifically, the tubes we have found our CILM license holders using have no record of actually being purchased by these people. It is with a very heavy heart that I inform you that these license holders have all been tutorial writers. Yes, tutorial writers!

These license holders are some of the more popular tutorial writers and have been known to be very copyright compliant. They have all the appropriate credits on their creations, they have all the right information to direct all of their fans to go and purchase the tubes they are using however they themselves are not purchasing these tubes. It is mind-boggling to me that these license holders have been spending so much time and effort to create their beautiful tutorials and blogs, advertise them to you, direct you to the appropriate licensing company or artist for the tube purchase but obtain the tubes illegally for themselves.

Please understand that CILM is NOT lumping all tutorial writers into one category as violators. We know that there are many wonderful tutorial writers out there that ARE doing everything right it is just very disturbing that we have found so many that are illegally using tubes. Tutorial writers are a vital part of our business. We rely on them to make their beautiful tags with our artists work which in turn brings new fans to the artists. It is always very disappointing when you find out that the very people you were relying on to "do things right" are the ones deceiving you.

CILM is continuing to investigate tutorials and as I said earlier there will be more licenses revoked before the end of the week. You can check in with our CILM copyright group - http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cilmcqc/ - for the latest updates on revoked license numbers so that you can avoid using any tutorials that are connected to these numbers.

We also want you to know that CILM does not nor will we ever revoke license numbers without substantial, irrefutable proof that there has been a TOU violation. We employ a certified copyright graphics specialist who also happens to be a very skilled detective. We do extensive research and investigation to make sure our findings are accurate and we also give these license holders an opportunity to "prove their case" if possible. So when you see a revoked license number posted by CILM you can be assured that we have done everything in our power to make sure we have not made a mistake.

Although we will not be releasing any names or email addresses connected to any of these tutorial writers we have not yet determined whether we will publish the tutorial web addresses. It is within our legal rights to do so since a url for a tutorial is considered to be "public information" and not private. Should we decide to publish the tutorial web addresses then we will do so through our CILM copyright group and not a generalized newsletter such as this one.

If you have any questions concerning this issue please feel free to email me but be advised that I will not be giving out any additional information that I have not already given out in this newsletter.

Thank you for your time and your support!

Sincerely,
Michelle Guerra
[e-mail]
www.cilm.com
877-264-2456 ext. 1 or 5