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LauraM · #1 11-27-2007, 10:02 PM

In order to ask my question, I have to give some background, lol. So,...........

A good friend of mine was in a car accident several years ago and as a result of her injuries, she could no longer work as a horse trainer as she had been, and has been fighting insurances for settlement since.

During this time, her mother started a website for women's discussions that have hidden forums as well as general access forums on which, of course, my friend has posted. She has also posted on my forums quite a bit and helps me out there as a moderator (mine being an equine forum). Recently, the other side's lawyers used a program called Snagit to copy every single one of this woman's posts on both forums. Their premise is (this is so stupid) that she has become a computer internet addict and that she "chose to be a computer addict when she could have went out and got a real job." The posts actually ended up being about 6 per day over the last several years......... :roll eyes:

Anyway, the thing is, some of what Snagit got was from the hidden forums on TWP. Now, only members that have been GIVEN access are able to access the hidden forums, and we always have members post for a while before being given access, or are personally known by one of the staff who can vouch for them. And we have not given anyone new access to those forums in a long time.

So, my question is, .......if I understand the forums software correctly, nothing can access those hidden forums without permission, correct? So it had to have been one of our longtime members who used Snagit to get those hidden forums' posts, right? Or, would Snagit work by grabbing those posts, whether or not the forums were hidden?

If it had to have been member who had access to the hidden forums and used Snagit on them, is there any way to track that?

Thanks for any information you can give me!

rpainter · #2 11-28-2007, 12:13 AM

As far as I know, SnagIt is just a screen capture program (unless there is a different program with the same name). I use it all the time to create tutorials, etc. It will only grap what is currently on the screen.

So...to answer your question, it would seem that one of your "trusted" members did this.

LauraM · #3 11-28-2007, 12:33 AM

Thank you very much for the information.

However, here's another question..........does what is in a hidden forum show in something like Google cached pages?

rpainter · #4 11-28-2007, 12:42 AM

I just looked at the Google cache of my site, and it does not show any of the hidden forums.

LauraM · #5 11-28-2007, 01:01 AM

Great, thanks for the info!

At least that narrows it down a bit, lol.

Princeton · #6 11-28-2007, 12:39 PM

it's just hearsay - they would have to prove it..
I suggest getting a a good lawyer. It looks like they are going for the kill.

your lawyer should be able to get the name of the person who took the screenshots - who knows maybe you can sue him/her

LauraM · #7 11-28-2007, 05:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Princeton

it's just hearsay - they would have to prove it..
I suggest getting a a good lawyer. It looks like they are going for the kill.

your lawyer should be able to get the name of the person who took the screenshots - who knows maybe you can sue him/her

Actually, that is what they are doing. They are doing a counter-suit claiming that they violated the terms of use (either they themselves, or whoever they got to do it for them) because the terms of service clearly states that NOTHING in the hidden forums is to be copied and used outside those forums. Their lawyer is going to argue bad faith for either violating the terms of use (if it was an actual member) and masquerading as a member for improper purposes (if they somehow registered and did it themselves).

LauraM · #8 01-13-2008, 09:25 PM

Hi, everyone,

Here is an update. We think that we know which member was providing information from our private forums. So, now, my question is, is there any way that we can track the online time of one specific member between the months of June and September of 2007?

LauraM · #9 01-14-2008, 10:13 PM

Hi,

Just bumping this up in hopes that someone may know how to do this:

Quote:

is there any way that we can track the online time of one specific member between the months of June and September of 2007?

Dismounted · #10 01-15-2008, 04:10 AM

No, I don't believe there are logs for that, and if there were, they'd be pruned by now.

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