SOPA bill author Lamar Smith is a copyright violator

Well, well, well. Looks like we have a case of hypocrisy with the author of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) used a background image for his website that was not properly attributed to the artist, nor did he seek the proper permission:

I contacted DJ [the artist], to find out if Lamar had asked permission to use the image and he told me that he had no record of Lamar, or anyone from his organization, requesting permission to use it: “I switched my images from traditional copyright protection to be protected under the Creative Commons license a few years ago, which simply states that they can use my images as long as they attribute the image to me and do not use it for commercial purposes.

“I do not see anywhere on the screen capture that you have provided that the image was attributed to the source (me). So my conclusion would be that Lamar Smith’s organization did improperly use my image. So according to the SOPA bill, should it pass, maybe I could petition the court to take action against www.texansforlamarsmith.com.”

Oh dear. Luckily for DJ, there are people out there like Lamar making new laws to protect the little guy against online copyright theft. Keep fighting that good fight, Lamar!