Copytrack CEO Marcus Schmitt Runs Cyber Extortion Racket
I sent the following complaint to Berlin Police and other authorities with the request to stop the cyber extortion racket being run by Copytrack and its CEO Marcus Schmitt.
By Rakesh Raman
To November 3, 2023
Dr. Barbara Slowik
Chief of Police, Berlin Police, Germany
Copy to: Law-enforcement authorities in other jurisdictions as this case pertains to a cybercrime that is spreading in different parts of the world.
Marcus Schmitt of Copytrack Germany Runs Cyber Extortion Racket
Complaint of Intimidation, Extortion, and Financial Terrorism Against Marcus Schmitt of Copytrack GmbH, Dresdener Str. 31, 10179 Berlin, Germany
Complaint by: Rakesh Raman, who is a journalist and human rights defender
Dear Authorities,
I am a government’s national award-winning journalist and founder of the humanitarian organization RMN Foundation in New Delhi, India. I am sending you this complaint as a victim of a cyber crime racket being run by serial offender Marcus Schmitt who claims to be the Managing Director / CEO of Copytrack GmbH registered in Berlin, Germany at the above-mentioned address.
The modus operandi of Copytrack is to act as an extortion agent claiming that it is working on behalf of some hidden clients to protect their content – mainly images – used by other websites. In its criminal act, Copytrack suddenly starts asking for money under threats from the owners of reusing websites without establishing the fact that the copyrighted material belongs to their so-called clients.
With its intimidating emails, Copytrack threatens the image reusers with legal action if they do not pay an excessive amount of money as penalty for reuse of the image without revealing how it decided to fix that amount as penalty. Copytrack even tries to extort money from news sites which fall under the “FAIR USE” statute that is supposed to promote freedom of expression and / or editorial freedom.
This complaint is in continuation to my previous representation dated September 22, 2022 on this subject. After sending my previous complaint to the Berlin Police and other authorities, I did not receive any extortion threat from Marcus Schmitt or his dubious outfit Copytrack for the past about a year. I thought that Copytrack has realized its criminality and therefore will not intimidate me.
However, to my utter surprise, I received another intimidating email dated October 24, 2023 which was repeated on October 31, 2023 by Copytrack about an image used on my technology site RMN Digital. The image that Copytrack mentions was used on RMN Digital almost nine years ago in 2014 for a story on AT&T and IBM. Since I would have taken the small image from the AT&T / IBM press release or IBM site, I had given explicit credit to IBM under the news item by writing “Photo courtesy: IBM.” This is how the editorial process is supposed to work.
But suddenly after nine years, Copytrack claims that this image belongs to its client, some Federico Caputo, who never stopped me or asked me for money when I was downloading the image which was not even priced at that time. Also, Copytrack or its client Federico Caputo never asked me to remove the image from RMN Digital site during the past nine years. That means, they were waiting like cyber predators to extort massive amounts of money from me after a few years.
Thus, this criminal outfit Copytrack is abusing copyright laws to terrorize those who reuse content such as images which are mostly available in the public domain. In a recent “Consultative Paper on Copyright Laws” that I have written, you can learn more about this criminal racket that companies like Copytrack are running under the garb of protecting copyrights.
While my previous representation dated September 22, 2022 has already been communicated, I urge the Berlin Police and other international authorities to immediately register a criminal case against Marcus Schmitt and his company Copytrack to begin a formal prosecution against them. Since Marcus Schmitt and Copytrack are expanding their criminal enterprise in different parts of the world, they should be immediately restrained from sending threatening notices to others with the evil aim to extort money.
As stated before, I also claim a compensation of US$ 1 million (One Million US Dollars) from Marcus Schmitt / Copytrack GmbH for their criminal acts that target me personally to inflict mental agony, constant disturbance, and personal as well as professional loss to me.
You are requested to do the needful urgently.
Thank You
Contact
Rakesh Raman
Editor, RMN News Service [ Website ]
Founder, RMN Foundation [ Website ]
463, DPS Apts., Plot No. 16, Sector 4
Dwarka, Phase I, New Delhi 110 078, India
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