Nearly two months ago, a certain party got the clever notion they could simply copy this website, and in doing so copy the success of the Devil's Den. After a brief statement as to the ownership of the brand and it's associated intellectual property we sat back in somewhat bemused awe as for the next seven weeks the owners of the copycat domain proceeded to flail away like a drunk trying to start a fight with a lamp post.

During this time there was no actual effort made to introduce new services, promotions- even content. The entire management focus was a daily sniveling litany of woes posted to message boards with complicit moderators, as to the many "obstacles" they were fighting to overcome. One of those many excuses that served in leu of actual effort, was a recent accusation of a "Cyber Attack".

Here it is:

It's a very sophisticated piece of Black Hat wizardry called "You Can't Just Take Stuff You Don't Own". It's a "Cyber Attack" in the same way mall security "attacks" you as you run out the door with a laptop under your arm.

The Counter-Notice requirements for a DMCA notice are exceptionally lenient- no hosting company wants to lose a customer. If there was any possible evidence, a shred of paper, Work-For-Hire, a receipt, a raw file- even a clue as to the provenience of this property, then the hosting company would have accepted it and told us to take the accused infringers to court.

They took the two copycat domains down (Cyber-Attack!) because they were populated in their entirely with well documented stolen content. The infringers went so far as to admit this, and repeatedly stated in the forums that they had ripped the content off of DevilsDenPattaya.com. At no point did they present any evidence, or even bother to lie about having licensed or paid for any of it. No, you can't actually do that.

We're not big fans of copyright- DMCA really leaves a bad taste in our mouths. Most of the time we use a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND license. You want to post images of our beautiful ladies- by all means, just make sure people know where those images originate. In this case, the miss-attribution was pretty egregious so we stepped in and had our content removed.

It's one thing downloading movies on Bittorrent, but downloading them and then claiming the producers, directors, and all the crew actually stole the movie from you- because you have had a 480p rip for two years and you've watched it LOTS of times. That's a bit much even for those with the most liberal copyright views.

The current situation is a bit like being unable to pay the rent on your store, so declaring that you own the building because you have been doing business there for a few years.

Why did we need to have our content removed? No idea really. Our brave thieves were faced with some formidable obstacles to producing their own IP. Challenges like: 1. "Pick up camera" 2. "Point camera at ladies" 3. "Post large quantities of the sort of honest, un-retouched photos that drive bookings". Even a Picasa or Flickr page would have been more than sufficient to get up and running- there are beautiful free Wordpress portfolio templates that take minutes to configure. Nothing.

We have been been characterized as just the "Web Designers" and "employees". Employees get paid- this never happened, not for two years, and when a little started to grudgingly trickle in, it was never even a fraction of what was invested. Perhaps we really were just a humble Web design team- and the brains behind the Devil's Den is now running this site:

Read the DevilsDenPattaya.com website, read the forum posts and email replies historically made by Den Management- then read that poor sad little page. That should put any doubts you have about the source of not just the design, but all of the text and marketing copy.

"Ah ha!" (we hear you shout) "So you guys designed and wrote everything. But they are the management geniuses behind the success of the Den!". Perhaps, unfortunately in the last two months they have "managed" the reputation of their facility into the ground:

More negative reviews in two months, then in the previous two years. Could it be the introduction of capricious fines as an income stream, re-hiring of ladies dismissed for substance abuse problems, or doing away with the extremely popular Sunday off? No of course not- the drastic decline in service is the fault of the original management team...somehow...

So they cry- "it's the Domain Name! Without that, there is nothing we can do." Wait a minute, if they were the people who created the Devil's Den brand from nothing- why aren't they doing it again? It's been almost two months. If the original Den Management team are "Only Web Designers"- well all you need to do is hire a new Web Designer right?

So we are being told:
"We originally did it from scratch, in two weeks, on a shoe string budget, when the facility had been raided and shuttered by the police and the reputation was in tatters"
But:
"No, we can't do it again with a large budget, an existing successful model to work from and a huge legacy client base who will latch on to nearly any new brand we care to float"

It is almost comically illogical- and they are wise enough to limit this bizarre narrative to a single venue where they can be sure that comments that point out the absurdity of this position will be promptly deleted.

It's simple, if they did it before- they would have been able to do it again. They did not do it (or act as more than a figurehead), so when pressed on the specifics of how it was done they have no clue "decline to respond". All they know, is that somehow "rightfully theirs" in the absence of payment and bestowed as a reward for slandering the actual parties responsible.

If the infringers had put half the effort over the last two months into producing content and building their own new brand as they have into endless melodramatic chest-beating over the "wrongs" done them- they would now have a business to be reckoned with. Social Capital is wonderful- and they have no shortage of sympathizers. Misplaced pity is unfortunately is a poor substitute for hard work or professional competence. Sooner or later people get tired of hearing you whine and just go someplace where they can get good service.

Further inquiries can be directed to management@devilsdenpattaya.com