Be Aware, Hollywood Steals Copyrights!

Hello,
My name is Vitas Ramanchauskas. I am a computer programmer since 1988. In 1997 I opened my personal Web site ( webdon.com ). In early 1998 I launched my first shareware program. In late 1999 I changed the site name to LastBit.com . Now LastBit Software is a division of Last Bit Corp.

This story began in 2003, 6 years after I’d written my first program PwlTool*. This program could be used to reveal cached passwords in the Windows 95 operating system and later was improved to another popular recovery tool Secret Explorer. As PwlTool wasn’t a commercial program, sone time past and I discontinued updates of the webpage where its source resided since 1998 and, as it often the case, completely forgot about it.

In 2003, when six years have elapsed since I wrote PwlView, C-2 Pictures, the Santa Monica-based filmed entertainment company released the long-awaited sequel to the blockbusters The Terminator and Terminator II which was called Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines. Terminator 3 was quite a success and as every movie in the series it has got its fans. Quite many fans I suppose. C-2 Pictures launched the www.terminator3.com website for them. Now this site seems to be discontinued, you can use web.Archive.org service see its past contents: http://web.archive.org/web/20060424075449/http://www.terminator3.com/. Note the "TM and (c) 2002 C2 and its related entities. All rights reserved" line at the bottom of the main page. Besides tickets, dvds and other related stuff this site has got some terminator-themed wallpapers. Look, for example, at this one:
http://www.terminator3.com/content/desktop_downloads/desktop_lg/t3_desktop_a01_1280.jpg (http://web.archive.org/web/20051109094600/http://www.terminator3.com/content/desktop_downloads/desktop_lg/t3_desktop_a01_1280.jpg)
This wallpaper in fact is a shot from the movie itself with a code of PwlView which can be clearly seen on the right side of the picture. Just have a look.
When I first saw this, I had immense fun. "Wow! The Terminator uses my software to crack passwords!". Then I examined the picture closely, enjoying the look of the code which I wrote years ago.
But looking at this code thoroughly again, I could’t find my copyright notice (which was present in the code located at webdon.com). It's missing though I'm the author of this software. That's why I was a little bit upset.
I was failing to understand...WHY THE HELL?! The world is swarming with crackers, carders and other criminals who don't care a dime about (c)'s and (R)'s. It is small wonder. But why the hell the multimillion movie production company goes this way? The Terminator 3 movie yielded quite a handsome profit. I was not going to ask for a single cent of this. Neither I would have been, had they asked me for my permission to include this piece of code into the wallpaper. If these timid guys really felt so embarrassed of such an intimate question, they could just leave the copyright notice intact. They didn't.
Instead, they placed their own copyright. Besides this, they falsely claimed that all rights were reserved. But my rights weren't. I don't think it's the right way to do business for the company, that, I believe, is being held in high respect. I don't like my code being stolen and misappropriated. And I don't like anyone, no matter whether it is a teenage cracker or C-2 Pictures, who ignores the laws that protect intellectual property.
Then, one layer offered me his help and tried to contact C-2 Pictures but they seemed to be absolutely irresponsible.
Justice didn’t prevail.
The one more question that left without answer is why this layer recommended me not to spread the information about that case with copywrite.

* This program along with its source code still can be downloaded from http://www.webdon.com/VITAS/PSWAPI.HTM. You can use the www.archive.org internet archive to make sure that this webpage existed in 1999 (and in fact it was there even in 1997 though the last version that can be found in the archive dates from 1999). You can follow this link if you want to have a look at it:
http://web.archive.org/web/19991012014535/webdon.com/vitas/pswapi.htm).