Shawn Hogan

This article is about the American businessman. For the Canadian singer-songwriter, see Sean Hogan.

Shawn Hogan

Shawn D. Hogan (born September 1, 1975) is the founder and CEO of Digital Point Solutions, a San Diego-based business software provider. He became well-known when the article 'Shawn Hogan, Hero' appeared in the August 2006 edition of the magazine Wired, detailing his firm stand against an MPAA lawsuit.

Accused of downloading the motion picture, Meet the Fockers, via the BitTorrent network, he received a call in November 2005 from an MPAA lawyer explaining that he was being sued, and that the MPAA would settle for $2,500.

Hogan maintains his innocence, pointing out that he owns a legitimate copy of the DVD. The case is unusual in that Hogan, as a millionaire, has been willing to risk the substantial legal fees on this point of principle. As he told Wired magazine, "They’re completely abusing the system... I would spend well into the millions on this."

Owning a Corrupt Forum - DP Solutions

It is soon becoming a known fact that Digitalpoint Solutions are the holders of a lot of scammy deals run on a unmarked auction forum. Practically no one is claiming their money made to the US and Canada Gov't as well. Is money tornado goes as far as over $80 million dollars without any insite of legally claiming the sales and purchases through the site. The Moderators are reaping all of the benefits.

One man tells a recent story:

"I got banned at DP for a week but it was the stupidest reason ever.

There was this lady who was charging like $200 an hour for article writing because she figured she was teacher. She was owned this site that was like a directory for writers, and of course she was admin there. Also in her topic at DP, it was showered with a bunch of her friends all acting impressed in the topic to boost the DP Credit her service was having.

I just had to open my mouth but I was careful. I just said that the price was highway robbery.

Instantly I was bombarded by two incrediblly offended people who I didn't know. I guess they were part of her team. One used a responsive argument like saying its low price towards other article writers, another was just nasty, and the lady doing the service was extremely nice(of course). We had a few replies here and there, then I said I wasn't going to bother them anymore. Comes Yesterday night I look at my profile and I have not 1, not 2, not, 3, but 4 infractions. None were saying which post or anything, so I got pissed and made a topic in the suggestion area. Of course, its against the rules to talk about it so I got another infraction. Of course not before I see that one of the girls' was a mod at Digitalpoint. She said a whole bunch of disrespectful stuff to me, locked that topic, etc. She even erased everything I posted and others arguing to clean the topic. I figured "what the heck" and Pmed her saying that I'm not big on evil teams with connections in Digitalpoint and a bunch of other ****. I was then banned for 1 week. If that's not enough I got some juice for you. I traced back a former member who was in a conflict with the writer, and this dude got screwed over bad. He said that he paid $100 for a writing job and waited a month to see that nothing was being done. He kept pming her, but then a certian mod (same as above) told him to take a walk or he'll be banned. He decided to give a negative itrader instead of pming anymore. He was banned the next day. Of course this particular girl has over 60 Positive itraders without even one bad one. Can you spell Corrupt?"

It's becoming a Daily target of the abuse of the forum and people with authority in it.

Shawn Hogan Sued yet Again!

UPDATE 31 AUG 2008: Shawn Hogan (Also owner of one of the internets most popular forums http://forums.digitalpoint.com appears to be getting sued again, this time the plaintiff is eBay who claim Shawn was using am underground blackhat internet method known as cookie stuffing to generate income from his popular forum.

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - Three men defrauded eBay in a "cookie stuffing" scheme that made it appear the men's companies should be paid commissions, eBay claims in Federal Court. It sued Shawn Hogan and Digital Point Solutions, Todd Dunning and Kessler's Flying Circus, and Brian Dunning and Thunderwood Holdings. eBay says the men devised software programs that, "unbeknownst to the [computer] user, redirected the user's computer to the eBay Web site without the user actually clicking on an eBay advertisement link, or even becoming aware that they had left the page they were previously viewing. As a result, the eBay site would be prompted to drop an eBay cookie on the user's computer even though the user never clicked on an eBay advertisement or even realized that their computer had ever visited the eBay site." The complaint continues: "once the cookie was stuffed on the user's computer by one or more of the defendant's any future revenue actions initiated by that user when the user later visited eBay intentionally, and not as a result of any advertisement places by defendants, appeared to be eligible for commissions payable to one of the defendants". eBay claims the defendants also used deceptive means to prevent it from discovering the fraud, and to conceal it. eBay demands compensatory, trouble and punitive damages. It is represented by David Eberhart with O'Melveny & Myers.

External links

• [1] - Wired Magazine article
• [2] - Slate article
• [3] - Digital Point Homepage
• [4] - Shawn's Blog (including reaction to the Wired article).