August 27, 2000

By DAN ROBINSON

Editor/Photographer

From Dan: How the crime of copyright infringement took $1 million from me and shut down my operation.

In September of 2025, my work is generating the most income it ever has in my career. Yet, I'm being forced to shut down my successul operation, against my will, due to one cause alone: 95% of that revenue is being stolen by piracy and copyright infringement. I've lost more than $1 million to copyright infringement in the last 15 years, and it's finally brought an end to my professional storm chasing operation. Do not be misled by the lies of infringers, anti-copyright activists and organized piracy cartels. This page is a detailed, evidenced account of my battle I had to undertake to just barely stay in business, and eventually could not overcome. It's a problem faced by all of my colleagues and most other creators in the field.

In Dunbar, a small storm cell suddenly begins dropping cloud-to-ground strikes about 1 mile away to the south. I immediately head east, staying with the storm all the way to Paint Creek along the West Virginia Turnpike.

Near Sharon on Cabin Creek, things get a little hairy. Rain is extremely heavy and creates a whiteout, slowing Turnpike traffic to 10 mph. As I crested the mountain at the old Memorial Tunnel, 3/4-inch hail begins pelting the truck as lightning strikes the mountainside just 1000 feet to the left of the Interstate.

I exited the Turnpike at Paint Creek and set up under the highway on the Memorial Tunnel access road, but the severe storm had quickly moved off to the east, sending me home empty-handed.

Video clip: Going downgrade on I-64 at Paint Creek with nickel-sized hail: