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DMCA Notice - Copyright Violation - Advice Needed

by Marketing Merit
24 replies
I have a site which sells a public domain book and the title of my site is also the title of the book. Have had this site for 3 years or so.

Experienced quite a lot of anti-competitive behaviour with this site, articles plagurised etc and didn't really bother much after that. Nonetheless, it ranked on p1 of Google and rakes in a couple of thousand of dollars a year.

Recently, my host received a DMCA notice regarding this site from an agent representing a big name motivational speaker. Fair enough, one of his promo videos was on my site and that was taken down. No problem, I was naive back then.There were hundreds of these videos on YouTube and they were also taken down, so I didn't feel particularly singled out.

On reading the DMCA notice, I picked up on references to "unauthorized quotes" being used on the site. I had written an article about this gentleman so, to be on the safe side, I removed that also...not my Host.

Imagine my surprise to discover that my entire site has now been taken down as it is claimed it breaches their copyright...I have no further details.

The site basically contains half a dozen articles, written by myself, about the public domain book and the author.

On an interesting note, another big name, linked to the first, bought a copy of this public domain book recently, and I can't help feeling it was to obtain my personal details and ascertain the level of resistance I would be likely to offer to the DMCA notice.

Part of me thinks, just leave it and walk away, but the other part thinks I should fight it with a counter-notice as I have done absolutely nothing wrong and these articles have genuinely been written by myself.

I honestly don't know why these mega rich individuals would even be concerned with my piddling little site.

It's akin to a David and Goliath battle, and no prizes for guessing which one I am!!

Any advice from my fellow Warriors??

Thanks in advance!
#advice #copyright #dmca #needed #notice #violation
  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    Send a DMCA counter notification back to your host. Public domain is public domain and if the complainer didn't write what you posted, they don't have a case.

    FAQ about DMCA Safe Harbor -- Chilling Effects Clearinghouse

    FAQ about DMCA Safe Harbor -- Chilling Effects Clearinghouse

    FAQ about DMCA Safe Harbor -- Chilling Effects Clearinghouse

    FAQ about DMCA Safe Harbor -- Chilling Effects Clearinghouse

    FAQ about DMCA Safe Harbor -- Chilling Effects Clearinghouse
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  • Profile picture of the author Ettienne
    That really sucks. It's probably best to follow Suzanne's (sbucciarel) recommendations above. Good luck.
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  • Profile picture of the author Joseph Robinson
    Banned
    If it were me, I'd fight it. Depends on how much time and effort you want to put into this thing though.
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  • Profile picture of the author Skywriter
    It looks as if the hosting company is paranoid about being sued. I would write to them setting out the facts as you have stated them here, explaining that you have removed the disputed material, and asking politely that your site be reinstated. If that fails then go down the legal route, but personally I would try an informal approach first.
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  • Profile picture of the author Marketing Merit
    Thank you all very much for your support guys and gals. I have been busy taking screen shots of the Google cache of my site.

    The more I look at my site the more peeved off I am becoming. I had actually written more articles than I had realised and had put a lot of research into writing these.

    My concern is that I know the individual concerned has the financial power to issue the necessary court proceedings in 14 days. However, they could also receive a lot of bad publicity from using these bully boy tactics and claiming copyright for work which is most definitely not theirs.

    As you can all imagine, I have had a busy day. But thank you all for your support, once again, and I will update you as to how I get on
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    • Profile picture of the author robestrong
      Explain the situation to your host, and how they never gave you notice to remove the offending pieces of information. Offer to talk on the phone to get it cleared it up. If they didn't give you a chance to remove any information, then it's the complainer's fault, not yours. Let your host know and it should be online soon.
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  • Profile picture of the author ahlexis
    Fight back.

    And for encouragement, I offer:

    California Coastal Records Project

    Barbara Streisand's lawsuit against an aerial photographer who was documenting the entire California coastline. She sued. She lost. (She paid attorney's fees.)

    May your David moment turn out like this one.
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    • Profile picture of the author Marketing Merit
      Originally Posted by robestrong View Post

      Explain the situation to your host, and how they never gave you notice to remove the offending pieces of information. Offer to talk on the phone to get it cleared it up. If they didn't give you a chance to remove any information, then it's the complainer's fault, not yours. Let your host know and it should be online soon.
      Legally, I have to serve a counter-notice Robestrong to get the Host to reinstate the site. It is all connected to the safe harbor provisions which Suzanne has kindly highlighted in post 2. They remove material rather than risk being sued.

      Originally Posted by ahlexis View Post

      Fight back.

      And for encouragement, I offer:

      California Coastal Records Project

      Barbara Streisand's lawsuit against an aerial photographer who was documenting the entire California coastline. She sued. She lost. (She paid attorney's fees.)

      May your David moment turn out like this one.
      Thank you for this encouragement Ahlexis. I will definitely take a look.

      I have spent most of the day collating information and will be in a position to issue the counter notification shortly.

      The timing is not good for me as it is a long Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee. We're having a street party get together tomorrow and I am determined not to let these morons spoil my fun!! :p

      Nonetheless, I feel relaxed that I have 'broken the back' of what I needed to do to be able to file the counter notification.

      THANKS again to all of you who have taken the time and trouble to reply. IM can be a lonely business and it's great to know that I can call on you for moral and practical support, in times of need.
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  • Profile picture of the author Robert T Jillie
    I see that your'e based in the UK and I'm not an expert on UK copyright laws but I would be willing to bet that they are quite similar to US copyright laws.

    There is a "Fair Use" policy considered by US courts regarding copyright infringement.

    The 1961 Report of the Register of Copyrights on the General Revision of the U.S. Copyright Law cites examples of activities that courts have regarded as fair use:
    • "quotation of excerpts in a review or criticism for purposes of illustration or comment;
    • quotation of short passages in a scholarly or technical work, for illustration or clarification of the author's observations;
    • use in a parody of some of the content of the work parodied; summary of an address or article, with brief quotations, in a news report;
    • reproduction by a library of a portion of a work to replace part of a damaged copy;
    • reproduction by a teacher or student of a small part of a work to illustrate a lesson; reproduction of a work in legislative or judicial proceedings or reports;
    • incidental and fortuitous reproduction, in a newsreel or broadcast, of a work located in the scene of an event being reported."

    I would also follow sbucciarel's advice and send a DMCA counter notification back to your host.

    Hope this helps!
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  • Profile picture of the author Marketing Merit
    This is an update for all those who kindly contributed to this thread.

    DMCA counter notification issued and I waited...tick, tock!

    Time limit expired but host did not reinstore site data automatically so I had to prompt them. (I must confess that I thought they would resist any re-instatement request from little ol' me, DMCA or no DMCA!)

    Did try uploading site to another hosting account but was experiencing duplicate database errors for some reason, so redirected to a simple landing page.

    This has truly messed up my Google indexing/ranking and I am still baffled as to why anyone would view my little .info site as any kind of a threat to be honest.

    Nonetheless, this does smack of anti-competitive behaviour and I did feel rather intimidated by the laywers who were acting on behalf of this guy. They're professionals right? They should have a damn good idea if my site was breaching their client's copyright?

    Nonetheless, I would urge anyone who has genuinely written the content themselves, such as I did, to contest any DMCA notice issued. Of course, court papers may be winging their way across the atlantic as I write. But as I have relatively few tangible assets, the Plaintiff would undoubtedly end up out of pocket, even if successful.

    Worringly, the one thing my DMCA research has shown me, is that it is increasingly being abused in order to damage/eradicate competition. This is not what the law was intended to do. Consequently, I would urge caution to anyone who may rely solely on one or two sites for their income. As my experience shows, this could be wiped out overnight, through no fault of your own. Fortunately for me, I have 30+ sites, so was able to sustain the drop in income.

    Thanks once more for all of your support guys
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  • Profile picture of the author HeliaAlejandro
    Find another host in a country that doesn’t respect DMCA like Canada or Sweden.
    Write articles about your fight against DMCA and freedom of speech this will atract visitors to your site too, like the "streisand effect".
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    • Profile picture of the author Marketing Merit
      Originally Posted by HeliaAlejandro View Post

      Find another host in a country that doesn't respect DMCA like Canada or Sweden.
      Write articles about your fight against DMCA and freedom of speech this will atract visitors to your site too, like the "streisand effect".
      Oddly enough, that's exactly what I was thinking of doing!

      I just wasn't sure which countries would provide reliable hosting and ignore DMCA. Russia and India sprang to mind but I hadn't even considered Canada or Sweden!!

      Cheers for this!
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    • Profile picture of the author Lloyd Buchinski
      Originally Posted by HeliaAlejandro View Post

      host in a country that doesn't respect DMCA like Canada
      That's total news to me. I always thought Canada and the US worked together with copy rights, and thought they would with DMCAs too.

      I just googled it and it looks like Canada now does have it in place.

      Canada's DMCA, dissected - Boing Boing
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  • Profile picture of the author Menzieshunt
    Cheryll, I would go for it - I'm not an IP lawyer but it sounds like bullying tactics to me - where is your site hosted - US or UK? - think this could determine which jurisdiction the dispute would be under. If its under UK jurisdiction is he really going to want to fight it? Doubt it! Would mean he would have to engage lawyers this side of the Atlantic. US law as summarised by Robert sounds similar to what I have come across in UK law - I'm a lecturer (and a construction lawyer - hence not an expert in IP law) so have to keep up to speed with copyright issues to some extent. I once had a case where I mounted a jurisdictional challenge in defence and they quickly scuttled away.
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    • Profile picture of the author Marketing Merit
      Originally Posted by Menzieshunt View Post

      Cheryll, I would go for it - I'm not an IP lawyer but it sounds like bullying tactics to me - where is your site hosted - US or UK? - think this could determine which jurisdiction the dispute would be under. If its under UK jurisdiction is he really going to want to fight it? Doubt it! Would mean he would have to engage lawyers this side of the Atlantic. US law as summarised by Robert sounds similar to what I have come across in UK law - I'm a lecturer (and a construction lawyer - hence not an expert in IP law) so have to keep up to speed with copyright issues to some extent. I once had a case where I mounted a jurisdictional challenge in defence and they quickly scuttled away.
      Thanks for your support!

      I have 2 hosts, both based in the US. Probably not a good idea in hindsight!
      I did issue the pre-requisite counter notification and, in fairness, after I reminded them, the host was prompt in reinstating my site. I have read instances whereby hosts won't do this, even though it breaches the DMCA.

      When you file the DMCA counter notification, you agree to abide by US jurisdiction, so I think that matter is pretty much covered. I would have no alternative but to represent myself as a Litigant in Person.

      As far as I know, it is a matter for the complainant to instigate proceedings. I could counter sue for falsely, as opposed to mistakenly, identifying the material as copyright, but you're only talking a loss of several hundreds of dollars plus my time to boost SERPS etc.

      Having issued the counter-notification, they do seem to have gone pretty quiet. I did provide additional information as to why I considered they were "mistaken" in their copyright claim, which included matters of "fair use" as Robert referred to above.

      What niggles me the most is that this guy is a well known and "respected" multi-millionaire and my site must be small fry to him.

      As an aside, my background is also in construction (but not law). I am a Chartered Civil Engineer by profession and have had more than my fair share of adjudications and court cases to contend with!
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      • Profile picture of the author ot
        Originally Posted by Marketing Merit View Post

        Worringly, the one thing my DMCA research has shown me, is that it is increasingly being abused in order to damage/eradicate competition.
        I've had someone repeatedly send false DMCA reports to a host purely to wreck my work competing against them.It's draining to deal with
        Originally Posted by HeliaAlejandro View Post

        Find another host in a country that doesn't respect DMCA like Canada or Sweden.
        Was the only solution I came up with too.
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        • Profile picture of the author rhinocl
          If the other side has money and you have been wronged you should investigate seeking compensation. See if a lawyer will take the case on a contingency basis (if that's allowed in your country). You probably really want a US lawyer for this though. Be really careful about deals where you have to front some of the costs though as you never know how these things will end (he could lose all his money before you collect anything).
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        • Profile picture of the author Marketing Merit
          Originally Posted by ot View Post

          Was the only solution I came up with too.
          If you don't mind me asking Othelia, which hosting company do you use and where are they based?

          I have used UK companies in the past but find them more expensive than the US based hosts.
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          • Profile picture of the author JacMer
            Originally Posted by Marketing Merit View Post

            If you don't mind me asking Othelia, which hosting company do you use and where are they based?

            I have used UK companies in the past but find them more expensive than the US based hosts.
            In todays world you can host anywhere.
            The problem is that the majority of web hosts just want to serve up your site and get paid. They have no interest in getting involved in a legal dispute.
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  • Profile picture of the author Menzieshunt
    Cheryll, I'm a chartered civil engineer as well - how weird is that? I went into the law after 7 years as an engineer! Fancy a JV? Get in touch if you do!

    I think this guy will go away - if not I would be tempted to threaten to go back to the US lawyers and threaten to go public about him chasing you - it really does not look good for these guys who are supposed to be promoting what wonderful lives they lead to be seen to be doing this! After all David vs Goliath is really bad publicity for him!
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  • Profile picture of the author joseph7384
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    • Profile picture of the author Marketing Merit
      Originally Posted by joseph7384 View Post

      Did you credit the author for each quote, if so then I would fight it if you had not credited the author then you may want to seek some legal advice because I'm not sure if there are infringement issues that would arise.
      Honestly Joseph, I didn't use any of his quotes directly, as far as I can recall. I wrote one article about this guy, which I based on a very short promo video of his. He essentially described how difficult he had found it to come by this book but that he believed in the law of attraction and managed to find a copy. Nothing earth shattering really!!
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