Page 2 - Website Copyright Infringement and DMCA Procedures

Your site is cached in Google as having a prominent copyright notice at the bottom of the page...meaning that the content on it is effectively yours and you have a very good case IMHO in getting it removed.

There is not much of a 'grey line' as the site is on free hosting etc so the ISP will probably be forced to take down the content...


http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2006/04/10/what-do-you-do-when-someone-steals-your-content/

Also, you may want to take a look at the above...I found it very useful (and some of the sub articles)

Nice site by the way

Thanks for the link.. Interesting blog..

Umm we have the copyright, But its not registered. Its there, just coz we are the sole owners of the content and domain. I guess that should be equally good to prove that as copyright material?

I have already sent a Mail to the owner, he says he needs a DMCA take down order to remove the site. Not able to contact the ISP though..

To commence DMCA processes you do not need to be the registered copyright holder. Commonlaw copyright (assumed copyright) is all the is needed to have any service protecting themselves from claim under DMCA Title II to remove the alleged offending website/content.

You do need to understanding that in the eyes of the law the state of this dispute is an "ALLEGED" offense. The person you claim who is infringing on your rights may counter-claim e.g. they don't recognize your copyright and they can claim anything since the burden of showing copyright is yours.

If a counter-claims occurs all search engines and any other service providers protecting themselves from claim under DCMA Title II will notify that you must show proof of commencing court proceedings in order for the alleged to remain removed from their archives... this is where you must register your copyright claim with the Copyright Office (US Only) because the copyright registration number must be added to the case file brfore entering a court of law...

If you don't do this within 14 days the search engines with replace the content (and host).

In general though this "rarely occurs" must claims are settled immediately based only on your right of claim (commonlaw copyright)



No - this is the only true method of process. What people fail to realize (e.g. a host not protecting themselves from claim under DMCA Title II) is the grave risk they are taking if they don't immedaitely follow your Takedown Order.

In copyright law - this would be viewed as coercion between the alleged infringing website owner and their host... the website owner is allegedly perpetrating a crime using the hosts resources and the host upon being notify of this - does nothing to stop the offense from happening using his assets.

An analogy a friend ask and borrowed you found out that they intended to rob a bank and use your car to escape... and that was ok with you... surely you can see the pending charges - you car was involved and you use it was being used - you're libel.

In any case - doing things appropriately gives you "options".

Execellent post fathom!!

I will just prepare the formal documents and will get them dispatched by registered mail or through fax...I have just e-mailed their host as well with the C&D..

Lets see what happens..

In such a case is it adviseable to blog about it? cors, not bad words, but a word of strictness for such peeps?

Nice post fathom

You can prove that your site is the original content by several methods..

one of them being using the internet archive

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.marketforex.net/


This dupe site is not even indexed in there....and they have not banned the user agent with robots.txt..

there site is just so new and Google will look at the creation dates and work out what has happened..


When you send the DCMA request it would be worth CC'ing the host in on it...

YES ABSOLUTELY! ...it curbs future incidents from happening BUT:

Be careful though - don't much the topic about non-fiction -- that is about a real company or person (by name). You can get great enhanced exposure though this and protecting you copy assets but if you make any claims against a real person or company it may come back to bite you.

Do you recall TP actions against trafficpowersucks.com?

Luckily Matt Cutts/Google stepped in and saved the day because Aaron could have spent years in legal battles eating up 10's of thousands of dollars in legal bills.

Ahh yes I do remember the Aaron's issue.. Still have that bookmarked:

http://www.seobook.com/archives/001503.shtml

So would this<creativecommons.com and a copyscape banner> help by anychance to curb future incidents? Are they effective? I will place one down there right now..

Thanks for the big help though..the posts were excellent

Not really...

In DMCA processes no one needs to "prove" anything... it's only after a claim has been counter-claimed where "proof is needed" and while your suggestions make for fair circumstantial evidence - you'll never get to use it to "prove" anything since you can't get into a court of law without the certificate of copyright number.

It's also worth mentioning that it isn't good to show your methods of determining fair circumstantial evidence - because you never know who you are making a claim against.

Anyone willing to fight you will show what you offered as "proof" and any attorney understanding DMCA will review and may advise their client to "dismiss your proof" (because it isn't)... and then your only play is - registering for copyright, and showing proof of legal proceedings.

If you don't do this... you basically said to the alleged offender - "you may use my copy at your convenience".

The first thing you must learn to avoid with DMCA - don't pretend you're a lawyer.

When a webmaster doesnt have a certificate of copyright number (eg/ their site or material copyright is not registered), the web archive has proven to be a useful source when seeking a DCMA for several other webmasters I know in proving their content was 'there first'.

Granted, its not going to stand up in court...but we are talking about a scraper site on a freehost here

Its hardly an identical replica of facebook called facebook1.com or something of that nature..


I fail to see the relevance of this?

The first thing you must learn to avoid with DMCA - don't pretend you're a lawyer.

and I would be most interested to know upon what factual grounds (with evidence) this statement is based.....

It's a proven method - yes... that is called "bluffing"... and the faint of heart will quickly back down and never challenge... but it is a BLUFF - NOT PROOF... and you are risking everything on the assumption that NO ONE WILL CHALLENGE YOUR CLAIM.

If you wish to do a trial on this I'd be happy to steal your content, post it and then guide you through the processes using you "bluff techique" and I'll call your bluff - and your next action MUST BE the expense of registering, attorney, and other legal costs... or you just gave me permission to use your content "forever" until you do sue and then I'll still likely defend against your action.

Please remember everyone is innocent until proven guilty and you can only prove guilt in court... if you are ill-prepared for court and never intend to escalate your claim to that level you are only playing a game... and once people learn your game rules... you lose.

My content is dynamic (mostly!)and changes on a weekly basis but I see exactly where your coming from

However not everyone is as determined or apparently knowledgeable as you appear to be on this subject and I doubt that the 'average' scraper site owner...or more importantly... THE HOSTS of the scraper site, will refuse to comply and remove the site if they receive a DCMA

I agree totally though on the fact that this is a serious problem for some sites, and can become a very expensive and time consuming one