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Protecting your Original Content Online

July 27, 2012

So someone has stolen your photos, images or copy and is using it on their website. Well tough, it’s a big bad world and there’s not much you can do about it right? Wrong! – The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) could be your saviour.

Most Internet Service Providers, Domain Registrars and Web Hosts subscribe to the principles of the DMCA and take any DMCA complaint seriously. It is important to note that by making a DMCA complaint you are making a legal declaration as to the ownership of the original Copyright and any vexatious or false complaints are treated equally as seriously.

So how do you go about getting infringing content removed from the web? As always, the best step is to contact the owner of the offending website, point out that they are infringing your copyright and ask them politely to remove the offending content. Providing the site owner with a link to the original content will help your case. A soft and polite approach is usually your best bet as the owner of the infringing site may not even be aware that the content is not original if, for example, they have contracted a third party to provide content for their website – e.g. a web designer or a copy writer. It is  important however that they are left with the impression that you are serious. It would pay to mention the DMCA and that you intend to pursue this matter with their Webhost or Registrar if the offending content is not removed.

You can use online applications such as http://network-tools.com/ to help identify the Contact Name and Address of the owner of the Domain Name that points to the site containing the plagiarised content.

If the site owner ignores or fails to act on your request you can begin taking steps to get the website shut down;

1. Submit a DMCA complaint to Google via their online form. A successful complaint will get the site removed from Google’s index.
2. Submit a DMCA complaint to the Webhost for the offending website – again you can use the information from http://network-tools.com/.
3. Submit a DMCA complaint to the Domain Registrar of the offending Domain Name.

It may take some time to get a response from the Webhost or Registrar, as they have to notify their client of the complaint and provide them with a reasonable period in which to respond to the complaint. If the Plagiarism or Copyright infringement is obvious and indisputable you are far more likely to get a rapid response to your complaint.

Our experience of using the DMCA to get plagiarised content removed has been extremely successful. We recently had a website shutdown within a week. In our case, the offending website was an exact mirror of one of our clients sites, so it was an open and shut case, but this does go to show how seriously Internet Service Organisations take their obligations under the DMCA.

The following is a draft of the content that should be included in a DMCA complaint,


 

Date: {  }

{Your Company Details}

{Name and Address of Notified Party (eg Google, Inc.)}

Re: Notice of Copyright Infringement

Dear Sir or Madam:

As required by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, I am placing you on notice that:

I, {Your Company Name}  certify under penalty of perjury, that I am an agent authorized to act on behalf of the owner of certain intellectual property rights.

The following links (the "Infringing Material") contain unauthorized copies of copyrighted material which infringe the exclusive rights of the Owner.

             www. offending website URL

The original copyrighted articles (the "Copyrighted Material") may be found at:

            www. Original content website URL

I have a good faith belief that the use of the Copyrighted Material as described above is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.

I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

Please immediately remove or disable all access to the Infringing Material.

Should you require any further information regarding this matter, please contact me at the address, telephone number or email address indicated below. My contact information is as follows:

{Your Name}
{Your Company Name}
{Your Address}
{Your email address}
 {Your website URL}

My actual or electronic signature follows.

Sincerely,

{your signature}

 


 

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Filed under Design & Development

Written by

David founded Apex back in 1997. He has a Bachelors Degree from Auckland University and a post Graduate Diploma in Operations Management. As Managing Director David's role is incredibly varied but tends to focus mainly on technical issues that crop up from time to time around Server Admin, Network Management and Email and Domain related events.

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Add a comment1 Comment

Reply Frank | August 3rd, 2012 at 9:46pm
Great information shared. Thanks.

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