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  1. #1
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    Dec 2002
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    Hosting Companies: DMCA Requirements?

    Background I notified a small hosting company last week that one of their customers was violating our copyrights by coping verbatim content from one of our wesites.

    The hosting company asked me via email to send a DMCA notification fax to them and once they received it, the offending webpages were taken down.

    A few days ago, we noticed another website from eastern Europe (hosted by The Planet) copying entire original pages from our website and these pillfered pages were appearing as duplicate content in MSN/Google search results.

    The source code on the offending website pages still included our copyright notice and base URL tag.

    We notifed The Planet with the required DMCA notice and electronic signature and all we have received from them is a canned email:

    Your email is being sent to our copyright-related legal counsel at the address copyright@theplanet.com for consideration.
    The Planet has not taken action as required by the DMCA act in our case. The offending pages are still live.

    The law requires tha having properly received a valid notice, the provider must expeditiously [RIAA v. Verizon] take down (remove or disable access to) the content in question, and promptly provides notice to the poster of the content.

    Question: Does anyone have experience with The Planet and their DMCA policy. I am forced to take this issue here as we have received no response from them after two requests.

    I could understand a spam website not responding timely but not a large hosting company. We have the financial resources to pursue this in civil court but would like to hear other solutions.

    Thanks for your time.

  2. #2
    Join Date
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    For your reference, this is the format we used in our contact with The Planet abuse.


    ----------------------

    DCMA NOTIFICATION
    Copyright Infringement Report
    Date: May 22, 2005
    Contact Information

    Recipient Information
    ThePlanet.com Internet Services, Inc.
    1333 North Stemmons Freeway Suite 110
    Dallas, TX 75207
    Email: abuse@theplanet.com
    +1-214-782-7802

    Sent via: Email

    Sender Information

    Ourdomain.com
    Attn: My Name, President
    Street Address
    City , State Zip
    Email: our@email.com
    (000) 000-0000

    DMCA Rules (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/...:H.R.2281.ENR:)
    Signature: Electronic signature of Authorized Person – My Name

    Delivery: Email

    To Whom It May Concern:

    The following information is presented for the purposes of removing web content that allegedly infringes on our copyright per the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. We appreciate your enforcement of copyright law and support of our rights in this matter.

    Be aware that if you ignore this notice, you (as a Provider covered by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act) forfeit the Act's immunity from monetary damages, which range from $750 to $30,000 per work infringed and up to $150,000 per work for willful infringement. Attorney's fees and costs can also be recovered.
    What we action request that you take:
    1) Please Reply to the Complainant (Us) and /or the Authorized Agent thereof that this notification has been received, within 24 hours.
    2) send your customer written notification, along with a copy of this notification, requesting removal of the infringing material and requiring confirmation of the removal be sent to you (the Provider) within 24 hours;
    3) disable access to the infringing material or the customer's account if the customer fails to remove the infringing material and/or fails to inform you (the Provider) of the removal within 24 hours of notification;
    4) send the Complainant (Us) and /or the Authorized Agent thereof notice of the customer's counter notification and your (the Provider) intent to re-enable access to the material or the account within 14 days of your (the Providers) receipt of any customer counter notification, assuming the counter notification meets the requirements of the DMCA Act.
    Identification of Copyrighted Work
    The copyrighted work at issue is the text that appears on our website www.ourdomain.com and its related pages. The pages in question contain a clear copyright notification and are the intellectual property of the complainant.

    Identification of Infringed Material

    The following copyrighted paragraphs have been allegedly copied from the copyrighted work. We have retained but not submitted printed examples of these and other alleged infringements.
    Be aware that these are blatant and obvious examples and are not necessarily a complete list of all alleged violations. We require that all alleged copyright violations be removed from the website in question and the onus is on the infringer to locate and remove all alleged copyright violations of the complainant’s intellectual property.
    Be further aware that simply making a few changes (such as changing a name or rewording or reformatting some text) is not sufficient to remove the rights of the complainant. The alleged offending materials (or website) must be wholly removed.
    Offending Website: http://www.badwebsite.com

    Original Paragraph Example Copied without Permission:

    Sample of Content Copied from Ourdomain.com without permission

    URL Location: http://www.badwebsite.com/4343.html


    Microsoft Search Cache Displaying our Copyrighted Material on Cirrello.com
    http://cc.msnscache.com/cache.aspx?q...n-US&FORM=CVRE

    Copyright Violation:

    This text and images is copied directly from our website without permission. Location of original work here:

    http://www.ourdomain.com/index.php

    Copyright Infringers Contact Information
    Bad Guy (badguy@badwebsite.com) 000 000 0000
    Fax: 000 000 0000
    City State Zip Country

    Copyright Infringers WhoIs Information

    Domain Name: badwebsite.com
    IP Address: 67.000.000.
    Registrar: ENOM, INC.
    Whois Server: whois.enom.com
    Referral URL: http://www.enom.com
    Name Server: NS1.SERVERMATRIX.COM
    Name Server: NS2.SERVERMATRIX.COM
    Bad Guy (badguy@badwebsite.com)

    Copyright Owners Statement

    I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials described above on the allegedly infringing web pages 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.

    Signed Electronically on this day, the 22 day of May, 2005,
    My Name

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Location
    Jacksonville, FL
    Posts
    981
    Your best bet is to use whatever method of contact is listed with copyright.gov, as the Copyright Office is the only body that is statutorily recognized as being an authorative source for contact information by which to use in sending DMCA complaints.

    But don't rely on my advice; instead you should seek competent legal council. Relying on WHT recommendations is for the birds... many on this board probably can't tie their shoes.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Posts
    2,780
    Another thing to consider is they get so much complaints daily it maybe swamping them and backlogging. If this is urgent, I would consider calling and talking to someone instead of relying on email.
    http://Ethr.net jay@ethr.net
    West Coast AT&T / Level3 / Savvis Bandwidth, Colocation, Dedicated Server, Managed IP Service, Hardware Load Balancing Service, Transport Service, 365 Main St, SFO / 200 Paul Ave, SFO / PAIX, PAO / Market Post Tower, 55 S. Market, SJC / 11 Great Oaks, Equinix, SJC

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Location
    USA
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    Originally posted by tical
    Your best bet is to use whatever method of contact is listed with copyright.gov, as the Copyright Office is the only body that is statutorily recognized as being an authorative source for contact information by which to use in sending DMCA complaints.

    But don't rely on my advice; instead you should seek competent legal council. Relying on WHT recommendations is for the birds... many on this board probably can't tie their shoes.
    I relied on the method that is described on The Planet's own website located here:

    Copyright Notifications

    Procedure for Making Claims of Copyright Infringement for Purposes of Title 17, Section 512, of The United States Code


    The individual identified below is the “Designated Agent”:


    Service Provider(s) : ThePlanet.com Internet Services, Inc. and all subsidiaries

    Name of Agent Designated to Receive Notification of Claimed Infringement : George Poletes
    Legal Counsel

    Full Address of Designated Agent to Which Notification Should be Sent : 1333 Stemmons Freeway
    Suite 110
    Dallas, TX 75207

    Telephone Number of Designated Agent : 214.782.7800

    Facsimile Number of Designated Agent : 214.782.7756

    E-Mail Address of Designated Agent : copyright@theplanet.com



    To be effective, a Notification of Claimed Infringement must meet the following requirements:

    It must be a written communication;
    It must be sent to the designated agent identified above;
    It must include the following:

    A physical or electronic signature of a person (“Complaining Party”) authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is claimed to be infringed;

    Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site;

    Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to locate the material;
    Information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact the Complaining Party, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address at which the complaining party may be contacted;

    A statement that the Complaining Party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and

    A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the Complaining Party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

    When a Complaining Party provides a Notification of Claimed Infringement in compliance with the above rules, the Service Provider will do the following:

    Expeditiously remove or disable access to the material that is claimed to be infringing; and
    Take reasonable steps to notify the alleged infringer ("Subscriber") of the infringement claim(s) and that the material claimed to be infringing has been removed or that access to the material has be disabled;
    Upon receipt of notice from the Service Provider that a claim of infringement has been made and that the material has been removed or that access to it has been disabled, the Subscriber may provide a Counter Notification.

    To be effective, a Counter Notification must meet the following requirements:

    It must be a written communication;
    It must be sent to the Service Provider's Designated Agent;
    It must include the following:

    A physical or electronic signature of the Subscriber;
    Identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or access to it was disabled;
    A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the Subscriber has a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled;

    The Subscriber's name, address, and telephone number, and a statement that the Subscriber consents to the jurisdiction of Federal District Court for the judicial district in which the Subscriber’s address is located, or if the Subscriber's address is outside of the United States, for any judicial district in which the Service Provider may be found, and that the Subscriber will accept service of process from the person who provided notification or an agent of such person
    Upon receipt of a Counter Notification from the Subscriber containing the information as outlined above, the Service Provider will:

    Promptly provide the Complaining Party with a copy of the Counter Notification;

    Inform the Complaining Party that it will replace the removed material or cease disabling access to it within ten (10) business days following receipt of the Counter Notice;
    Replace the removed material or cease disabling access to the material in not less than ten (10), nor more than fourteen (14), business days following receipt of the Counter Notice, provided Service Provider's Designated Agent has not received notice from the Complaining Party that an action has been filed seeking a court order to restrain Subscriber from engaging in infringing activity relating to the material on Service Provider's network or system.
    Next step is certified return reciept mail and if we get no response, I will protect our intellectual property.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Posts
    633
    I think the problem is that you didn't send it to their designated agent, you sent it to the abuse department. We had a similar situation of a duplicate website being hosted at The Planet. We simply had our lawyer draft a letter stating what was asked here (the same as you cut and paste here), sent it via certified mail, and within a few days of receipt the site was taken down.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Long Island, New York
    Posts
    220
    ThePlanet is very swift on DMCA issues, if the correct department is notified. Yes, I have first hand experience. Google DMCA'd me for the content of one of my clients' websites.
    TWSites.com - Business Web Hosting Solutions & Server Management Since 2003

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    339
    The canned email from abuse@theplanet.com states they forwarded our DMCA notices to their counsel. Still no action as of today, I will send overnight mail to their attorney.

    Here is the text from their reply to me:

    Your email is being sent to our copyright-related legal counsel at the address copyright@theplanet.com for consideration.
    So they acknowledge they received the complaint and forwarded to their attorney.

  9. #9
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    Dec 2002
    Location
    USA
    Posts
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    Story Update: Day 4

    Sent DMCA notice to ThePlanet's attorney yesterday. Still no response via email or phone to our takedown requests.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Posts
    633
    FYI, neither us nor our attorney actually heard back from The Planet in any way, shape or form. We simply checked the site a few days after they received our notification and it was already taken down.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    339
    Update: Day 5

    Still no contact from ThePlanet, no phone call nor email.

    The copyright infriging website pages are still active on ThePlanet servers.

    Notice there have been no replies in this thread from ThePlanet Webhostingtalk members.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Location
    USA
    Posts
    339
    Update: Day 9

    Still no response from ThePlanet in regard to a DMCA takedown notice.

    We have emailed them, faxed them, and certified mailed the DMCA copyright notfication letter.

    For those who wish to check that the certfied - return reciept USPS mail was delivered to ThePlanet -

    You entered 7003 3110 0005 2694 7844

    Your item was delivered at 11:35 am on May 31, 2005 in DALLAS, TX 75207.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Texas
    Posts
    1,556
    So they got the certified letter today, wait to see if they take it down within the next few days...
    James Lumby

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Posts
    90
    Good luck, I'm guessing they're backed up right now...Ive had an abuse ticket that's been open since the 12th without any sort of acknowledgement or response.

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