Comments on: Someone’s Stealing My Content!

By: Michael Dillon

Michael Dillon — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 13:19:19 +0000

Sorry about this guy stealing content. What a jerk.

I have to wonder: what is he getting from doing that? Certainly he still has to build traffic in order for him to make it worth his while.

BTW, I’m glad you didn’t post his URL.

By: Jonathan Bailey

Jonathan Bailey — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 14:05:26 +0000

First off, I have to correct you on this matter, GoDaddy, as registrar, qualifies for protection under section 512(a) of the DMCA. They are considered a “Transitory Digital Network Communications” provider and are completely exempt from cropyright infringement that passes through their servers.

Their ownly responsibility as far as data transmission goes is pointing to DNS servers and that does not qualify under 512(c) or 512(d), the elements where the notice and takedown provisions lie.

That being said, the site appears to be hosted by Hostdime.com, an American company and they are protected under 512(c) and you can file a DMCA notice with them. It is something that will be very trivial to do.

If you want my help with that, just send me an email with all of the information that you have and I’ll gladly look it over and help you prepare a notice, it shouldn’t take any time.

However, it’s unfair to blame GoDaddy for not doing something that the law doesn’t require them to do. Though it is frustrating, if you were to be lying about this and got their domain cut, GoDaddy could be held liable for interfering with the person’s site and business. They are protecting themselves.

Hostdime will do the same and, thus, a DMCA notice to them will almost certainly result in the shut down of the site. As I said earlier, I will gladly work with you on this. I have filed over 300 DMCA notices and will be more than gladly guide you in any way that I can.

I am not a lawyer, but I am very familiar with the DMCA.

Please, let me know if I can help.

By: Andrew Flusche

Andrew Flusche — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 13:39:34 +0000

Brandon,

Good luck with this. I’m battling my own case of theft right now. I thought I’d be nice and just send the site owner an email, asking him to take it down. I didn’t even cite the DMCA. I heard nothing back. Now it’s time to take it up a notch.

If your tactics above don’t work, some people have suggested contacting search engines to get the infringing site/page removed. Also, I’m going to contact Google to get his AdSense account disabled.

I hope you get results,
Andrew

By: bill

bill — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 13:03:44 +0000

He seems to also be leeching your images – have you thought about setting up your .htaccess to serve him a “custom” image rather than the stuff he’s stealing?

In the past I’ve fed scrapers large block images that mess with their themes and provide a clear warning that the site is doing something illegal. A big image with his personal info and a note stating that you’ve contacted DimeNoc about his account should help him get the message.

As for GoDaddy – you’re right, there’s no reason they can’t shutdown his domain name. Anyway, good luck and please keep us updated.