Filing a DMCA complaint

1. 91

   rajan jollyposted 12 years ago

   I want to share with hubbers that a hub of mine was copied word for word by a blogger on wordpress.com. Within a few hours of filing a DMCA complaint the blog in question was taken down.
   
   I would urge hubbers to file a DMCA  complaint in case they find their hubs being plagiarised and posted on other sites.
   
   Any hubbers want to share his/her experience?

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      wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      You're probably too new to have seen it, but last year someone copied hundreds of hubs from dozens and dozens of hubbers and published them. 
      
      It seemed like the whole community came together to chase this guy down.  We got his site closed down, but he promptly opened another one through a different host. 
      
      He started a new site and within days someone discovered it and the process was repeated.  Over and over he was shut down, only to re-open under a new host.  It got to the point he couldn't stay up and running more than a few hours before some hubber would find him and we'd begin filing DMCA's with the host.  Host sites aren't happy when a new customer suddenly has 10 or 20 DMCA's filed, with records of doing the same thing over and over in the last few days.
      
      Eventually he learned; Don't mess with the HubPages community!  I suppose he is still in business, stealing someones hard work, but not from hubbers!
      
      It was a lot of work, and several hubbers put hours and hours into stopping that particular thief, but it was worth it. 
      
      And congratulations on getting your own thief to take your work down.  It's the only way to deal with these scumbags; jump right now and insist it is taken care of.

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   2. 78

      Sally's Troveposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      This is always a good topic to review now and again, and it's especially helpful for folks who are new to net writing / publishing.
      
      Publishers are very responsive to DMCA filings. If you can identify the publisher (if not the publisher, then the registrar or the host) and send the notice, then the plagiarized material will be removed quickly, because the penalties for not doing so are pretty hefty.
      
      Just a few days ago I saw the red copyright symbol next to one of my Hubs in the "my account" view, used the helpful information provided by HP about where the plagiarized material was published, identified the registrar and host (the publisher's information was private), emailed the host and their attorney using the DMCA form provided by HP, and the "offending" material was removed within hours.

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2. 74

   Richieb799posted 12 years ago

   Usually when you warn the copier prior to filing a complaint, they get scared that their Adsense account might get disabled and they quickly remove the content.  I had to warn one MFA site I saw once, it was funny how quick they removed the content.

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      Sally's Troveposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Why would you warn rather than sending the DMCA notice?

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         wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Once in a while there is an honest mistake.  I have even had a host employee inform me that everything on the internet was public domain - you could copy and past all you wanted to.  Didn't work - it didn't take his boss long to set him straight, but he actually believed that and many people do.
         
         I won't waste much time debating, though - if the offender doesn't take it down very quickly it's on to google (try to get the adsense account disabled) and to the host.

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            Sally's Troveposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I applaud you for giving the benefit of the doubt (I think that's what you are doing). But on this issue, I am slash and burn.

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3. 82

   psycheskinnerposted 12 years ago

   The DMCA is the warning.  I send a friendly email and attach it.

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      IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      This is it. The DMCA is only a warning, and all the copier has to do is file a counter-notice with Google, and then you have to pay lawyers to get involved as Google gives you 10 days to file a legal complaint, then wash their hands of it.
      
      I had a hub copied by a big Chinese site, and then copied from them hundreds of times.
      
      I filed DMCAs. They filed counter-claims, although to be fair Google Translate told me that what they actually wrote on the counter-claim was something to the effect of "very sorry, we won't do it again", but too late, Google left their stuff up there, and now that particular hub has been copied a staggering 1,500 times.
      
      It's an absolute waste of time unless you are a corporation with a legal team in tow, or you just happen to be able to afford legal fees.

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         Sally's Troveposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I've never had an experience where the perpetrator was from outside the USA or Canada. I hope I never have to go through what you did.

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         1. 85

            IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            This all happened in August, just round about the time I got slapped. I hope the two are not related.
            
            I would unpublish to check, but why on Earth should I give away my hard work? I'm almost tempted to do it anyway, just to get the traffic back to my other hubs, but the problem hub is quite popular on Facebook, so probably not a good time to unpublish.
            
            They could be related though, couldn't they? Except Google said there is no manual penalty on my subdomain.

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4. 74

   Richieb799posted 12 years ago

   It can be quicker than waiting for counter-claims like Izzy said

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