Should you send a DMCA to the offending website or the host?

1. 94

   Melovyposted 10 years ago

   It's been so long since I had a copied hub that I've forgotten!
   The Learning Center entry says you can send to the website or to the host. The whois entry shows an address for abuse@GoDaddy and  registrant and admin emails for the website.
   I'm guessing that sending it to GoDaddy would be the quickest route to go, but am I guessing correctly?

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   1. 78

      psycheskinnerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      The offending party is the webmaster.  I always give them a chance to fix it before going to the host. The host is likely to bounce the issue if you skip that step.

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         Melovyposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks psycheskinner, I just sent to the host, so I’ll do the webmaster too.

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            psycheskinnerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Let us know how it goes

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         mythbusterposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks for this response - makes a lot of sense. I will try this, too.
         
         Thanks to the OP for asking the Q and gaining response to an issue a lot of HP members are currently having with copied material/content.

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         1. 94

            Melovyposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Mythbuster, I hadn’t realised there was a spate of copying again. This hasn’t happened to my hubs in a long time. Where has your content been copied? (Just in case it’s the same.)
            Mine is on a site called parenting rooms
            
            And Pyscheskinner, thanks again and yes, I’ll let  you know how it goes.

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      Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      As @psycheskinner said, you want to start with the entity who violated the DMCA, so the webmaster or company who owns the domain first, then escalate to the hosting company, and finally if you don't get any traction from either, you can send a request to Google to have it removed from SERPs.

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         DzyMsLizzyposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         In the case that happened to me, the "entity that violated" was overseas; they do not care, and do not respond.  So I went to the host--which was GoDaddy... and they don't care, either.  The reply I got from them stated that "we don't have that service..."
         So, now what?  I don't know who to contact at Google.....

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            Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            "we don't have that service..." doesn't sound like Godaddy saying that they do not care, per se.  If you have a valid claim, then GoDaddy is very likely to respond as they have a legal responsibility to do so under the DMCA. Perhaps they are not the actual hosting company, but only the registrar.  What is the domain on which the infringing information is hosted?

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            1. 91

               DzyMsLizzyposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               It was GoDaddy.  I double-checked, and then looked it up on WHOIS besides.  GoDaddy was in every position category there.  host, DNS and registrar.
               I did reply to that e-mail, saying that I did not see how it was legal for them to refuse to take down the offending content, and I have received no further response.  That was over 2 weeks ago.

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            Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            That sounds like a strange response.   Are you sure you submitted it on the correct form and that you gave them the right link to the content?

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               DzyMsLizzyposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               Yes, and yes.

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                  Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  What was the website?

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      2. 94

         Melovyposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks Matthew. Just saw your reply now.
         A HUGE thank you to HubPages for bringing all our copied hubs to our attention. I'm not thrilled that I've now got 10+ more, but it definitely saves so much time having this part done for us and it gives peace of mind.
         So thank you.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      My first approach is to look for a "contact us" link on the website itself.  Then I use their contact form or email address to send the DMCA.
      
      If there is no contact information anywhere on the site, then the webmaster is trying to hide - therefore they'll probably ignore anything I send them, anyway, so I don't bother going in search of their contact details.   Instead, I go straight for the host or Adsense.

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      1. 91

         DzyMsLizzyposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Well, that was the case; they were trying to hide, so I went to "whois" and found that GoDaddy was the host....
         I don't know how to contact AdSense/Google for that.
         So, after getting no reply to my telling them I did not see how it was legal for them to ignore/not have the service for a DMCA complaint,
         I simply said a few unladylike things, shrugged my shoulders, and moved on.

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            businesstraderposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Both! But try reaching out to the offending site first and five them 48 hours to pull it down.

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         wildernessposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         I'm on board here, too.  Very few thieves will remove the stolen work, very few hosts will fail to remove it.
         
         File with the host unless there is reasonable doubt the thief knew it was wrong, which would be rare.

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         1. 94

            Melovyposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Wilderness, that was my thinking too. I’m not convinced that someone would copy and entire article and give themselves credit without knowing!
            So far I’ve heard back from the host with a different address to email. So i will be doing that.

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               wildernessposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               It happens.  I had a group of high school kids doing a school project that didn't understand plagiarism.  Even a web master, once, that honestly thought everything on the web was free for the taking (took a stern talk from his boss to set him straight).   I recently had one where a business hired a bogus web designer who stole everything he put on their site - they were ignorant and had no idea what he'd done.
               
               But it is rare and seldom worth the effort to go to the site owner.

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2. 94

   Melovyposted 10 years ago

   Thanks everyone for  your suggestions here. It turned out that the site listed as the host on Who Is wasn't but they gave me the correct host and the copied article is now down. And now I've got about 10 other copied hubs.
   Oh, the joys… …

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3. 91

   Msmillarposted 10 years ago

   I am dealing with my first copyright problem.  What a pain!
   Thank you Hubpages for alerting me and then pointing me in the right direction!! I really appreciate the help.
   I'm noticing that, as talked about above, that many people think it's on the internet, so it must be free.
   What is bothering me is, they copied everything, right down to my name and reprinted it in their site! I don't appreciate my name being posted where I didn't know or even want it posted.
   The site that copied my work is in China, so everything has to be translated, but not everything translates on the page (my name is the only thing I can read on the page)!
   They're ignoring my email so I'm researching the host.  Arrgh! I have better things to do, like write another hub!

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