How To Deal With Ignored DMCA Takedown Notices

1. 96

   Glenn Stokposted 8 years ago

   Do you have stolen hubs on sites hosted by WholeSale Internet, Inc.? 
   
   I have found that they refuse to obey DMCA takedown notices and the copyright agent hides behind his secretary.
   
   I never can get passed the secretary, Lauren, who answers the phone and refuses to connect me with Aaron Wendel, who is the copyright agent listed on copyright.gov for this hosting company.
   
   They had many plagiarized hubs on liveverify . com and more recently I see tons of duplicated hubs on backupbus . com.  Both of these sites are hosted by WholeSale Internet. You should check if any of your hubs are there.
   
   Since they never take them down, I notified Google about this, and they removed the SERP links to the copies of my hubs. The copies are still there. But at least they are not getting Google traffic anymore.
   
   After I reported this to Google, the Websearch Infringement was included in Chilling Effects, which maintains a database of legal complaints.
   
   https://www.chillingeffects.org/notices/2049480
   
   Reporting to Google is a last resort if a web host fails to obey your takedown notice via the DMCA.
   
   https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools … &pid=0
   
   If enough of us do that, we may get further action to put WholeSale Internet out of business.

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      Writer Foxposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I think you are just filing your DMCA notices with the wrong companies.  Backupbus.com is hosted on GoDaddy servers (ns42.domaincontrol.com, ns41.domaincontrol.com) at this IP address: 69.197.163.146. Include that information and send the DMCA notice here: copyrightclaims@godaddy.com
      
      Liveverify.com is hosted by Digital Ocean.  I've never had a problem getting them to remove plagiarized content.  Send your DMCA notice here: abuse@digitalocean.com
      
      Digital Ocean is also using GoDaddy servers, so you can also send a notice to that email address above (servers: ns24.domaincontrol.com and    ns23.domaincontrol.com; IP: 128.199.167.154).

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      1. 96

         Glenn Stokposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks WF. I guess that means that whoishostingthis.com has old host information.
         
         Backupbus.com must have moved to GoDaddy for their hosting. And Liveverify moved to Digital Ocean.
         
         I'll try sending a DMCA takedown notice to those hosts and we'll see what happens. But I'd like to know how you found this updated information.
         
         It still remains true that WholeSale Internet refuses to pass infringement notices to their copyright attorney. If they are no longer the host, they should simply say so instead of playing games. But they were the host back in September. Sites move around when they get into trouble.

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            Writer Foxposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            Whoishostingthis.com shows that Backupbus.com is hosted by Wholesale Internet.  If you go to their site, you will see that the contact information for DMCA notices is: 
            Legal: legal@wholesaleinternet.net
            Abuse: abuse@wholesaleinternet.net
            
            I presumed that you sent your notices to those addresses without a response.  In that case, the next thing to do is identify the owner of the name servers.  Whoishostingthis shows the name servers.  If you look up the name server address on www.whois.net, you see this:
            
            
            
            The Registrar doesn't matter, only the owner of the name server.  For Backupbus.com, the servers are owned by GoDaddy.  This probably means that Wholesale Internet is operating as an affiliate of GoDaddy.  So, if you send the DMCA notice to GoDaddy, the plagiarized content will be removed.
            
            Whoishostingthis.com shows that the hosting service for Liveverify.com is Digital Ocean.

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            1. 96

               Glenn Stokposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               You deserve a lot of credit for your help Write Fox. I appreciate all your additional info.  And your comments are useful for everyone.
               
               Yes, I did send the DMCA takedown notice to those addresses. But I also called and spoke to the secretary as I mentioned earlier. But she refused to put me through to her boss, who was listed on copyright.gov as the copyright agent for liveverify.com.
               
               This was back in Sept. Since then I posted a complaint with Google and they posted my complaint in Chilling Effects, which hurt them. I assume that's why they moved the liveverify.com domain to a new host, as you discovered. But as of now their entire site is off line. So I don't need to do anything more with that one.
               
               However, backupbus.com is another story. You discovered the same thing I had, that they are hosted by Wholesale Internet, which is the host that refuses to obey the DMCA.
               
               Problem is that backupbus.com is an exact duplicate of liveverify.com - so they just repeated the same criminal plagiarism under a new domain and with a different host.
               
               But you explained something very important that I didn't know, and that many people don't realize.  You explained that only the owner of the name server is the one to communicate with. It's interesting that they use GoDaddy's name servers.  But I'm glad you brought that to my attention.  I just sent the DMCA takedown notice to GoDaddy for that one.
               
               By the way, other Hubbers reading this should check backupbus.com too, because they have many stolen HP hubs on their site.

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            2. 96

               Glenn Stokposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               Well I have bad news Writer Fox. GoDaddy refuses to remove the content even though their own name servers are being used. They say Wholesale Internet is the host and I need to contact them directly.
               
               So it's not as easy as you say it is when a host such as Wholesale Internet uses someone else's servers.
               
               I replied back to GoDaddy letting them know that Wholesale Internet refuses to do anything. I gave GoDaddy the contact and phone number I used when they ignored my DMCA notices. So hopefully they will feel it's important to follow up. I'll let you know what happens.

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                  Writer Foxposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  Liveverify.com is back online, so check for your content there.
                  
                  For backupbus.com:
                  1. Send an email to the owner of the domains: Kumar Rajnish. His email is: tubefive[AT]outlook.com.  Send the normal DMCA notice and tell him that he has 24 hours to remove your content or you will contact his advertisers, his hosting company and his ISP service. This guy owns dozens of websites, so he looks like a professional plagiarist to me.
                  
                  2.  (Don't wait 24 hours.) Contact his advertising service at : http://www.appnexus.com/contact
                  Send this letter:
                  
                  3. Contact the lawyer who is listed as the registered agent of Wholesale Internet, Inc. for service of legal notices and send him the normal DMCA notice for hosting services:
                  Resident Agent: Todd Bysfield
                  Registered Office: 14917 W 85th Ter, Lenexa, KS 66215-4117
                  
                  4. Contact both Internet Service Providers (ISP) used by Wholesale Internet:
                  Hurricane Electric (http://he.net/)  –  Mention that the hosting company is violating their terms of service: "6. All data stored or transmitted must be legal under all applicable US laws. The account holder is solely responsible for determining the legality of their data which is stored or transmitted …11. If Hurricane Electric is informed of an alleged copyright or trademark infringement involving an account, Hurricane Electric will attempt to notify the account holder of those allegations and secure a response. Hurricane Electric may, in its sole discretion, remove or terminate the account containing, on a temporary or permanent basis, materials which Hurricane Electric believes may create, constitute, or contribute to copyright or trademark infringements. Account holder expressly waives the right to assert any claims against Hurricane Electric for any such removal or termination."
                  
                  Send the notice here: copyright @ he.net
                  
                  Cogent Communications – Mention that the domain is violating their terms of service: " Unacceptable use includes, but is not limited to, any of the following: 1. Posting, transmission, re-transmission, or storing material on or through any of Cogent's products or services, if in the sole judgment of Cogent such posting, transmission, re-transmission or storage is: (a) in violation of any local, state, federal, or non-United States law or regulation (including rights protected by copyright, trade secret, patent or other intellectual property or similar laws or regulations)."
                  
                  Send the notice here: abuse@cogentco.com
                  
                  5. File a complaint against Wholesale Internet Inc. with the Better Business Bureau:https://www.bbb.org/consumer-complaints/file-a-complaint/get-started
                  
                  6. Keep contacting GoDaddy.

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   paradigm searchposted 8 years ago

   Due to a theft experience of my own yesterday, I finally learned  How to File a DMCA Removal Request with Bing. Needless to say, I also did Google.

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   relacheposted 8 years ago

   If you EVER have trouble with any website that uses GoDaddy services, and you are having communication issues or DMCA issues, don't hesitate to file a compliance complaint with GoDaddy themselves.
   
   Their internal policies are such that GoDaddy will follow up.  No response to queries from GoDaddy as one of their customers will result in the entire website being taken down.

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4. 96

   Peggy Wposted 8 years ago

   Your comments on this forum post are good to know.  I get so frustrated always dealing with trying to remove stolen content.  Will take note of these suggestions.

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5. 96

   Glenn Stokposted 8 years ago

   Thanks again, WF, for your courteous help. I hope other Hubbers start noticing this thread since these sites have many stolen hubs.
   
   I see that liveverify.com is back online and up to their same old tricks. But luckily they did not include my hubs this time.  However, I do have a continuing problem with backupbus.com - and I see there are a lot of stolen hubs there. 
   
   I'm going to follow up with the suggestions you gave me. And I really do appreciate it.
   
   I checked the ad network they are using and I see that Appnexus is one of them, as you mentioned. But they also use others, all managed by Ghostery Enterprise (which used to be called Evidon).  So I'm going to notify them too and not just Appnexus.
   
   I'm curious to know how you found Todd Bysfield is the registered agent of Wholesale Internet. Copyright.gov still lists Aaron Wendel, who is hiding behind a secretary who refuses to follow up even after I had live conversations with her. Or maybe he is a non-existent person.
   
   This is where I get my information:
   
   http://www.copyright.gov/onlinesp/agent … lesale.pdf
   
   In any case, I'll repeat the process with the info you gave me.

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      Writer Foxposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      All corporations are required to have their agent for service listed with the Secretary of State, Kansas in this case:
      https://www.kansas.gov/bess/flow/main?execution=e1s6
      
      It looks like Wendel is the Chief Technical Officer of the company:
      https://www.linkedin.com/pub/aaron-wendel/0/11b/783
      http://krebsonsecurity.com/tag/aaron-wendel/

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