Is It Safe to File a DMCA Notice with GoDaddy.com?

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   Kylyssaposted 8 years ago

   A few of my hubs have been copied by a site hosted by GoDaddy. I looked up their page about copyright infringement and something about the DMCA wording and the way that the counter notice was worded made me a little nervous. The GoDaddy reaction to copyright infringements seemed too extreme to me. They take the entire site offline.
   
   First let me say I've filed hundreds, if not thousands of DMCA notices for my work under a variety of pen names. I'm not a newbie unsure how to file one. It's just that something struck me as odd. Such feelings strike me very, very rarely and they are wrong just as often as they are right. But I didn't think I should dismiss it. I know I've filed with GoDaddy before but my file says it was four years ago. Obviously, it went just fine back then.
   
   Part of my reluctance may have to do with the fact that someone bought a domain name and a large proportion of their content is mine plus original content written to complement what they've taken of mine. My content has become core to their website and my polite request to remove it or paraphrase it has been ignored. I feel as though they might fight for the content. I feel certain they'll fight to keep their domain.
   
   So I Googled DMCA notice plus GoDaddy and found some disturbing things about legal actions taken against people for filing DMCA infringement notices. Apparently, their policy of overreaction to DMCA notices creates a tendency of infringers to file counter notices to get their websites back. GoDaddy apparently shuts down the whole account while investigating and may take down the whole account in reaction to a complaint about so much as a single photo or blurb of text on one page of many hosted.
   
   This is an older article but well-written. It covers what others said much less coherently elsewhere.
   https://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2012/05 … ordinaire/
   
   Should I just let it go? I don't want to risk the main article they are infringing as it's been an important resource to many charities and, in its original incarnation on Squidoo, inspired and helped spawn multiple charity organizations worldwide. The infringing site is not one of those charities, but appears to be a for profit website.
   
   Should I skip the DMCA with GoDaddy and just file a search removal with Google?

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      Lady Loreleiposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      This is a standard legal response. You will also get this information from Google when you file there as well.

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         Kylyssaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         No, removing the entire website for a single instance of copyright infringement is not standard for most ISPs.  Most other ISPs only take down the infringing content. I've never seen my DMCA notice result in an entire domain getting shut down. If you read the article in Plagiarism Today, you'll see it isn't standard practice. You'll also see that plagiarists with GoDaddy domains may be more likely to file counter-notices
         
         I've since been reassured that it's not rational to be concerned about legal action site owners may take against me because they can't take any if I legitimately own the content their site was shut down for infringing. The only legal action they could possibly take would be against GoDaddy but the bit about the entire account and all of its domains through GoDaddy getting shut down in response to plagiarism is in their terms of service.
         
         I was also nervous to begin with because I've never encountered a site before that appeared to be someone's money-making business and was completely based on content stolen from me. In other words, I've never encountered a plagiarist with much to lose if my words were taken from them. I've had some pretty unpleasant problems with plagiarists who had nothing to lose but a little pride and maybe a few dollars so this seemed like a more treacherous situation and made me uneasy.

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   relacheposted 8 years ago

   GoDaddy responds promptly and appropriately to DMCA complaints and notices of infringement.  It's delightful.

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      Kylyssaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      What did you think about the article from Plagiarism Today?
      
      I'd have no reservations if it were just a post in a larger blog and didn't form the skeleton and structure of the entire stand-alone site. I just think the plagiarists will be really, really pissed off to have their entire website taken down and I'm worried they might possibly take legal action like the parties in the Plagiarism Today article did. I think I'd be a bit worried about their reaction no matter who the host was.
      
      I'd really like them to take my content down, but I am unwilling to risk losing the content myself.

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         Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         GoDaddy are responsive and fair and if you can prove that your material is earlier than the plagiarising website, you'll have no trouble.

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            Kylyssaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            So there's no legal action the people who put up the website could take against me and it could not result in my original work being removed?
            
            The article I linked to earlier really made me stop and pause.

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               psycheskinnerposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               No, there is no legal action they could take against you unless you 1) weren't actually the author of the disputed work *and* 2) reported it with the malicious intent of destroying their business.
               
               They can't even sue Godaddy because Godaddy's contract gives them the right to withdraw service at any time for any or no reason.

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                  Kylyssaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  Thank you so much! I'll go file it with confidence, then.
                  
                  I so rarely, rarely have that sort of ambiguous uneasiness about anything that I let it worry me. I have some feeling of either negative or positive and entirely illogical intuition maybe once or twice a year. A memorable one was that I felt serializing a novel on Squidoo was a great idea for no reason beyond a strong gut feeling. We know how well that went with Squidoo flushing down the tubes of the Internet.

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   psycheskinnerposted 8 years ago

   That seems like a good response to me.  If it worries you give the site owner a heads up a week ahead, if they don;t list a contact for the site owner--well, they created their own problem.

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   Kylyssaposted 8 years ago

   I'm back to report everything went peachy. The situation was resolved quickly and I have no hesitation about filing a DMCA notice with GoDaddy anymore.

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   makingamarkposted 8 years ago

   Domain registrars and hosts are good people to target re copyright infringement - especially if you tell them you are also about to inform Google.
   
   They know that if Google pulls the page that it also impacts on them for not having acted - and that's why they sometimes take down a whole website.
   
   Domain registrars and website hosts are just as unenthusiastic as us about people who breach copyright. It's just a load of hassle and potential trouble with Google so they want to stop it just as much as us.

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