Web Host Ignoring DMCA Complaint. What's Next?

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   CYong74posted 5 years ago

   I have bits and parts of a hub, and my bio, copied. So far, I have emailed the web host thrice without any success. There's not even an acknowledgement mail.
   
   Is there anything else I can do? (I have also emailed Google and Bing.)

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      eugbugposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      If they have a Twitter account, maybe embarrass them by tweeting about their lack of response.

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      chef-de-jourposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Keep trying. Persist. Eug and Bev have given you great advice so all I can add is my own approach which basically starts with polite then more threatening emails - direct to contact website, then whois for domain owner..finally is the DMCA which has worked very well for me in the past. Good luck with the tweets. If you get down because they won't respond take a short break then hammer them again. Do you know if they're ranked high or are taking much traffic from you?

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      Marketing Meritposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      You need to fill in the form for Google, which you should be able to find located here:
      https://support.google.com/legal/troubl … r/1114905?
      
      They don't usually email you. The outcome will be reported via your Google webmaster tools account.

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         CYong74posted 5 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks for highlighting. I will check that.

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   theraggededgeposted 5 years ago

   They don't like being threatened by Google deindexing them, so remind them you will be doing that.
   
   Also don't email them without using a correctly formatted and worded DMCA. It's a legal document so they can't ignore it.

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      robhamptonposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      theraggededge, Hi I have a question you might know the answer to. (sort of about this thread) What about dmca in the UK. I filed, but then realized that nothing can be done about copyright issues if someone who lives in UK steals an article? Basically the jerks that stole my article pretty much just laughed at me saying good luck with that, dmca is a u.s. thing. The question is..CAN anything be done about copyright from the u.s. in the UK?

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         theraggededgeposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         I've always used it on UK sites because HubPages is American - never had a problem.
         
         This might help...
         
         https://www.dmca.com/faq/UK-based-DMCA- … st-process

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         Marketing Meritposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         As Bev has already indicated, most westernised countries will act upon a DMCA notice Rob, as they will have comparable legislation that such an infringement falls under.
         
         Having said that, some hosting companies, even in the States, boast about ignoring DMCA notices and/or being extremely slow to act upon them.
         
         I am having problems with a French company called proxads dot net. Also, as many hosts now offer CloudFlare (who have been extremely reputable and prompt with DMCAs I've submitted), it's another hurdle to get over.
         
         My biggest bugbear is that there doesn't appear to be an independent body you can complain to for remedial action, if the hosting company fails to act.

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            CYong74posted 5 years agoin reply to this

            Exactly. There is no obligation, other than a moral one, for hosts to respond. While it is hard in practice to enforce, some sort of net authority overseeing this would be a great boon for us writers.

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               Marketing Meritposted 5 years agoin reply to this

               Totally agree CYong. The only 'enforcement' bodies at our disposal appear to be the major search engines such as Google and Bing. Deindexing pages/sites is probably our only recourse if the hosting company fails to respond to a DMCA notice.
               
               Good luck with this.

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   CYong74posted 5 years ago

   Eugbug: I'm seriously considering that!
   
   theraggededge: Are you referring to the template provided by HP? I used that throughout but they are still ignoring me. Is there any, hmm, authority, that I can go to?

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      theraggededgeposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Lordy, I'm not sure. They've always responded to me. The only ones that didn't work were Russian/Chinese ones.
      
      Yes, try Eugbug's Twitter suggestion. Bombard them. Check Facebook as well.
      
      Edit: yes, HP's template.

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   eugbugposted 5 years ago

   Don't forget to submit a DMCA infringement report to Bing also if you find the URL turns up in SERPS on Bing.com. This is the page where you can submit and also check progress:
   
   https://www.bing.com/webmaster/tools/cmpdashboard

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   CYong74posted 5 years ago

   Google and Bing have actually not responded to me too. Seems like it's time to send a reminder (if possible).
   
   The web host in question is a German setup. I hope it's not an absurd case of them just dismissing anything that is written in English.
   
   Anyway, sigh, will keep trying. Thanks for the suggestions.

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      theraggededgeposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Are you sure your email is working properly

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   eugbugposted 5 years ago

   Google have never ignored me when I submitted a DMCA infringement report, although sometimes they can't find the infringing text at the submitted URL (which is probably because the initial check is done by a software algorithm). Other times they have asked me  for additional info, proving I'm the author. Check any correspondence isn't going into your junk mail folders and if you use an email client such as Windows Mail, Mail or Thunderbird to download email from a gmail account, Google may be filtering out what they think is junk mail and storing it in the junk mail folder (accessible from Gmail online). Probably unlikely they'd filter their own correspondence emails though, since they own the Gmail service.
   You can check progress of DMCA infringement reports on the removal dashboard here:
   
   https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/dmca-dashboard

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   CYong74posted 5 years ago

   Thanks Chef. Thing is, I'm not worried about stolen traffic. What the thieves did was to assemble parts of my hub into a nonseniscal list. So far, my traffic is not affected.
   
   On the other hand, the thieves also stole my bio and used that in a way to imply I endorse some sort of service. That's what I am uncomfortable about. It's an exaggeration but I don't want someone to be scammed because of that.

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   CYong74posted 5 years ago

   Bev, unfortunately, my email is well.

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   CYong74posted 5 years ago

   Eug, thanks. I will email Google and Bing again. I didn't know it takes a while. My impression was that it's a fast process.

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