Fansite MP3, Picture, Caps copyright infringements

mp3 copyright infringements

[babyblue24 7]

Hello everyone,

Anywho, there are several fansites that have MP3, pictures, video's screencaps, and other related items on there website, yet do not have the rights to do so... (most are younger teenagers, that just stick stuff up on their site)

I am wondering what I should do to get them taken off, or at least the material off of their sites... I have tried contacting a few of the owners of the sites themselves, only to be laughed at... their site hosts, only to have my mail bounce back or no reply. Should I take it to the next step and contact the singers music company?

I do not have any MP3, Video or Picture Galleries on my website, therefore it is harder for me to get traffic as I do not want to completly and outright go against copyright intellectual licenses.

[edited by: engine at 11:08 am (utc) on Feb. 13, 2006]
[edit reason] See TOS [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]

[Brett_Tabke]

You are on the right track. Go after the labels - they are vicious about protecting their turf these days.

[babyblue24 7]

Would they actually listen?

I know of at least 20 Pink fansites that have tons of audio and video downloads... If they would go after them all it would be worth it...

[Beagle]

I know that with specific authors and artists it depends on how strict that individual wants to be, but when you have a record company to deal with, I'd think they'd be more willing to act.

If any of the sites in violation run adsense ads, you can contact google about their copyright infringement and there's a good possibility they'll be booted out of the adsense program.

FWIW, I have the same kind of "competition" for a site about a particular actor. I'm lucky in that I've never expected to make any money from it; it's a pure "fan site" in that sense. Some site visitors offer to send me (copyrighted) stuff to put on the site, and are surprised when I turn them down. The site isn't completely "stuff free," but because I'm careful about avoiding copyright infringement it has less stuff than most. I make up for the lack with my own writing - but I'm also lucky in that the actor in question has not only "fangirl"-type fans (although he certainly has a lot of those!), but also more mature ones who'll come for the articles/reviews/commentaries I write. But it'd be kind of nice to do a search for the actor's name and not see the first page of results filled with sites I know are acting illegally.

I saw your other thread, too, about free content. I don't know how it works in the world of popular music, which is completely foreign to me, but in most fields of entertainment the copyright holders are often willing to give permission for some of their material to be published, with proper attribution. If the company's site has a "press" or "media" section, that's a good place to look for contact information.