Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Just found an MFA that is constructed entirely from content taken from one of my pages. Its more than 300 words long. Some of the words are underlined and linked to my site, but other than this there are no credits mentioning me as the author
The owners have a faded disclaimer at the bottom citing "Fair Use" and some rationale about hyperlinks that lead to the "authors page". However I wonder if 300 odd words or more is within the bounds of 'Fair Use'
More to the point, this is a page that doesn't look like a scraper site that has used my content to generate revenue from Adsense. I have reported it to Google as a violation, but I wonder if Google will respond to my email...... Let's wait and see
I don't think it would be feasible for him to file such a lawsuit as the legal cost+distance v's his claim.
Speaking from experience, the demand letter is enough to scare them into submission. Writing a correct DMCA is time consuming, and you can accomplish the same with a simple demand letter as I advised in message #19.
Here I am, an author ripped off, yet worried about some lazy MFA scumbag possibly creating a grey (fair use) issue then crying 'victim' and turning the tables on me...
Nope. Your content is one of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of pages he's scraped. Speaking from experience dealing with these guys, they'd sooner take down your content and be done with it than engage in any kind of legal action.
You and your content couldn't be more insignificant to them.
I think I will use this as my first option. Only when I view this guiys domain details there is this message
"...This listing is a Whois Privacy Customer. Mail correspondence to this
address must be sent via USPS Express Mail(TM) or USPS Certified
Mail(R); all other mail will not be processed..."
An admin email is listed as hisname@rivacypost.com just wondering if this will get me there.
I don't suppose that info@hisdomain.com would work in this case
Your content is one of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of pages he's scraped.
I do see my pages on hundreds of not thousands of scraper sites, I always have ignored those. This one is a little different because it looks like a web page not a directory.
My method worked in taking down the content from the directories and all the websites that had copied it- all without a shot being fired, no lawyers involved, just people working it out together. I even phoned one guy and spoke to him about it.
These people don't care about your content, they are not emotionally invested in it. To take it down to avoid stirring the pot is a trifle to them.
As far as the anonymized domain, send it to where it says to send mail to, make sure it's certified for proof of mailing, and it should get to the registrant of the domain.
If that doesn't work, then the DMCA is your last option. I've only had to file one DMCA, and have found that working things out with people is faster and less hassle.
I've also dealt with people who have lifted whole pages from my site
I have had this happen a more than a couple of times, but these were competitors not scrapers.
Thanks for your advice, I think this is going to be my first dourse of action.
if he carries Google ads then you can complain to them. they will ask you to send a formal email outlining which pages he has stolen, and the corresponding links on your site. they will then ask you to include a legal sentence saying something about libel, to cover themselves (i can't remember the exact words, but you must make sure that you have a fair case before emailing them, because you could end up in trouble yourself if they sue you for defamation!).
in the end, i didn't bother with any of that, because i sent them a 'cease and desist' letter - which scared them enough to removes the pages. Feel free to alter the one below...
FORMAL CEASE AND DESIST NOTICE
December 25, 2000
Re: Notice of Willful Copyright Infringement
NOTICE OF WILLFUL COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT
NOTICE TO TAKEDOWN PURSUANT TO 17 U.S.C. 512(c)
Dear Website owner:
I write as the copyright owner and the publisher of an extensive catalogue of copyrighted text found on my site, 'Your site name' and in my book 'Name of your book'.
This letter shall serve as formal notice to you under Section 512(c) of the United States Copyright Act.
It has come to our attention that 'URL of thiefs website' is unlawfully using these Compositions or derivative works thereof, without authorization or license in connection with:
(i) the advertising and promotion of a website;
(ii) the making available, distribution and performance of written works;
(iii) the promotion and sale of merchandise;
and (iv) the advertising and promotion of your websites located at 'URL of thiefs website'.
Such uses of these Compositions without the express authorization or license has caused and continues to cause substantial and irreparable injury and is in direct violation of both the author and the publisher's rights, including, without limitation, those under the United Stated Copyright Act.
Accordingly, the 'list of all the stolen pages' portions of your site, as well as all links to any relevant files on your site, should be removed and access should be disabled immediately.
The information contained in this notice is accurate under the penalty of perjury.
Your immediate attention to this matter as outlined above is required.
In addition, please contact me within ten (10) business days of your receipt of this letter so that we may resolve this matter without unnecessary, additional legal expense.
This letter is not an exhaustive recitation of our claim in this matter, and is accordingly written without prejudice to our rights and remedies in the foregoing, all of which are hereby expressly reserved.
Sincerely,
Your name [author of said work],
Your publisher [publisher of said work],
Copyright owner [copyright owner of said work]
Even though I have some previous CD's to go by, I will take a look at your letter in case it contains points that may be also relevant to my situation. I will be looking at getting the CD off this weekend.
I'm a bit worried about countersuits also, so I will be playing it very cautiously.
[edited by: martinibuster at 10:03 pm (utc) on Mar. 17, 2006]
[edit reason] spelling [/edit]
Again, there's no need to file a DMCA. It's silly to spend more time on these people than you have to, your time is best spend sending the demand letter first.Speaking from experience, the demand letter is enough to scare them into submission. Writing a correct DMCA is time consuming, and you can accomplish the same with a simple demand letter as I advised in message #19.
On the contrary, the DMCA complaint is the publisher's best friend and should be your move, if the offending site is running AdSense ads.
I've been through this many times. You can try to contact the person who stole your content and they will ignore you. But they won't ignore an e-mail from the AdSense program.
Typical situation:
1) You send a nice e-mail to the offender asking him to remove your content
2) After no response or change in two weeks, you send a strongly worded Cease and Desist e-mail.
3) Two weeks later, you again send the Cease and Desist letter, this time with a copy to his web host.
4) Two weeks later, with no response or removal of your material, you send DMCA letters to the search engines to get the offending site kicked out of the index. You also send a DMCA letter to the web host.
5) Two weeks later, the search engines have removed the offending site from their indices, but the site is still up and operating and running Google AdSense ads.
6) You finally send a DMCA letter to AdSense (not to the Google search people). They send an e-mail to the offender. A few days later you get a copy of the message they sent to Google:
"I had no idea that this content was not original! I removed the copy within 5 minutes of receiving your e-mail and will donate the proceeds from the ads to a charity as a sign of good faith. I sincerely apologize to everyone involved. Hopefully, I will be able to continue with AdSense."
It's like Claude Raines in Casablance being shocked! to find gambling in Rick's Casino.
I don't even bother to contact the offending publisher anymore. I just send a complaint to AdSense or YPN or whoever is supplying the ads. If they don't run ads, you have to go a different route. I've submitted over 100 DMCA complaints to AdSense in the past 8 months or so, and the success rate is high.
