Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Someone made a complete copy of one of my sites, and put it on a domain that used to be some sort of get rich quick scheme, best that I can tell.
VERY interestingly, while they changed every occurrence of the site's name, including on the copyright and Terms & Conditions page, they left in place a number of elements; they left in place my 3rd party hit counter, they left in place MY AdSense advertiser number, and they left in place my data salt (which is what allowed me to find them).
What worries me the most of course is that they left my AdSense ID in place.... and ads are NOT showing on the site! I am guessing that AS had banned this domain and that someone was trying to get me banned by placing a copy of my site there.
So I've filed a DMCA with the webhost, and filed one with Google search. Google search instructions request individual URLs which I can do, but would be a real pain as there are about 1,000 pages there, from what I can tell.
Do I need to or should I file something with AdSense support? I seem to recall reading something about this a while back, but can't recall nor find it.
Thanx!
[google.com...]
Anyway, for "normal" infringements (i.e. site copies content and uses their own ID to monetize) a DMCA notification to Adsense is perfect.
Not to change this to a copyright thread, but did you register your site with the U.S. Copyright office? I thought I read somewhere that some ISP's and search engines were becoming reluctant to deal with copyright complaints unless you officially filed and thus have solid evidence that you had the content first.
If AdSense is involved, it seems to me that AdSense could tell which site had the content first and was getting clicks.
FarmBoy
Not to change this to a copyright thread, but did you register your site with the U.S. Copyright office? I thought I read somewhere that some ISP's and search engines were becoming reluctant to deal with copyright complaints unless you officially filed and thus have solid evidence that you had the content first.
They don't have any choice but to take action in response to a DMCA notice. Otherwise they won't be protected by the "safe harbor" provisions of the act.
See: [en.wikipedia.org...]
-- Roger
They don't have any choice but to take action in response to a DMCA notice. Otherwise they won't be protected by the "safe harbor" provisions of the act.
Does this mean that someone can come scrape your entire site and then file a DMCA on your host and Google, and the host will have to shut you down until you proof you are innocent?
And you your site will be dropped off the index until you proof your innocence and wait for reinclusion?
You can response with a counter notification. Then the complaining person must file a law suit in court within 10 days. If they don't then your site will be re-instated.
Can I copyright my website?
The original authorship appearing on a website may be protected by copyright. This includes writings, artwork, photographs, and other forms of authorship protected by copyright. Procedures for registering the contents of a website may be found in Circular 66, Copyright Registration for Online Works.
Does this mean that someone can come scrape your entire site and then file a DMCA on your host and Google, and the host will have to shut you down until you proof you are innocent?
No, because the DMCA also says that they have to restore your site if you say the allegations are not true. See the link I posted for details:
[en.wikipedia.org...]
-- Roger
You're not asking that group to take any action, so I wouldn't send them a legalistic document that says they're required to. If anything, you're creating a risk that they might mistakenly penalize your own publisher account.
Sorry I haven't responded sooner, things have been a bit busy, but I thought I HAD given a quick update. I must have hit the preview button instead of the submit button. Sigh.
The host replied to me and took the site down the next morning. The site was resolving to the CPanel Account Suspended page. A few hours later, the site resolved to an empty directory listing.
I pondered long and hard about notifying AdSense, for exactly the reason jomaxx stated, fear of confusion. I will probably just send them a note tonight stating VERY briefly saying that my site had been copied including my publisher ID, that copy is gone now, and that I have never been associated with that domain. Just to cover my bases in case I ever get that dreaded "Your account is associated with" email.
Thanks for the thoughts and advice!
[edited by: RonS at 11:43 pm (utc) on June 21, 2007]
