Have you ever heard of a takedown notice?
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When my first book was pirated, other writers said get busy and send the site a takedown notice.
What did I know. I made up a letter and sent it to the sites. Of course, I also filed a complaint about copyright infringement (Online. Now I question if that was altogether correct), notified Google, and Facebook of the fact that these sites were pirates. Copied all my correspondence and included that in my so-called take-down notice. Not really DMCA ready or right.
What did I know. I made up a letter and sent it to the sites. Of course, I also filed a complaint about copyright infringement (Online. Now I question if that was altogether correct), notified Google, and Facebook of the fact that these sites were pirates. Copied all my correspondence and included that in my so-called take-down notice. Not really DMCA ready or right.
Yet, it worked with a few companies.
Perhaps, it was all the shouting and
promise (aka threats), I’d continue to post, blog, and be a harbinger of bad news.
But it wasn’t until recently that I
learned there’s a specific type of notice. This of course isn’t legal advice—cause
you know I’m not an attorney. (My jerk disclaimer: For true legal advice
consult a copyright attorney. Got it?)
From what I learned or dabbled into, is the
law or Title II of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). This is part of
the US Code or copyright (Section 512 of Title 17).
There are distinguishing loop holes
but we just can’t get into those enjoyed by some online service except for one
which is why they (pirates) act expeditiously when given notice. And here it
is: When given a proper notice of
infringing material being posted on its network, the OSP “responds
expeditiously to remove, or disable access to, the material that is claimed to
be infringing.”
This is a huge reason to, at least attempt,
the DMCA notice and to remind the “pirate” that if they don’t immediately remove
your book (digital text), they are breaking the law. Additionally, they along
with their customer(s) may also be liable. A powerful weapon to use for those
(pirates) who are based in the U.S.
Another tasty morsel in delousing
pirates is they must also remove the directories entry, indexes, anything that
points to your work from their hand (or site). All of these comes from the law:
17 USC §512(d).
The bad news is many, many, many
piracy sites are far outside the U.S. Those sites might ignore your attempts.
What is required in a takedown notice?
A DMCA takedown notice isn’t a
treatise. However, the notice must contain some specific info. So, you’re going to write up a
notice, or letter, asking the OSP (online service provider) to remove or block the
pirated page(s), you should to stay within the DMCA requirements include the following pieces of information in the letter:
(1) You own the copyright or
have the right to assert there is an act infringement of the copyright you
license.
(2) There is no “fair use” or “free speech laws” in place.
(3) Your writing (text) is capable of
being infringed online. Meaning that the form is appropriate to
digital form. It can’t be a print book. That’s not part of this type of claim.
Some text examples include TXT, RTF, DOC, DOCx, PDF, PPT, PAGES, MOBI, etc.)
Now if you’ve
check off 1, 2, and 3, above, you can proceed to the filing or sending
of your notice. Now we need to make certain the notice contains some crucial
elements as well.
- You’ll need to have your signature (since you’re the
copyright holder or you’re authorized to act for the holder);
- Must identify exactly what has been infringed. Big
ticket item, so you’ll need the titles of your work and URLs where they
may be found;
- Where the heck did you find the pirated work. Identify the
work (again) that is infringed and where the work can be found. This must
be complete even though it sounds ridiculous. Provide the exact location
of the infringed material, e.g., an URL to the website and specific page;
- You’ll need to have a way for the Online Service
Provider (OSP) contact you. Remember they may want to send a written
letter so you consider how to provide a physical address. I didn’t. I just
provided an email address. I’m not that brave even though I know finding a
person is only too easy.
- This one is a killer, but it’s part of the deal.
Prepare a statement that you have a “a good faith belief that use of the
material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright
owner, its agent, or the law”; and
- A statement that “the information in the notification
is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is
authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is
allegedly infringed.”17 USC §512(c)(3).
Next
section in Part 3, we’ll address where to send the notice. There are a couple of places
to look. This is the reason I not only sent the DMCA notice to the “pirate”
site but also to other places acting as a host to the vermin.
Thank you
for hanging out with me during this series. Again, anything anyone would like
to add, correct, or supplement would be of high interest on this absolutely abysmal
subject. Thank you!
INDIE
AUTHORS ROCK AND ARE A FORCE, especially when they stick together.
For a specific template, and I do a
very specific template, go to Saving For Someday .
Saving For Someday is an excellent reference.