I run a vbulletin site that provides links to music, movies and porn. I received an email from Godaddy that someone has filed a complaint about a movie on the site. We do not host any files on our server, we only provide links to sites such as Megaupload and Rapidshare. Is there any way to get around Godaddy suspending my account?
We are writing to inform you that we have received a complaint alleging that copyright infringement is taking place on your site. It appears that the website contains material being copied, reproduced, or otherwise displayed without the consent of the owner/copyright holder. Infringing on the copyrights of others is a violation of the Go Daddy Hosting Services agreement (http://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/legal_agreements/show_doc.asp?pageid=HOSTING_SA ), as well as the Domain Name Registration Agreement (http://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/legal_agreements/show_doc.asp?pageid=REG_SA ). We have attached the original complaint we received regarding this matter to help you identify the problem. This notification was submitted pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and Go Daddy’s Copyright and Trademark Infringement Policy. Please review Go Daddy's Copyright Policy found at https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/legal_agreements/copyright_trademark.asp. In accordance with this policy, as well as your hosting agreement, we have suspended this hosting account until this matter can be resolved, or until you submit a complete counter notification as described in the policy. You have 10 days to send a complete counter notification, if you wish to do so. PLEASE NOTE: As a web hosting provider, it is not our position to act as the arbiter of intellectual property disputes or to judge who is right or wrong in a claim of infringement. We are a neutral party in this matter and at no point in this matter will we attempt to determine who, if anyone, is right or wrong. Please understand that we are not a court, nor do we have the ability or jurisdiction to determine potential fault in this case. As a result, with the exception of the above-mentioned counter notification, there is no need to send further dispute claims on this matter. A list of the specific portions of your site in question is included below. For detailed questions, you will need to contact the Complainant at the address listed below. Description of the Infringement(s) SEE ATTACHED NOTIFICATION Complainant: SEE ATTACHED NOTIFICATION In order to resolve this situation and re-activate your site, you have 2 options. Option 1: Remove the content that is the subject of the copyright complaint. In order to reactivate the site in question we will need you to provide the following information in a single email response: A. An electronic signature. (This can be a scanned copy of your physical signature, or as simple as typing your full name.) B. Identification of the material in question. C. A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the material has either been removed or promptly will be removed. Option 2: Submit a complete counter notification regarding the works in question in accordance with our Copyright Infringement policy. You will need to reply via email and include all of the following elements: A. An electronic signature. (This can be a scanned copy of your physical signature, or as simple as typing your full name.) B. Identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or access to it was disabled. C. A statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled. D. Your name, address, and telephone number, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the Federal District Court for the judicial district of Arizona, or if your address is outside of the United States, for any judicial district in which Go Daddy may be found, and that you will accept service of process from the Complaining Party or an agent of such Party. If you have any further questions, please let us know.
This is a standard DMCA notice from GoDaddy. It tells you what you need to do to reactivate your site. Follow the instructions and they should unblock your site.
For some reason, people seem to think that it is ok just because you have links...having links is part of the contribution process to piracy...You are just as guilty has the people that hold the actual software. I can see no proper hosting company that will even allow you to link to illegal material, or material that you do not own. The DMCA is valid. remove your links.
And by your reasoning, Yellow Pages is guilty of murder. After all, they have entries for 'Euthanasia Clinics' and 'Gun manufacturers'. They are also guilty of making drugs. After all, they are happy to give you the telephone number of gazillions of phrama companies that manufacture chemicals, which are used in the drug making process. Oh, and they are pornmerchants too. There are lots of 'escortservices' listed in the yellow pages. Legal rulings on whether linking to infringing material are in dispute around the world right now. It is hard to see how the initial precedent set recently will survive a common sense analysis by a higher court.
you know exactly what your doing if you're running a warez site the excuse "we don't host the files" is total BS.. even if you don't host them, you're posting links to STOLEN content. I hope they shut you down, I can't stand thieves...
freedom of speech. suppose you want to close down the voucher sites too. Half of them are pimping vouchers they aren't entitled to offer, just to get traffic.
Your point is mute and dead... it does not matter how you feel about the issue, right or wrong. If a respectable host honors a DMCA request regarding this matter, then your site is coming down...your host does not care about you personally, they care about their over all business, and how to prevent any future liabilities, and this will be the quickest...your host will not allow you to run links and risk their host, and other paying clients...This would just be common since...If you think otherwise, then it is just a pipe dream for you...If your host allows such actions, then they are not that respectable, and support piracy... If your host does allow this, then they must be a new host, and they probably will not be around more then a few months, maybe a year.
Providing links to other web properties where copyright infringement is taking places has been held by courts to constitute copyright infringement and authorisation of copyright infringement by the website operator who is providing the hyeprlinks to the external websites upon which the infringing activity is occurring. The Courts look at the entire context of your website, including your business model (eg whether you are benefiting financially from the infringing material through advertising etc). One example of this is Cooper v Universal Music Australia Pty Ltd (2006) and there have been other similar cases.