Hello, I have a discussion board for web development related topics and i have currently implemented a new custom design. The problem is that someone has ripped my forum skin, this person has made an identical copy. He even has all the icons i made, which were uploaded yesterday to my forum. I have contacted the guy but he hasn't yet replyed my emails. I contacted the hosting company explaining the situation and this was their answer. So i went to that site and read about DMCA but i'm not still very sure how it works. What does the guy of the email mean when he says "fill out and submit a DMCA to us". Is there any form i should fill up and send?. I haven't found anything in that site. I also reported the site to vbulletin anti-piracy team, just in case this person is also using an illegal copy of the software. I'd appreciate if someone could help me and guide me. What should i send to the hosting company? Where can i find the forms if there are any?. Thanks in advance. Gaston
There was a thread discussing people abusing DMCA as a way to fight against competition ranking high on google... Here is what the letter looks like: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showpost.php?p=2796441&postcount=54 This although seems to be used for the wrong purpose gives you a good idea of how it's done.
Thank you for your reply. That letter does not seem to be what i'm looking for. I'm looking for a quick formal way to inform hostgator.com. Should i send a letter for that?. Once i read someone sent a DMCA to hostgator and in 3 hours the site was suspended, how can that be possible?
Ok I will try again http://forums.hostgator.com/showthread.php?t=14576 This is from their site regarding how to submit DMCA complaint Good luck! +rep appreciated (if this helps of course)
Well - I will be the first to say that Hostgator totally S*ck when it comes to acting on a DMCA complaint raised with them. I have sent compliant requests to them and have been sent the same link as above - they simply do not want to act when a legitimate complaint is made. About a week ago, I sent them a complaint that was 100% comlpiant with the info at : http://forums.hostgator.com/showthread.php?t=14576 and http://hostgator.com/copyright.shtml All I got was a level 1 tech drone reply with a link to the chillingeffects website. Then, when I sent them a followup message stating that I had already lodged the complaint that met all of their criteria they have ignored it. I am about to follow up and send the same complaint, along with all of Hostgator's responses to theplanet and see how fast hostgator acts then. I would be really interested to hear how you get on trying to report a problem to them and their response when you do send them a legally compliant DMCA Notice.
have you purchased the template from templatemonster.com ? then they resell the templates unless you bought it by paying full
Yaa and if you pay full they take off that design totally from their website. But remember few might still have that design though. Cheers
Thanks everyone for your help, this person has already removed the skin so i will not need to send the DMCA to hostgator. Still i appreciate your help. Absolutely no, it's a unique custom done work.