About a year ago I purchased a Mesothelioma website from a forum auction. The site received very little traffic but I kept it hosted. Today I received an email from Google that according to the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) one of the webpages on this site allegedly infringe upon the copyrights of others. Since this site has not done anything, I removed the entire site from the web server. In the email, I was asked to send a letter with the following information to Google: 2. Provide your name, address, telephone number, email address, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of Federal District Court for the judicial district in which your address is located (or Santa Clara County, California if your address is outside of the United States), and that you will accept service of process from the person who provided notification under subsection (c)(1)(C) or an agent of such person. Does anyone know what the above statement means?
I don't know how to help you . . but my question would probably clerify an issue for those who can. Okay when you bought the site. Did you take what was on it and erase it and have a blank page hosted? Or did you set up a site that recieved no traffic? In other words did you actually create anything after you bought it? Skinny
I am confused.. For putting their ads to that site, google take copyright action against you??? I saw hundreds of warez sites put adsense on their pages.. all are illegal pirate sites....
I installed the site as is, except for changing fonts and colors. But I do not wish to fight this. I already removed this website. I was interested in knowing what that statement means that Google wants me to sign? Google is not taking action against me. Here is a copy of the beginning of the email: ---------------- Google has been notified, according to the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), that some of your web pages allegedly infringe upon the copyrights of others. The notice that we received is attached to this e-mail. Please note that we have disabled ad-serving to the URLs of the allegedly infringing web pages, which may be found at the end of this message. The DMCA is a United States copyright law that provides guidelines for online service provider safe harbor in case of copyright infringement. If we do not receive a counter-notification from you within 10 days, we may revoke your AdSense approval. If we did not do so, we may be subject to a claim of copyright infringement, regardless of its merits. See http://www.educause.edu/issues/dmca.html for more information about the DMCA, and http://www.google.com/dmca.html for the process that Google requires in order to make a DMCA complaint. Google can restore ad-serving to the affected URLs upon receipt of a proper counter notification pursuant to sections 512(g)(2) and 3) of the DMCA. To file a counter notification with us, you must provide a written communication (by fax or regular mail -- not by email, except by prior agreement) that sets forth the items specified below. Please note that you will be liable for damages (including costs and attorneys' fees) if you materially misrepresent that a product or activity is not infringing the copyrights of others. Accordingly, if you are not sure whether certain material infringes the copyrights of others, we suggest that you first contact an attorney. A sample counter notification may be found at www.chillingeffects.org/dmca/counter512.pdf .
Sorry man.. i dont have knoledge about this. I have a 'foolish' idea... Reply google... "Thats not my website... somebody copy my adsense code.. and put on that site."
Dude, that "statement" you recieved is telling you they want to have you served for court and want your information. They obviously don't have it, because they don't need you to consent to juristiction in your home county. Ignore it, or at least don't give them any info.
About these copyright legal issues read this thread http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=6095
Not true. They know my website domain name and they sent the email to my email address that my adsense acct is registered under. It was not sent to the domain email address. They know everything about me.
If you put that paragraph they sent you in Google search, you will pull up this page on top: http://www.orkut.com/Terms.aspx It refers to a "counter" statement. I think it means that if you want to challenge the finding of copyright infringement, you'll need to include certain information with your counter letter, probably to accommodate legal procedures.....
Thanks for the info Acer. I do not doubt that my website did contain copyrighted material. In your opinion, is removing the website all that I needed to do?
In my totally uninformed opinion, I'd say removing the content should satisfy the terms of the letter. The question is whether you should notify Google that you have done so. From the portions of the letter you posted, you probably want to notify them that you have removed the content in order to keep your Adsense account in good standing. I would NOT state that you agree that the info was copyrighted--ONLY that you removed the questionable content and leave it at that. They probably print these notices by the thousand. Removing the content is all they want; they are not interested in footing the bill to prosecute copyright violations. That responsibility belongs to the copyright owner (the original author of the disputed work), which is NOT Google. In some respect, Google may be helping you avoid trouble! But I am not a copyright lawyer; I just play one on DP.
they dont really want you to remove your content, thats none of their business. they are sending these letters to guys who got one (or more) of their pages removed from google index due to somebody complaining. and the following info would be needed only in case you dont agree with the complainer.
This is the section that had me concerned: ---- If we do not receive a counter-notification from you within 10 days, we may revoke your AdSense approval. If we did not do so, we may be subject to a claim of copyright infringement, ---- It almost sounds like that may terminate my adsense account. Or are they just saying that any adsense income on this specific website will be deined as valid clicks?
Google sends out this notices to protect themselves. Since they are considered a ISP for the sake of the DMCA, they need to inform violators and prevent access when a complaint is filed in order to protect their status and to not be held liable themselves. If you removed all the content, I would just respond with that information and be done with it. I would not feel compelled to provide them any information about yourself.
That is not true at all. They want the complaint resolved respectifully. As I mentioned google has to be involved, it is required by law. If you have infringing copyrighted material they do want it be removed, or else they are likely to keep getting reports about it. Google is responsible for denying access to content that is found to violate the DMCA.
I replied to the email sent from google that I have removed this website from the server. I have not yet heard of a reply. So does everyone agree that the compliant is satisified if I removed the entire hosting acct (not just the webpage in question) from the server? And I do not need to mail & sign this counter-notification to google?
I sent Google an email stating that I have removed the entire website and that I see no need to complete the counter notification form. Today I received a reply from Google. They told me if I do not sign the counter notification form that my Google Adsense account will be terminated. How does that sound?
I'd tell them they can shove their form right up their Adsense. Then I'd switch to YPN, but that's just me.
The counter notification is for declaring that the information is NOT in violation of copyright. You believe that, after the matter was brought to your attention, that the content is indeed in violation of copyright. Therefore, to file a counter notification would be in effect to perjure yourself. You don't want to do that. Was it a form letter response from Google? Surely they have a contingency for someone just removing the offending materials without a contest. Might be time to move higher up the payscale at Google to get a clearer answer about what to do. Or, finding a lawyer...ugh! Proceed carefully. At this point, it seems minor, but you don't want to make an ignorant move here that you'll regret later.
i'm no lawyer, but as i understand it, anyone can file a dmca complaint with any webhost, and in most cases, get the allegedly offending pages and/or entire site taken down asap; it's not required to even give notice to the website owner... and because webhosts do not want to be in the position of deciding who's right and who's wrong in copyright issues, they have a policy of acting immediately on any dmca complaint. the flip side is that the person who filed the dmca complaint can be held liable for filing a false dmca compaint, to the tune of a big fine($10,000?) and some serious charges... you do not want to file a false dmca complaint. i don't understand how the agreement to accept service of process fits into that... what you need to know is if that is normal dmca procedure(i doubt it?), or is it just google covering it's own ass, by using your adsense account as leverage, to make it easier for them or someone else to sue you? since it sounds like your adsense account is on the line, and if it's a decent source of income, you should probably get a lawyer who understands internet law.