Hello All, I am running a new movie website where I add Movie Releasing Date, Cast, Story Line, Budget, etc in posts. My website is now properly Indexed on Google and from last 2 weeks Google is sending me DMCA notices(10) that I am infringing content of the DMCA sender. Google has not cleared that which content I am infringing but I am sure as I am running movie website so it means I am uploading/adding Movies to Watch online or Download. But NO I just add movie info to my website not the content. My question is should I send them counter DMCA notice through Google that I have not added any movie to watch or download just the info to my website(which is not illegal). Due to false DMCA notices and removal of pages from Google search my website ranking has been dropped. Please tell me what should I do now. Any help/reply would be highly appreciated.
Are you sure that these are legitimate DMCA notices? From time to time we get fake DMCA notices from an upset person. Before taking action, make sure that it's a legitimate notice.
Scream DMCA all day if you wish, but google felt what you were doing was wrong, and deranked your site. It does not matter if you were showing movies on your site, you apparently thought it was ok just to link or pull movie info on your site, and it is not your content to use, regardless how you feel about it. I would think movie sites want you to link to them, and I highly doubt they want you to link to them with the purpose of using their content for your site.... unless such movie site allows some type of syndication of their content....
Movie release date, cast, and the other stuff mentioned in the OPs post seems to me to be information in the public domain - it's very easy to pull this information from legitimate sources, either the studios themselves, IMDB (which also provide an API to do so), so assuming copyright infringement seems a bit far-fetched. Unfortunately, due to the completely IDIOTIC legal system in the US, DMCA is "act first, think later" and mostly an automated process - it takes more effort and time than it's worth to put something back when it's taken down by a DMCA-notice :/ Which is usually what they gamble on.
Movie info is to let consumers know about movie info. that does not mean anyone has the right to pull and use the movie info. As you said, it can be done easily, but pulling any type of content can be pulled if you know what you are doing, but it does not mean it is legal. Was he given permission by the movie industry to use their content? otherwise, I would think those that are allowed to do this are authorized to do so....
Hence the "public domain" - this is not information that is protected by copyright (it's statement of facts, not creative work), and no-one can protect say the name of the movie, or when it's being released - this is NOT protected information anywhere I know of. Of course, cast-info etc. MIGHT be covered, at least before the movie is released (but I highly doubt this would be considered as that either). Basically, this is information that you can post - regardless of "permission" - I'm willing to bet that this would never become a problem in a court of law. If I read the website for a movie, and see the title, the release dates etc. and write a short blurb about it on my own blog, posting the title, and posting information about when it's being released to cinema, they'll have a VERY hard time punishing me for that. However, one particular item could trigger a DMCA - if you publish a picture taken from the movie website or similar, they could tell you to take that down - THOSE will be covered by copyright.
Do you post movie posters or trailers on your site? Technically, both require permission from copyright holders.
To be fair, we only know one side of the story, and that is from the OP. most times, people leave out important facts that make you say, awww... now it makes sense on why google banned your site. People can write 100 pages on what they were doing right, and simply leave out little things like "I was actually linking back to movie sites, or even showing them" and you are right too, sometimes idiots like google do make mistakes, and for the most part, in webmaster tools, they give you an option to defend yourself, so if he did not do anything wrong, then he should follow the process and have google un-do whatever it is they done, unless every site you wish to burn through is considered some type of throw-away site, otherwise fight for your rights... If you do not fight, then you may as well be confessing to the crime... Just give up, or go buy another newbie domain, and do it all over again...
Don't use Google Webmaster Tool for these kind of movie sites. Get out of there and mostly this things solves a lot of DMCA problem. Try to register your domain as private registration and don't worry these kind of shit notifications.
Does really matter if he is out of wmtools or not... If google hit his site, then it did not matter if he was in tools or not as someone reported his site.... and google felt the need to de-index the site.
It does not really matter whether you have an account on wmgoogle! - Proven experience((( it is even a plus because you'll get a letter with DMCA-notice in time ... and in combination wmgoogle + Google Analytics - a great instrument to create an algorithm for further development of your project! I get DMCA-notice from Google every day really it's a problem, especially for sites with video content. earlier I deleted everything that came on a complaint, and now the complaints come on the search page, even when it's 404 error page ...