What’s the deal with a DMCA?
I received a warning from Dan Zarrella of Boston Web Properties, that if I didn’t take down all content written by him, since his so-called purchase of this blog since May, 2006- he would issue a DMCA to my server.
Now, as some of you may know- who have followed this drama, this dispute was between David Krug and Dan Zarrella only- and not ourselves, who bought the blog in good faith. Obviously, when one buys a blog- it is par for the course that all content is included with full rights.
So what happens if a DMCA request is sent to your server? As this sets a fairly nasty and dangerous precedent for other blog owners who have writers blogging for them- & who may at a later date try to claim back copyright, here is the exact process of what would happen-:
- DMCA sent from complainant to Host
- Host obliged to remove content (take offline)
- Website owner must then send a “counter notice” to the complainant, at which point the Host can immediately put the content back online
- Then the Host sends a notice to the complainant, detailing the misidentification of the content at question (i..e. “We’re not sure who owns it”).
Then the content can stay up until the complainant files a suit in court, and then when the host received confirmation that the case is going to court, he has to take the material offline. As you can imagine, most of these situations do not end up in court and the material at question stays online.
Nevertheless, a real pain in the butt to go through…..
So after reviewing the quality and importance of Dan’s content, we decided to take it down.
Life’s just too short…..
But the fact that we did so is not a recommendation for any other cowboys out there who might find themselves in the same situation. In legal terms, we probably would have won. Dan’s proof was a series of IM conversations which would have been inadmissable in a court of law.
Instant messenger records are admissible in a court of law – where are you coming up with this idea that they aren’t?
Matt
Matt Craven said this on August 18, 2006 3:13 am
There’s no deal really because you’ve taken the stuff down, but really Dan was bluffing, at most his posts would be subject to a contract dispute between him and Cowboy. To get compliance with a DMCA request he would need to site the original source of the material to prove that it was in breach of the DMCA regulations….given the material was original to this site he wouldn’t have a leg to stand on.
I would add though that if you had decided to keep it up, I would have talked to your host about the situation, unfortunately in my experience, even when there is absolutely no grounds for it, hosts will threaten to take down sites because they are far too lazy to check the facts in the case.
Duncan said this on August 18, 2006 3:53 am
Yeah, well we took them down but we’re still keeping the content somewhere just for reference and in case we get crazy enough to re-post them. We’d rather go for fresh and better content anytime, however. And image hotlinking? Puh-leaze.
Everyone happy now, I hope.
The Sheriff said this on August 18, 2006 6:03 am
I would have just blocked the image hotlinking on the server…or even better, served him up some porn instead with a redirect, that would have shut him up
Duncan said this on August 18, 2006 6:29 am
[...] The moment you start to monetize, people will be asking for their fair share of the cake. Lawsuits (or threatening emails, at least) will start pouring in. You’ll start spiralling down DMCA hell. [...]
Jack of All Blogs » Blog Archive » Why Monetization Can Be Difficult said this on September 9, 2006 4:21 am
[...] This all started when we purchased JOAB from David Krug last July. There was a running dispute between him and Dan Zarrella about the site’s ownership- and, more relevant to us, the content on the blog we had just purchased. The upshot was that Dan Zarrella threatened us with a DMCA if we didn’t remove all content written by him and we did a post “What’s the deal with a DMCA?” exploring the consequences as far such a threat was concerned. [...]
Jack of All Blogs » Blog Archive » DMCA Madness said this on October 15, 2006 2:56 am