Help - DMCA notice (infringed content)

julianberg

Regular Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2009
Messages
380
Reaction score
58
Hi all,
I really could use your help,

One of my top website that has a game has got a DMCA notice.

They say that I let the users play this game for free and I need to remove it, and that the content (the game) is infringed of their copyright and trademark.

I worked very hard to get this website to the top 5 in google and I really need any advice and/or a name of a good lawyer that could help me figure out if I can get around this somehow.

YOUR HELP IS highly appreciated...
Thanks.
 
Just remove the pages which the copyright owner is asking you to remove, and apologize and your site will be OK.
 
^ Either do that, or get a bulletproof, offshore host.
 
Yup, go for an offshore host like worldstream or 2x4.ru
 
let's say my website is
playmario.com
(it is not :-))

1) can they claim and get my domain from me? saying mario is their trademark?
2) i don't want to remove the game since it's the main "thing" about the website
3) if it's off-shore - they can't touch me? really? what does off-shore means? where?

thanks a lot!!
 
Move your site to offshore right now, don't wait for them... Also you may remove that content or game for next few days and send them mail that you have removed it then few days later it will be back.... :) Moving offshore is main thing...
 
let's say my website is
playmario.com
(it is not :-))

1) can they claim and get my domain from me? saying mario is their trademark?
2) i don't want to remove the game since it's the main "thing" about the website
3) if it's off-shore - they can't touch me? really? what does off-shore means? where?

thanks a lot!!

1.If it's super mario and they are nintendo, yes.
2. Then host it offshore. I guess that you don't have your name and info on whois, right?
3. Offshore hosting is hosting outside US, in some small country without internet laws.
 
I don't think they will take domain from you but hosting could be problem... You can also look for some domain registrar which are outside their law border lol

Off shore means out of your current country which is USA right now, just find some reliable foreign hosting provider and move your site...

let's say my website is
playmario.com
(it is not :-))

1) can they claim and get my domain from me? saying mario is their trademark?
2) i don't want to remove the game since it's the main "thing" about the website
3) if it's off-shore - they can't touch me? really? what does off-shore means? where?

thanks a lot!!
 
domains can be taken, comply and make it a adsense domain page or something, not worth the effort
 
can you be more specific about
"Offshore hosting is hosting outside US, in some small country without internet laws"
which country has no internet laws / relations with the US?
 
also, i have adsense on this website,
if they DMCA me, will they also send a note to google??
 
if I have adsense on this website,
if they DMCA me, will they also send a note to google??
(sorry for the bump, but this is such a big ___ problem, hope u understand...)
 
Going offshore won't help. All they have to do is send the DMCA to google to have them remove you from the listings.

You'd need to be hosting offshore and have a BP domain and be getting your traffic from somewhere other than the google serps to be invulnerable.

this! unless less website gone viral.. i dont know if its worth the effort to move it off site.. i also would ask is the company big or tiny ? A DMCA notice cost me 45 bucks to have an attourney draft.. that aint shit.. legal fee to go to court are way more.. so if they are tiny, they may just be blanket sending DMCAs to all sites that slightly infringe..


here the other thing.. fair use definition int he states in something like 60% a like to whatever you may be infringing.. is it possible to alter the game in some way to make it not piss them off so much ie change mario into Sonic...
 
let us know what happens, im also in a copyright niche and its something i think about
 
thanks again for the replies,
most of my traffic is from google so it's useless like u say...
when u say that they will contact google to remove me - u mean google the search engine? or google adsense?
also, this is a big company, let's say NAMCO :-(
i'm not from the US if that matters... but if they get to google search-engine than my site is useless.

updates till now: i removed the game from the main page of the website and re-activated my account (it's a VPS so i could do this myself). I didn't reply back to them and they (NAMCO and hosting) didn't write anything back to me.
I actually put some other games in the front page for the users to enjoy and maybe still bookmark my website (there are many return visitors as well)

also, i'm not sure in their DMCA whether they meant to remove the game just from the main-page, i also have other "mario" games in this website, but in their DMCA they just stated
http://www.xxxx.com/
and as I understand they are supposed to mention every page they want removed in the DMCA,

Having said that - I could easily take that letter, change a few things, and email to my competitors hosting :-) It's probably very illegal and I won't really do it, but it seems very easy and frightening!
 
You have to decide how much time and effort is worth putting into this. A lot of times someone will send a threatening letter to your web hosting company saying they'll sue if the site is not modified or taken down. However, many of the people behind these letters are full of crap and are betting that the letter will scare everyone into complying. Is it worth it to you to try and call their bluff? You have a right to respond under the DMCA, but if the other side is serious about the takedown you'll be headed to court (i.e. = EXPENSIVE!)
 
I worked at an IP law firm for a while who did domain infringement cases. I can tell you, yes they can sue you but will probably not. What they will do however, is contact your host and threaten them that if they dont shut down your website, they will get sued. So your host will more than likely shut it down.

Move it offshore, or remove the infringing words.

I can tell you, there are MANY scumbag IP firms who do nothing but troll the internet for domain infringment so they can increase their caseload.
 
well, it's not just infringing words.
lets say my website is playmariogames.org
and nintendo send me the letter telling me to get the mario games away...
sounds more difficult, doesn't it?
now, i don't have a problem getting offshore hosting, but heard that they can also contact google to get me out of their search-engine? or maybe godaddy to hunt my domain? is this true?

thanks.
 
trademark, you are screwed at the end of the day really, if you want to try to keep it for as long as you can you will have to change from godaddy to a chinese bp registrar which is a task and a half in itself as they hate doing transfers, you then have google you can be removed on, it does happen but its not as common as expected, you also need offshore hosting and nl hosting is freaking useless these days so you need ua/ru hosting to keep it up... it gets painful, how hard do you really wanna keep this domain? they can contact the companies ads your showing and report you for trademark infringement on the domain and get your accounts banned...
 
trademark, you are screwed at the end of the day really, if you want to try to keep it for as long as you can you will have to change from godaddy to a chinese bp registrar which is a task and a half in itself as they hate doing transfers, you then have google you can be removed on, it does happen but its not as common as expected, you also need offshore hosting and nl hosting is freaking useless these days so you need ua/ru hosting to keep it up... it gets painful, how hard do you really wanna keep this domain? they can contact the companies ads your showing and report you for trademark infringement on the domain and get your accounts banned...

What about content infringement of stuff on the site (not the domain), is hiding your whois and getting offshore hosting enough?
 
Back
Top