Is YouTube obligated under DMCA to provide me with claimants contact info?

[KillrBuckeye]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Michigan

I'll avoid going into a lot of detail here. To put it simply, somebody has filed a false copyright infringement claim against a completely original musical work that I had posted to YouTube. The notice I received from YouTube contained only the claimants name, which is very common. I have followed the DMCA counter-notification procedure described in YouTube's copyright help section to try to get my video restored, but it has been 17 full calendar days and I have not received a response. This is longer than the 14 days by which providers must restore mistakenly identified material according to DMCA.

I have sent a follow-up email to YouTube requesting a status update on my counter-notification, as well as a copy of original infringement claim. Several days have passed, and I still have not received a response. I am starting to get the feeling that the claimant responded to the counter-notification by saying that he would take legal action, in which case the video will not be restored by YouTube. Unbelievably, YouTube does not require proof of legal action--the claimants word is sufficient.

Since I am being stonewalled by YouTube, I'm wondering what my options are. YouTube's stance is that copyright disputes should be worked out by the individual parties involved, yet how can I defend myself against a false claim when I am not even given the claimants contact information? Isn't YouTube obligated to provide me with this information? If not, this means that anyone can maliciously submit false copyright claims with bogus personal information without risk of legal penalty.

Any advice you can provide would be appreciated.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

 

[FlyingRon]

Was the complaining party not sent you with the original complaint?

It's stacked against you, and YouTube wants no part of it. You'll have to sue the bad boys once you figure out who they are.

 

[KillrBuckeye]

Only the claimant's first and last names were provided, and both are very common. For example, 231 Facebook profiles come back when I search for his name, and a Google search returns nearly 6,000,000 results. I have requested his contact information from YouTube. Are they obligated to give it to me? I was required to provide my contact information to YouTube when I filed the counter-notification, and this was forwarded to the claimant.

 

[divgradcurl]

There is nothing in 17 USC 512 that requires YouTube to provide you with contact information for the accuser -- I guess since the work only stays down if the accuser files a lawsuit, presumably you would find out who the accuser was in the lawsuit.

If YouTube isn't willing to provide you with the contact information, you can't make them give it to you without a subpoena, and you can't get a subpoena without a lawsuit. I guess it depends on how much you are willing to spend on this.

17 USC 512(g)(2)(C) does make YouTube potentially liable for damages for wrongly removing your materials and not putting them back up after a proper counternotice unless the accuser has "filed an action seeking a court order to restrain the subscriber from engaging in infringing activity relating to the material on the service provider's system or network." If you are certain your counternotice included everything required in 17 USC 512(g)(3), you could use PACER to do a search to see if a case has been filed against you (just because you haven't been served with a complaint doesn't mean a case hasn't been filed against you). If you find that no case has been filed, and the 14 day period has passed, you could go back to YouTube, explain to them that they can't leave your work down after a counternotice unless a suit has been filed, and that you intent to seek damages if they don't put the materials back up. I suppose if they are still unwilling to put the materials back up, you could tell them you would settle for full contact information.

If your counternotice didn't contain everything it needed, file a proper counternotice first, then wait, then follow the above, as needed.

It's a bluff, because you probably don't have any damages sufficient to make a lawsuit worthwhile, but a PACER search is pretty cheap, and it gets you about as far as you can go without filing a lawsuit. If they still won't budge after this, maybe a different website would work for you...

 

[KillrBuckeye]

Wow, thanks for the great answer divgradcurl. I'm going to check into this PACER search and confirm that no lawsuit has been filed, then follow up with an email to YouTube.