Lycos has ignored a DMCA take down notice for 2 years now

[ebaysucks]

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

Is ignorance on their side as in they just didn't get the notice because I sent it via email? They can say it went to a junk folder etc?

2 years ago I sent them a take down notice for a site that consisted entirely of bootlegged material with download links. They were hosting all the pirated files on their angelfire servers.

Recently I sent another notice and was ignored again and ignored with a follow up. Are they that irresponsible? Out of business? Then while looking up the message I sent a few months ago I came across one I sent years ago. They did nothing. The format I used was the one I used on Youtube. I've used it countless times on file sharing sites.

What's the point of copyrighting something if companies can just ignore you? I mean do you have to send them a written notice, signature required, certified mail etc? Anyone have any idea how costly that would be(2 years ago I must have sent out 100 or more) when we've kind of evolved since the pony express and we have this new fangled thing called the internet and can send people messages very quickly, cheaply and 99% of people don't ignore your messages.

What kind of legal options are available? They're basically ignoring my notices like pirate bay.

 

[Mass_Shyster]

The Take-Down notice is part of the safe harbor provision of the DMCA. Since they have ignored properly transmitted take-down notices, they cannot claim the safe harbor provision as a defense when you file an infringement lawsuit naming them as a defendant or co-defendant.

The format I used was the one I used on Youtube

Hopefully, that format complies with the requirements of the DMCA. If it doesn't, that would explain their inaction.

 

[quincy]

In addition to what Steve wrote, you have three years from date of discovery of the infringed material to file an infringement claim. In order to file a copyright infringement suit against the infringers, you need to register your works through the copyright office.

But, yes, if your takedown notices met all of the requirements for a takedown notice, and you sent your notice to the site's designated agent, and you sufficiently identified the infringing material so the site could remove the material promptly on notification, and you are the legitimate copyright holder, and the site chose to ignore the notice anyway, then you can name them as co-defendants in any copyright infringement action you decide to take. They have lost the protection from liability for infringement that they could have been eligible for had they removed the infringing material upon request.

If the material you claim is infringing is not, in fact, infringing, however, and the notice is an unjustified one, the publisher of the material can also take legal action against you for misrepresenting that infringement has occurred.

I suggest you review all of the facts with an attorney in your area, to get a better idea of where you go from here and if, in fact, it is worthwhile financially for you to go anywhere.

Go to http://www.copyright.gov for information on takedown notices and registration of your works.

Good luck.

 

[ebaysucks]

Are they even a company anymore? When I think of Angelfire I think of the days of Geocities and free webhosting. Seems like such a long time ago. I'm almost sure I emailed the site creator as well and he ignored me. There is a big business in bootlegging of music. He isn't selling the bootlegs but he's certainly giving them away. I'm less than 1 % of the songs he is bootlegging. So it's amazing that the site exists. Sony I think owns the publishing to most of the other material.

As far as I know I used the correct format. I simply cut copy and pasted the one Youtube provides. Since they've had so many copyright issues with the RIAA and major record companies and can probably afford a small army of lawyers on a whim, I'm going to trust the format they selected was the right one. Their whole contentid system was implemented so they wouldn't have to toil with the constant take down notices. They pass the buck onto the uploader and the supposed content owner(people do abuse this).

Angelfire just sent the auto email after I filled out a ticket. The header says Lycos though who owns Angelfire. [email protected] is the original email address I used the previous two times. Seems pretty straight forward as a legal content. Usually they say copyright@ or Abuse@ etc.

Funny thing is if I'm not mistaken Lycos is right in my own state, MA.

 

[ebaysucks]

In addition to what Steve wrote, you have three years from date of discovery of the infringed material to file an infringement claim. In order to file a copyright infringement suit against the infringers, you need to register your works through the copyright office.

But, yes, if your takedown notices met all of the requirements for a takedown notice, and you sent your notice to the site's designated agent, and you sufficiently identified the infringing material so the site could remove the material promptly on notification, and you are the legitimate copyright holder, and the site chose to ignore the notice anyway, then you can name them as co-defendants in any copyright infringement action you decide to take. They have lost the protection from liability for infringement that they could have been eligible for had they removed the infringing material upon request.

If the material you claim is infringing is not, in fact, infringing, however, and the notice is an unjustified one, the publisher of the material can also take legal action against you for misrepresenting that infringement has occurred.

I suggest you review all of the facts with an attorney in your area, to get a better idea of where you go from here and if, in fact, it is worthwhile financially for you to go anywhere.

Go to http://www.copyright.gov for information on takedown notices and registration of your works.

Good luck.

Thanks,

It gets a little more complicated since I didn't immediately register the copyright. However it was registered and no one else registered the song. I didn't think much of it when I created it in November of 2008. I placed it online and it wasn't until a year later I noticed it was being bootlegged, placed on cd's etc. I finally registered it early in 2010. Very unique track and I'm the only person in the world who could present the individual tracks. No technology in existence would be able to unravel it. I know my lack of timely registration hampers part of my claim. However it doesn't remove my right to copyright just makes it more difficult to prove. Is it very much a lost cause if my registration was so late? I more or less registered the song to stop people from bootlegging it. It was all over the file sharing sites, youtube etc. all those sites were making money off of my creation. I received no credit. All but pirate bay and a few russian sites have stopped bootlegging it.

 

[Zigner]

I placed it online...

Under what terms did you place it online?

 

[ebaysucks]

I placed it on a youtube video. At the time I had no idea people could extract the audio so easily.

 

[swalsh411]

Did you read the Terms of Service for Youtube?

 

[ebaysucks]

No I did not read the terms. Are you going to suggest one forfeits copyright by uploading to their site? I think what's really at issue is Lycos not the bootlegger. Remember My MP3? They were allowing anyone to upload songs and share them on their server. Well Lycos for 2 years has allowed just the same despite being alerted to the gross bootlegging. They just responded to me with a heavy set of instructions for take down notices but I followed them 2 years ago, 2 months ago. Frankly I could care less about the bootlegger at this point...I'm wondering if I could see a pay off with Lycos. I have my doubts and will move on if I can't but I think it's worth looking into. All I find in my immediate area are personal injury lawyers. My next step has to be a copyright lawyer. I would have liked my chances more if i copyrighted the thing right away but that doesn't mean i can't have the content removed if i registered the song(which no one else has). Lycos still is obligated to comply with simple requests.

 

[justalayman]

Lycos still is obligated to comply with simple requests.

You are missing the point. Refusing to comply with a valid take down notice simply allows you to include them in the infringement suit. If you do not plan on taking action to protect your copyrights, why would they care what you send them/


Either act to protect your rights or you have in effect given up your rights. Nobody is going to enforce your copyrights for you.

 

[quincy]

No I did not read the terms. Are you going to suggest one forfeits copyright by uploading to their site? I think what's really at issue is Lycos not the bootlegger. Remember My MP3? They were allowing anyone to upload songs and share them on their server. Well Lycos for 2 years has allowed just the same despite being alerted to the gross bootlegging. They just responded to me with a heavy set of instructions for take down notices but I followed them 2 years ago, 2 months ago. Frankly I could care less about the bootlegger at this point...I'm wondering if I could see a pay off with Lycos. I have my doubts and will move on if I can't but I think it's worth looking into. All I find in my immediate area are personal injury lawyers. My next step has to be a copyright lawyer. I would have liked my chances more if i copyrighted the thing right away but that doesn't mean i can't have the content removed if i registered the song(which no one else has). Lycos still is obligated to comply with simple requests.

You do not forfeit your rights to your work by uploading content to the site. You do, however, give the site limited rights in your work.

Because you registered your work after you published it and about a year after it was infringed, you are not entitled to statutory damages, if you were to be successful with an infringement action. You could, however, potentially obtain a court order prohibiting the site from further infringing on your work, and you could be awarded, with proof, actual monetary losses and profits realized by the infringer as a result of the infringement. You will not qualify to have your attorney fees or court costs awarded against the defendant(s), however.

This is why timely registration (prior to publication) is wise and advised.

I suggest you review all of the facts with an IP attorney in your area, to see what legal actions are available for you to take and, if legal actions are available, if any make financial sense for you to take.

Good luck.

 

[ebaysucks]

The reluctance to act is a financial one. I didn't register the property right away(or I might be very rich right now). Proving loss would be difficult when so many people gave my song away. I never got the chance to have any gain.

I stand corrected on one issue. 2 years ago they did remove the guy's site. However what confused me to see it again is he went right back and uploaded all the content to the same server(angelfire)! 2 months ago I complained about the same guy and they do nothing.

I had similar problems with youtube but pretty much eliminated all infringement on there.

These safe harbor websites can be very difficult to deal with. You want a nice one try ebay on for size. Their employees call vero "The law". They will ignore an DMCA take down notice unless it is in writing(no electronic take down notices). Their site is filled with bootlegs. I clued them into how bootleggers currently operate by only uploading pictures and using words like reconstructed and they've removed or filtered out most of that. It was like pulling teeth though.

Hopefully I'm ready the next time where I don't have to beg for action.

thanks for the info,

 

[quincy]

Proving loss and proving profits can often be difficult for a copyright holder. That is, again, why registration of your work is advised. The ability to be awarded statutory damages ($750 to $30,000 per infringement) in addition to attorney fees and costs can make the decision to pursue an infringer an easier one.

Again I suggest you go over the facts with an attorney in your area, to see if there is any legal action you can take that makes sense at this point in time. There may be something that we on the forum cannot see from this distance.

I wish you good luck with all additional works in the future, ebaysucks.

 

[justalayman]

I wish you good luck with all additional works in the future, ebaysucks.

was that a salutation or a commentary?