Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with dmca

Dispute a video takedown notice?

infinitefloatingbrains — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 10:27:45 -0800

A home video of mine was taken down from Google Video by Warner Music because of the soundtrack. Should I dispute? The copyrighted song was someone else's content; however, it was used in a noncommercial nature, i.e. a video of my 6-month old daughter.

Only a part of the song was used, and the video itself was unlisted and therefore unavailable to anyone save friends and family receiving a direct link via a personal email.

I'm a little afraid because by disputing the video I'm legally exposed to this: "If, on review, the alleged copyright holder believes that your video infringes on its rights, expect that they will file a notification of alleged infringement under Section 512(c)(3) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act."

So, dispute or no?

Unauthorized use of an image

bitter-girl.com — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 12:45:09 -0800

Unauthorized use of a personal photograph to promote a business. What to do if the business refuses to take it down and DMCA notices are too slooow? An artist friend for whom I do PR type work on occasion discovered that a gallery in California is using an image of her holding a fan (from when she was 16) to promote an event at their gallery. She's a well known painter herself, has nothing to do with this event or gallery, and chances are good the person designing the flyer ripped the photo from her MySpace profiles 'personal images' section.

The gallery owner is claiming the image is a drawing (no, it's not...and even if some lame designer applied a Photoshop drawing-type filter to it, it doesn't make it a drawing!) and is, so far, refusing to take it down. DMCA notices have been sent but are there any other options? What kind of recovery is she looking at for this unauthorized use if a lawsuit is filed?

YouTube took my video down. All I did was play Star Wars on my banjo.

willc — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 18:26:17 -0800

YouTube yanked my Star Wars on a Banjo video saying Warner Music Group was claiming infringement. Did I break the law? Do I have any recourse? See the original MeFi thread. This was a video of myself playing the Star Wars theme on the banjo in my house. I never made a penny off of it. It got to 1.5 million views though, and now they decided to pull it.

"Dear Member:
This is to notify you that we have removed or disabled access to the following material as a result of a third-party notification by WARNER MUSIC GROUP claiming that this material is infringing:

Star Wars on a Banjo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQBRSwZiYS4

Please Note: Repeat incidents of copyright infringement will result in the deletion of your account and all videos uploaded to that account. In order to prevent this from happening, please delete any videos to which you do not own the rights, and refrain from uploading additional videos that infringe on the copyrights of others. For more information about YouTube's copyright policy, please read the Copyright Tips guide.

If you elect to send us a counter notice, please go to our Help Center to access the instructions.

Please note that under Section 512(f) of the Copyright Act, any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material or activity was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification may be subject to liability.

Sincerely,
YouTube, Inc."

Can they really do this? Can I fight back? That last paragraph makes me think that if I try to fight back, I might end up facing liability.

I'd really appreciate some advice!

It's fun to violate the D-M-C-A

namewithoutwords — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:42:29 -0800

What was the wording on this faux-DMCA laptop sticker I saw? A few years back (2005 or so) I saw a sticker on a laptop. It was a parody or rewording of a DMCA notice, and the general idea was that, by opening the laptop lid, you were somehow violating the DMCA. I thought it was clever at the time, but have never been able to locate the text online.

bonus info: the sticker was supposed to be swag of some kind from DEFCON, but I don't know which year exactly (2002-2004 would be my best guesstimate) but it is not listed on their past swag page.

Legal status of Grateful Dead file hosting?

Anonymous — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 06:24:36 -0800

DMCA takedown for the Grateful Dead? I recently received a pseudo-DMCA notice about a website hosting exclusively Grateful Dead music. I have a few questions about how to proceed. I'll try to hit the main points here:

The site is on dreamhost, and hosted by a family member on one of the many domains that come with the plan. I have nothing to do with the day to day operation of the site, but I did register the domain a few years back.

The site hosts exclusively music of the Grateful Dead. I'm not a fan myself, but to my knowledge everything is free on the site and the site is very much a part of the traditional taping culture.

A day or so ago I received a form letter that appeared to be a DMCA takedown notice. The form letter reads in part "THIS SITE EXISTS ONLY TO ILLEGALLY POST BOOTLEG AND PIRATED MATERIAL IN CONNECTION WITH THE GRATEFUL DEAD AND HAS NOT BEEN AUTHORIZED BY RHINO ENTERTAINMENT, WARNER MUSIC GROUP OR GRATEFUL DEAD PRODUCTIONS TO POST SUCH MATERIAL" (shouting not mine)

On further read, the notice specifically says "Finally, notwithstanding our use of the required notice form, we believe that [domain's] activities and services fall outside the scope of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA"). Our use of this form, as required by law, is meant to facilitate [domain's] removal of the infringing product listed above and is not meant to suggest or imply that [domain's] activities and services are within the scope of the DMCA."

I have a few specific questions, but I'm interested in any feedback you might have.

1) What is the current IP position of Rhino records on the Grateful Dead's collection? Does it vary based on the type and source of the material?

2) Is there any specific meaning to the form looking like a DMCA notice but specifically saying that there is NO violation of the DMCA?

3) What is my exposure here? I don't administer the site, monitor, or control content. I don't even have a log-in to the site proper. I bought the domain name and pay for the plan since it hosts my other sites.

4) Since I assume the answer to the above question is "lots of exposure" I am hoping to transfer full billing and ownership of the site to the actual owner. Other than that, what steps should I take?

Thanks in advance - I know very little about this and any clarity you can provide would be great. I know you may be a lawyer, but you are not my lawyer. Also I should probably contact a lawyer. But other than that...?

Q about DMCA takedown notice I received

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 06:41:16 -0800

Here is my dilemma. Last week I received a DMCA takedown notice from my ISP regarding a TV show that I torrented (is that a word yet?). Do I ignore the message, or give them the information? I know this was wrong, but my thinking was that this was a TV show, and not music, HBO, movies, etc. I guess I was seriously wrong. I deleted the file and uninstalled uTorrent. I guess uTorrent was also uploading, and herein lies the problem.

The note states that I need to send my ISP (quoted from email):
(a) a physical or electronic signature of the subscriber;

(b) identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or disabled;

(c) a statement under penalty of perjury that the subscriber has a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled;

(d) the subscriber’s name, address, and telephone number and a statement that the subscriber consents to the jurisdiction of the Federal District Court for the judicial district in which the address is located.

[end quote]

My question is: what should I do? By filling out this information, aren't I admitting guilt? Wouldn't I be setting myself up to be included in a lawsuit in the future? I actually spoke with a lawyer who said just send them the information because there were no damages, but sending an email "under penalty of perjury" is kind of scary. Ignoring this might be a huge mistake too...

Importing movie ISOs on a personal computer?

Nice Guy Mike — Tue, 22 May 2007 14:59:57 -0800

OK, so that's how to do it, but should I do it? Should I rip my DVD and/or CD collections to a media server and then import the computer - but not the original discs - to the US, if I were move there? As mentioned in previous questions, I'm currently looking into the possibility of a move from the UK to the US for a few years for a job.

Anyway, prompted by the recent question about how to archive DVDs to a media server, I figured I'd ask: should I archive my DVDs to a media server?

Let me explain - I have a fairly large DVD collection (~300 discs), nearly all of which are UK (i.e. Region 2/PAL encoded). Due to limited shipping space, and the fact that they'd not be compatible with most US players, I figured I might rip the contents onto my server rather than take the physical discs with me.

My concern isn't about the hardware (I already own everything I'd need), more about the legality and the (admittedly extremely unlikely) possibility of US Customs inspecting my personal effects and wanting about this large collection of movies on one of my computer hard disk [arrays].

Technically, DMCA legislation makes it illegal in the US to rip DVDs, while in the UK it's a grey area. UK law does not have a specific exemption to copyright law to allow personal backups (which these would be - the original discs will end up in storage until I get back to the UK, I'll not sell them), while US law does.

Where would this leave me, legally, in importing movie rips into the US (probably mostly DVD5 ISOs and XviD compessed AVIs), considering I own the originals in a different country?

For bonus points, how about exactly the same question, but posed around my approx 650 disc CD collection... :-)

Stealing the Web

TheRaven — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 13:32:30 -0800

Stealing-the-Web filter. How can you check? Following on from the question on copyright (http://ask.metafilter.com/56528/How-do-I-copyright-original-artwork-on-my-web-site)... I am well aware that if you put stuff on the web, it can be stolen and anything you do (preventing right-click with javascript, converting text to jpg, etc) can either be circumvented or will annoy users. However, I have recently come across a couple of websites, where there is substantial similarity between the two. There is no acknowledgment of the duplication/borrowing, they have very different URLs and a whois reveals very different ISPs. I am not talking about people lifting from Wikipedia or other major sites but two relatively minor sites. So, assuming Site B lifted from Site A, questions.

1. How does Site A prove that he is the original? Dates won't do, as there might have been a change of ISP or Site B might have somehow altered the date.
2. What does Site A do to stop the theft? In the US a C&D letter under the DMCA to the webmaster of Site B might work but what if Site B is not in the US and, indeed, is in a country where English is not the major language?
3. How do you check to see whether someone is stealing your stuff? If you have a small site, you might be able to Google regularly but if you have 1000+ pages, this is not going to be practicable.

Anyone experience of dealing with these issues?

allofmp3 legality

mzurer — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 11:53:46 -0800

Is using allofmp3 any more or less legal than downloading from an open server that lives somewhere under explicit RIAA coverage? What about an open server in Russia?

Evidence against DMR

Sparx — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 04:12:43 -0800

I recall (and might be wrong) that there was a recently released report on how Digital Rights Management didn't work - put forward in the UK, or possibly the EU. Any references appreciated (on behalf of a small colony somewhere in the south pacific, currently investigating similar DMCA type legislation) My Google Fu has betrayed me. I tried.

What powers to ASCAP/BMI have in regards to independent/original music not in their catalog?

loquacious — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 12:08:33 -0800

Can ASCAP/BMI sue you or levy fees for original music not in their catalog? A) For live public performance of said songs?
B) For recorded public performance of said songs?
C) For offering for download/streaming of said songs?
D) Or other forms of distribution and performance.

I ask because I've heard all manner of nightmares instigated by ASCAP/BMI, from simply playing the radio in a coffee shop (Not covered by "original music in their catalog" directly, but could be for a theoretical all-indie college/public station) to the newer dranonian rules on webcasts, to offering downloads.

Where does their self-given power to hassle the little guys end?

Is Downloading TV Fair Use?

MonkeyMeat — Sat, 04 Mar 2006 06:48:44 -0800

Is it legal to download episodes of broadcast tv? I am under the impression that time- and format-shifting are fair use. Are they in this case?

Hack the Man

mwhybark — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 00:05:25 -0800

Can one hack a settings file or something to overcome the five (or ten) user limit on networking under WinXP Home (or Professional?) Am I violating the DMCA by asking?

Is DeCSS legal?

knave — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 13:45:39 -0800

Is DeCSS legal? I was just discussing this with a friend and I'm surprised that I can't find a clear answer on the web. In my opinion, the DMCA says it's illegal to circumvent copyright protection mechanisms for the purpose of copyright infringment. But it should be perfectly legal to circumvent copyright protections in order to watch a DVD on your computer, as a fair use of the information. I guess there's also the issue of the MPEG-2 codec, patents, and licensing, but we didn't really talk about that.

Are there any court cases you can point to that show for a fact whether it's legal or not to use DeCSS to watch a DVD?

DMCA Hastle

KrustyKlingon — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 08:25:15 -0800

My friend got a letter from the cable company accusing her of violating the DMCA. The alleged offense is downloading some sort of fighting game. Thing is, my friend is a near retirement, middle-aged woman who lives alone and has no interest in games and doesn't download anything. What is the proper way to respond? Links please.