Does DMCA Protect My Forum?

[bcercan]

Hello,

On thursday I've published something on my forum which originally create by me. But when I search thread title on Google I saw that 2 other forums was steal my content and they appear on Google, my forum doesn't.

My site running since 2011 but these 2 other forums just started few months ago. I don't know what to do but can DMCA help me about it? Or is there anything else you recommend?

Thanks

 

[Goodfella]

Hello,

On thursday I've published something on my forum which originally create by me. But when I search thread title on Google I saw that 2 other forums was steal my content and they appear on Google, my forum doesn't.

My site running since 2011 but these 2 other forums just started few months ago. I don't know what to do but can DMCA help me about it? Or is there anything else you recommend?

Thanks

I am also curious about this and did a quick searc,

http://www.dmca.com/FAQ/How-do-I-protect-my-website-against-content-theft

 

[bcercan]

I mailled to DMCA about this situation and they said:

This would not be considered copyright infringement and we would not be able to assist with a Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown notice.

It seems they can't protect forums, right?

 

[tyteen4a03]

How are they "stealing" the content? Blatantly copy your content without attribution?

 

[bcercan]

They are actually complete copy of my forum. They've created their forums with exact categories as my forum. Even exact category descriptions. And now they're stealing original posts in my forum and they appear on Google before me with these stolen posts. This is the weirdest part.

 

[tyteen4a03]

In that case I think you can only call DMCA on the stolen posts, by the original authors.

Can't you contact the host?

 

[bcercan]

Their host?

 

[rainmotorsports]

Their host?

Yes the DMCA takedown request needs to be sent to their host. Best way to start is to do a hostname to ip lookup and see if you can't find what host the IP belongs to. If you are having a bad day you will only get the data center and have to email them to get information on the host or reseller.

However the notice will need to be done right. You can't just say the whole site. If they stole your theme and you own the copyright then list the image urls. If its post content then list that as well. If they are copying all your articles then it would likely be best to send a takedown to google as well to get those links pulled. Not sure how the latter option works.

 

[Anthony Parsons]

It also depends on whether you have copyright of the posted content, or whether you're using something similar to the default Xenforo terms, which clearly state: "You are granting us with a non-exclusive, permanent, irrevocable, unlimited license to use, publish, or re-publish your Content in connection with the Service. You retain copyright over the Content."

A DMCA won't do anything if you have the above term as your legal policy, as you don't own the copyright to the content, each author does. You have simply been granted with a license to use your members content under the above term.

 

[Dakota Storm]

You might still be able to get somewhere by emailing their host and explaining that they have cloned your site.

 

[Mr Lucky]

Meanwhile,if those sites are ranking in Google, and yours, with the original material, is not, you need to investigate why your site is not indexed.

 

[bcercan]

This is a community forum of a game for my country founded by me. I'm just sharing game updates, news etc with translating them into my language. So its kinda my unique content and they're stealing these posts instead of translate themselves. So this is what they're actually stealing. Does Google do something for this?

 

[Mr Lucky]

This is a community forum of a game for my country founded by me. I'm just sharing game updates, news etc with translating them into my language. So its kinda my unique content and they're stealing these posts instead of translate themselves. So this is what they're actually stealing. Does Google do something for this?

It has been assumed for a long time that google penalises duplicate content, whether it does or not the fact that duplicates exist is not good as they can dilute any relevant searches and in this case it appears your original content is suffering.

Google won't stop those sites. Only you and /or legal action can do that.

I have had it happen to me, and I wrote to the sites. This is my form letter:

Dear Sir/madam
It has come to my notice that content from your page:
(URL)
has been plagiarised from my page
(URL)
To which I own the copyright.(DATE)

The duplicate content is a direct violation of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act and International Copyright Law.

Please remove the content within 72 hours, otherwise I will take legal action and will contact your site's administrators and/or web hosting provider.
The published duplicate content is harming my site in regard to Google page rank and search engine results, and so causing loss of revenue via that site, for which you will be held liable.
Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Under penalty of perjury, I warrant that that the above information is accurate and that I am the copyright owner.
Best Regards

 

[bcercan]

The original content was in English and I shared it in my own forum with translating into Turkish. So I guess this is not means duplicate content? Like every news sites sharing same news with just changing some words and titles. In this situation can't DMCA or I do anyting?

 

[Mr Lucky]

The original content was in English and I shared it in my own forum with translating into Turkish. So I guess this is not means duplicate content? Like every news sites sharing same news with just changing some words and titles. In this situation can't DMCA or I do anyting?

If you don't want to do it yourself, you could try something like this:

http://www.dmca.com/

It might work.

 

[Goodfella]

The original content was in English and I shared it in my own forum with translating into Turkish. So I guess this is not means duplicate content? Like every news sites sharing same news with just changing some words and titles. In this situation can't DMCA or I do anyting?

Also can you prove that this content came from your website? Basically can you prove that your website was the first with this content. How is someone suppose to know that you didnt get the content from someone else?

Or if you just copied english content and translated it into turkish via google translate, this is what they may be doing too.

 

[bcercan]

No I translated myself and kinda changed it. You know this is not just translated content, it looks like original. Every other forum (I mean foreign forums in other languages) getting this update notes via game's official website and sharing them in their forum with translating into their languages and also changing how it looks like. It's more like news you know.

 

[Mr Lucky]

No I translated myself and kinda changed it. You know this is not just translated content, it looks like original. Every other forum (I mean foreign forums in other languages) getting this update notes via game's official website and sharing them in their forum with translating into their languages and also changing how it looks like. It's more like news you know.

So are you saying you have translated something which was not originally your own content? If that is the case then you have no copyright.

 

[bcercan]

So people can stole my translated content? This is also weird.

 

[Mr Lucky]

So people can stole my translated content? This is also weird.

No, not if the original content was yours. But if you translated somebody else's content (without permission) then you stole their content so can have no copyright.

It isn't entirely clear from what you have written whether you did own the copyright in the untranslated original, or got permission to translate and publish.

If the original owner granted you permission to publish your translation of their content, and if they also granted you a copyright in that translation, then yes, if other people publish it then they are in breach of your copyright.

If you didn't have permission to translate and publish, then they are in breach of the original owner's copyright.