Fake DMCA takedowns

H

HJW

Active member
How do you deal with fake DMCA takedown notices?

I usually just delete them but getting them more frequently and it's annoying giving in to something that is so obviously fake.

Right now a user flounced after people disagreed with them, so they set up a free blog and copied and pasted all of their posts and posted them with a backdate to now claim they were copyright and taken without permission. Now filed to get all their posts taken down. Which is obviously fake as you can see the messages contain other usernames that they are replying to in the forum.

Same for things that are clearly fair use, I tend to take them down as hosts have to be stern and assume the DMCA is credible so often not worth the hassle.

It seems anyone can submit one with any old email address and address they don't live at
 
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.
Click to expand...

Terms and Rules

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Terms and rules

You must agree to these terms and rules before using the site.
xenforo.com xenforo.com
 
Yep, but they're claiming the content posted on the message board was copywrite.

All it seems I can do is take it seriously, take it down, file a counter to say start court action and inevitably when no court action starts after 10 days make it live again.

Seems like a lot of effort that anyone with an email address can make someone jump through for something that has zero credability.

Or I can move the posts to a new thread and URL
 
Can you see the date of that domain? Check the whois which would prove that the content was not created earlier as he claims.

Secondly, ask them to identify themselves and give proof about that they are indeed the content owner as anyone with an email can claim anything.
 
Yes the author of the post owns the copyright so s/he is free to post it somewhere else while other members are not (necessarily).

But what the license posted by @sbj above says is

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.
Click to expand...
He has no legal grounds to revoke that after the fact.

It's the same license authors of medical or other scientific research agree to when a journal publishes their work.
 
Yes, but in his case the author claims he published his stuff on his blog first. And then the forum copied his stuff from his blog. So if that was true, that clause would be nullified as the author never registered on that forum to publish it himself.

But we all know he is lying, he did not publish the stuff first and the forum did not copy it from there. That user registered, posted stuff, and now goes backwards to make it seem the stuff is copyrighted without that clause having an effect.

You are under no obligation to do what he wants. Ignore him.
 
sbj said:
You are under no obligation to do what he wants. Ignore him.
Click to expand...
The problem is if I ignore it then the host will disable my site in 3 days. Either way I have to respond to confirm it's been deleted. As they have to take DMCA notices seriously even if they are so clearly fake from a fake email and fake postal address.

I have to delete it and either counter file then restore if they don't take action after 10 days or remove it forever.

Unless I'm missing something? Seems like something so easy to abuse by disgruntled members.
 
biafraland said:
Yes, offshore hosting ignores DMCA, but most don't have good support.
Click to expand...
Or speed, or pricing.

HJW said:
The problem is if I ignore it then the host will disable my site in 3 days. Either way I have to respond to confirm it's been deleted. As they have to take DMCA notices seriously even if they are so clearly fake from a fake email and fake postal address.

I have to delete it and either counter file then restore if they don't take action after 10 days or remove it forever.

Unless I'm missing something? Seems like something so easy to abuse by disgruntled members.
Click to expand...

Just file a counter notice, and if they continue then look at getting a lawyer. Filing false DMCA requests is illegal, and they can be forced to pay any damages or attorney costs.

Also, find a host that looks at the context of the situation; if they're saying they're going to take your site down even when you notify them of the situation, they are not worth hosting with.
 
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Forsaken said:
Just file a counter notice, and if they continue then look at getting a lawyer. Filing false DMCA requests is illegal, and they can be forced to pay any damages or attorney costs.

Also, find a host that looks at the context of the situation
Click to expand...
Can you recommend somewhere? Digital ocean don't seem to be interested that it's totally fake - fake address, fake phone number and complaint that's so obviously fake.

Seems like a catch 22 to avoid them re hosts.

I would have to give them my real personal details to counter it despite them giving fake details. Then there's nothing stopping them creating a new email address and sending another load of fake DMCA takedowns.
 
HJW said:
Can you recommend somewhere? Digital ocean don't seem to be interested that it's totally fake - fake address, fake phone number and complaint that's so obviously fake.

Seems like a catch 22 to avoid them re hosts.

I would have to give them my real personal details to counter it despite them giving fake details. Then there's nothing stopping them creating a new email address and sending another load of fake DMCA takedowns.
Click to expand...
That's rich. Digital Ocean is one of the largest sources of spam emails and spam websites in existence (reminds me of another hosting service called The Planet back in the 80s and 90s if anyone remembers them) but they suddenly become all moral when legal action is threatened, even non-credible legal action?

For a number of reasons, if it were me I would get the hell out of Dodge err Digital Ocean ASAP.
 
djbaxter said:
That's rich. Digital Ocean is one of the largest sources of spam emails and spam websites in existence (reminds me of another hosting service called The Planet back in the 80s and 90s if anyone remembers them) but they suddenly become all moral when legal action is threatened, even non-credible legal action?

For a number of reasons, if it were me I would get the hell out of Dodge err Digital Ocean ASAP.
Click to expand...
I think it's more an automated thing and they're pretty blunt with it but yeah I've noticed on spam things digital ocean stuff is often blocked 😆

This is how they send a notification, maybe I shouldn't be worried about one of these a month but it's frustrating they take the most clearly abusive thing seriously.


Hi there,

This notice is to inform you that material posted on one or more of your Droplet(s), was the subject of a notification of claimed copyright infringement pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). A copy of that notice is included below. As you know, Digital Ocean provides hosting service to your Droplet, but is not responsible for the content hosted there. Copyright infringement is expressly forbidden by our terms of service and can, in appropriate circumstances, result in the termination of your service with Digital Ocean. DigitalOcean takes seriously the DMCA notices it receives and expects its customers to do the same.

Accordingly, no later than 3 days from today, you must certify in writing that you have removed or disabled access to the material identified in the attached DMCA notice.

If we do not hear from you within 3 days, we may disable access to the Droplet without further notice. Please let us know if you have questions about this issue or would like additional information.

Trust & Safety
DigitalOcean
 
@HJW sadly the only real way to avoid this is to ensure your site's hosting isn't directly accessible to easy discovery
  1. Use Cloudflare for inbound, only accepting Cloudflare IPs (there are other DDOS proxy services which do essentially the same thing, but at worse price points)
    • Ensure you audit your DNS configuration for non-proxied IPs.
  2. Use XF's HTTP proxy for when XF makes outbound HTTP(s) request
    • A tiny linux VM running tinyproxy works.
      FYI the developer is opinionated at not providing a working out of the box solution for a transparent proxy.
      ie provide your own systemd start scripts, ensure the various privacy & non-disclosure of using a proxy headers are enabled.
  3. Use an email relay, or use say SendGrid or some transactional email service.
    • If using a DYI postfix, ensure this strips the source address and overstamps to localhost or a non-public IP!
  4. Obtain new public IPs if you are just moving the site behind these measures, make sure todo all steps at once!
CloudFlare will still forward DCMA requests, but they essentially act as a sanity check filter and a lot of DMCA takedown bots giveup if the sire is using CloudFlare.

If you have threads which are nothing but image memes; I strongly recommend they are in member-only forums. I use my (paid) Aggregating Forums add-on to make image-heavy threads appear to users in the normal forums but not guest users.
 
djbaxter said:
That's rich. Digital Ocean is one of the largest sources of spam emails and spam websites in existence (reminds me of another hosting service called The Planet back in the 80s and 90s if anyone remembers them) but they suddenly become all moral when legal action is threatened, even non-credible legal action?

For a number of reasons, if it were me I would get the hell out of Dodge err Digital Ocean ASAP.
Click to expand...

Early on The Planet was kind of amazing, but then they took a quick dive over time and couldn't afford to stay relevant. They then got acquired by Rackspace iirc.

HJW said:
Can you recommend somewhere? Digital ocean don't seem to be interested that it's totally fake - fake address, fake phone number and complaint that's so obviously fake.

Seems like a catch 22 to avoid them re hosts.

I would have to give them my real personal details to counter it despite them giving fake details. Then there's nothing stopping them creating a new email address and sending another load of fake DMCA takedowns.
Click to expand...

I use Tier.net, which I've had no issues with them directly, and only issues with the data center I chose for hosting (Psychz, in Dallas). Their management and support is amazing, and they go above and beyond to fit with my needs.

They don't do cloud servers, but if you contact them and talk about your needs and current situation they should be able to answer any questions or concerns.
 
HJW said:
How do you deal with fake DMCA takedown notices?

I usually just delete them but getting them more frequently and it's annoying giving in to something that is so obviously fake.

Right now a user flounced after people disagreed with them, so they set up a free blog and copied and pasted all of their posts and posted them with a backdate to now claim they were copyright and taken without permission. Now filed to get all their posts taken down. Which is obviously fake as you can see the messages contain other usernames that they are replying to in the forum.

Same for things that are clearly fair use, I tend to take them down as hosts have to be stern and assume the DMCA is credible so often not worth the hassle.

It seems anyone can submit one with any old email address and address they don't live at
Click to expand...
File a counter to the claim for the record, and include in your response a reminder that they attest that the claim is legitimate under the penalty of perjury (ie, criminal charge).
 
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