I don't understand how this pertains to AdSense. Could you explain?

Is there anything else we have to do ...

Collect your damages?

[google.com...]

Please note that you will be liable for damages (including costs and attorneys' fees) if you materially misrepresent that a product or activity is infringing your copyrights.

Recently a woman representing a company wrote to me complaining about something that appeared on my site. She remarked that she was sure no one in her company submitted the information.

I responded by telling her the date, time, IP address, etc. of the submission and that it had her name on it. She wrote back and apologized.

FarmBoy

If there is no way to contact you in an obvious manner on your site people may be forced to do it this way.

I know that I always start first by communicating with the webmaster directly, but many content thieves (especially people using free blogs, man, they should be forced to have contact pages) obviously are not interested in receiving mails.

That's whats crazy, we have a contact us form sitewide, visable email addresses to email us at and public whois, also a dedicated email addy and person to update already approved listings.

We figured its just better to remove the guys stuff and call it a day but man o man this is some wierd stuff.

Again, drall, how does this pertain to AdSense?

Again, drall, how does this pertain to AdSense?

I'm not drall, but if you get a DMCA complaint against you and it's legitimate, you could lose your AdSense account - assuming you had AdSense alongside the content in question.

FarmBoy

Again, drall, how does this pertain to AdSense?

He got a DMCA notification from Adsense, not the ISP.

>you could lose your AdSense account

+ all your Google search engine traffic

Well we removed the chaps product listing and also removed it on another website of ours that he submitted to and didnt complain about in the DMCA for good measure.

It does have to do with Adsense MyNewPC because you can loose your adsense account because of DMCA's. I spoke with my lawyer and he said to just remove the listing and notify Google that its gone and drop it so we did just that. In 8 years or so online we never had a DMCA so it can be quite unnerving.

I was going to contact the chap directly and give him his submit info of when it was submitted etc and why he did this but my lawyer said to just remove it and drop it so I am taking the advice I am paying for.

we got our first dmca notification via adsense

Can you clarify, was the DMCA actually transmitted to you through AdSense?

I know that I always start first by communicating with the webmaster directly, but many content thieves (especially people using free blogs, man, they should be forced to have contact pages) obviously are not interested in receiving mails.

I agree with you; just few minutes ago I wrote 3rd email to this guy and he his not responding at all. He his making copies of all our images and documents. So tomorrow I will be in downtown and gonna send fax to adsense support at 1-(650)-618-8507.

I'm filing a couple of these today -- one is for a site which I filed a DMCA on last year (and which Google acted on).

When I saw they were ripping the content again, I contacted Adsense asking if I needed to send the fax again or could I just refer them to the previous fax (given it's the same site, same content etc), Adsense support replied saying that (paraphrased):

"I should file a new DMCA as Adsense accounts which are on the receiving end of legitimate DMCAs more than once have their Adsense account cancelled."

So it's worth keeping in mind that upon the first claim, the content thief will not have their account cancelled.

Yes Jimbeetle it was actually via adsense.

You are going to love this to, we removed this guys listing on our sister site which wasnt mentioned in the dmca which he also submitted to for good measure and in which he gets tons of visitors from the listing and we got a email from him less then 1 hour ago asking why we removed his listing.

I am literally laughing so hard at this I am about to cry.

My guess is someone at the company earlier then him submitted the listing and is now gone or doesnt remember, similar to farmboys experience or someone is giving them bad advice. Anyway you slice it you would be quite suprised at how quickly your heart can beat when you go through something like this:)

Adsense accounts which are on the receiving end of legitimate DMCAs more than once have their Adsense account cancelled

it sure explains why that person filed a DMCA rather than contact drall even though it was their submission, it's called entrapment.

[edited by: Hobbs at 11:07 pm (utc) on April 9, 2008]

Thats exactly what its starting to look like Hobbs, almost like they are trying to get us into trouble or something. Its not like we are some scraped blog or something, this particular site is a pr7 300k backlink site with a cms and has been online like 7 years, public whois, phone, addy, email and even a email for removal requests for old products you know longer support or sell.

We have 1000 visable ways to contact us, heck we edit/update hundreds and hundreds of listings a day from companies at request. I read a good article my IP lawyer sent me on how the DMCA is being used opposite of its intended use now to harm companies. Blah its all just so stupid if you ask me.

It seems to me that anyone making a DMCA complaint to Google before contacting the site owner directly is just attempting to get the AdSense account terminated. I agree with your lawyer's advice to not respond to them.

so you guys mow know what to put on top of the list next time ASA asks for new feature requests

Thanks for the advice MyNewPC, we have had removal requests before but its usually like my product is no longer being sold please remove it and replace it with this etc but this, well this doesnt make any sense beyond them trying to get us in trouble with Google.

Google was very gracious about the whole thing, we explained to them everything and im sure they deal with thousands of these a day and most are legit but im sure they see abuse of the dmca also, well at least I hope they do.

So tomorrow I will be in downtown and gonna send fax to adsense support at 1-(650)-618-8507.

If it is your intention to file DMCA then you should do that instead of contacting support. The instructions are available at AdSense.

FarmBoy

[edited by: farmboy at 2:02 am (utc) on April 10, 2008]

So it's worth keeping in mind that upon the first claim, the content thief will not have their account cancelled.

I've seen some disappear after a report. It could have been just a coincidence that someone else was reporting it for the second time at about the same time, but people who copy content shouldn't necessarily think they will get one free pass.

It seems to me that anyone making a DMCA complaint to Google before contacting the site owner directly is just attempting to get the AdSense account terminated.

Maybe not. A lot of people are familiar with Google but are clueless about the whole AdSense/publisher relationship. And for these same people, Google is the Internet. Maybe the person just did a Google search, found his information and thus reported it to Google because it was found via their search results.

Now if he submitted directly to AdSense within the Google organization, then that would tend to indicate the person has some level of sophistication and was trying to hurt you.

I agree with your lawyer's advice to not respond to them.

If I were your attorney, that's probably the same advice I would give - it's easy and safe. I'm not saying it's wrong advice, just that I've found attorneys who don't specialize in niche Internet practices are as clueless as the average Joe when it comes to such matters.

FarmBoy

...and we got a email from him less then 1 hour ago asking why we removed his listing.

LOL. Did you respond and explain to him what had happened?

FarmBoy

I was told not to speak with them in any regard from my lawyer unless its something legal and to then refer them to him. I cant tell you the level of frustration this has caused not being able to respond to them and say..

You just filed a dmca against us to remove your product on our sister site which YOU good sir SUBMITTED, why would I keep YOUR product that you submitted on the other site and send you free visitors? To wait for another dmca?

I think you are right on another point farmboy, the dmca has hundreds of sites listed, I think the president of the company that signed off on the notice didnt even look over the list and someone lower down the foodchain compiled it and he just signed it and they shot it off. It looks like search based queries.

"I spoke with my lawyer and he said to just remove the listing and notify Google that its gone and drop it so we did just that."

Hi Drall, if I'm reading this correctly your lawyer advised you to concede to a legal threat. If the other party wanted damages that just got easier and you also now might have a confirmed DMCA violation with adsense.

A good lawyer would have said to file the counter DMCA claiming you believe you are fully within your rights and then take the content down. Once you've countered the in between party is absolved of responsibility and the original claimant has to take major steps to go to the next level which they likely won't once you've taken the item down.

Now go slap your lawyer! :)