DMCA Danger and Counter Notification

[PatrickZ]

I posted a long post last week regarding a website posting pictures of me and of an explicit chat I had with someone. I'm very thankful for the information that was provided and it has helped me in doing further research regarding my situation. This has led to a couple of questions and instead of burying them on the original post, I decided to post them here as I think they could be applicable to more than just my situation.

1) Other than revealing your real name, what other dangers could there be in issuing a DMCA take down notice if you believe that you do own copyright on something posted online? If the infringing website believes the material is protected by "Fair Use" and replies with a counter notification the host will put the pics back up (if the complainant does not reply with a court order of course).

2) If the infringing website chooses to issue a DMCA Counter Notification is it correct they need to supply their name, address, and telephone number so that if a restraining court order needs to be issued the contact information is available? If the website owners are using a website service to hide their contact information, wouldn't a counter-notification reveal the information they are trying to hide?

I'm curious on these points and thought it would be helpful to the forum if we could shed more light on them and the DMCA process as a whole.

Thanks

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Here is a good example of a DMCA Counter Notification - but what is your concern here?

(1) What danger? Until a court issues an opinion, there are two opinions and going to court will determine who is right and who will be paying.

(2) Yes, it's in there.

 

[PatrickZ]

Thanks for all of your help on this. I sent in a DMCA Notification a week ago to the hosting company (using you're advice, other examples on the web, and following the guidelines of the hosting company) and within 12 hours my picture had been removed from the website. It actually appears that the website voluntarily removed it as the places where the picture was were replaced with other things. I asked question number 2 simply for confirmation that the website in question would have to reveal to me who they were and if they replied with a counter-notification they would no longer be hiding themselves. Based on the nature of the site my line of thinking was that they would value their privacy (and want to stay away from legal proceedings) over having my identifying picture. Thankfully it appears that this has worked.

Is there a statue of limitations for sending a counter-notification and in your opinion if a website is going to send a counter-notification, how quickly do they send it? I'm starting to figure if they haven't sent one yet, they probably aren't going to send one because if they do the content in question will have been down for 3 weeks or more.

Thank you for all of your replies and right now it appears that there might be some justice in this world after all.