Protection of digital content: how to apply DMCA and not go on the path of litigation?

Software developers, representatives of the music, gaming, publishing and film industry, as well as all rightholders who have placed their copyright and related rights on the Internet, have repeatedly faced the need to protect their digital content from illegal relaying, publishing, selling, etc. .d



The need for such protection is due, above all, to a fall in the monetization of your legal resources, a decrease in the uniqueness, and therefore the cost of copyright and related rights.



So, a legal and effective solution to these problems already exists and is provided for by the United States Digital Millennium Copyright Act ( DMCA ).



The DMCA proposes a mechanism to protect copyright and related rights on the Internet, according to which the right holder may file a requirement to remove content or restrict access to it ( “takedown notice” ) if there is a suspicion of violation of legal rights.

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Takedown notice is issued in accordance with the provisions of the DMCA and is submitted to the authorized DMCA agent of the service provider. Information about the DMCA agent of a particular service provider must be posted on its website, as well as in the list of registered agents on the US Copyright Office site. We want to note that content that violates the rights, and the web pages that contain it, can be removed with the help of takedown notice from services and search engines registered only in the USA .



After receiving such a notification, the service provider deletes the content with a preliminary backup copy or restricts access to it, that is, removes the URL of the pages from the search results, notifying Internet users that access has been restricted due to copyright infringement in accordance with the DMCA .



It clearly looks like this:







At the same time, the service provider notifies the person to whose materials access was restricted, on receipt of such takedown notice.



What are the advantages of this method of protecting content?





First , it is the fastest and most effective response to online violations. LAWBOOT lawyers are making and filing takedown notice fairly quickly, and it takes up to 2 weeks to respond to service providers (based on practice, since there is no time limit for service providers at the legislative level).



Secondly , any right holder can use the DMCA to protect their rights and delete content, regardless of the domain zone of the site, the country of registration of exclusive rights (if applicable) or the applicant’s citizenship / residency.



What result do you get?



Removing content from pirated sites (and other resources) or from "white" resources that do not control or do not fully control the content that users post on the site. Removing URL addresses from search results of those search engines where notifications were submitted. What to do if you received takedown notice?



First of all, the person to whose materials access has been restricted has the right to submit a counter notification , which is also issued according to the DMCA and is submitted to the DMCA agent. If the counter notification is filed, the service provider is obliged to restore the deleted materials or access to the web page 10-14 business days after receiving the notification.



But, at the same time, it should be borne in mind that in order to file a counter-notification, the DMCA requires the non-resident United States to agree to the jurisdiction of the US court (the county where the service provider is registered) in the event of a dispute about exclusive rights violation. And the likelihood of such a dispute is quite high, since after the service provider submits a counter-notification, the applicant has the opportunity to file a claim for violation of exclusive rights in court so that the deleted materials and URLs are not restored after 14 days.



This option forces owners of Internet resources to find other ways to protect against blocking or deleting their content.



In the practice of LAWBOOT Lawyers & Consultants, there were cases when the site owners, having received the DMCA notification of content removal, created an alternative site interface for the IP address of the applicant and, on their own initiative, deleted content in this alternative. That is, for the IP addresses of those who complain, the controversial content was not shown, but for the rest of the Internet users, the web page remained the same.



It should be noted that such an option, as well as proper conscientious complete removal of content on its own initiative, does not exempt from liability for the fact of copyright infringement in the event of a lawsuit. Therefore, in order to avoid any risks, we recommend consulting with lawyers with each specific situation.



Naturally, we will be happy if your lawyers will be our profile team of IT lawyers from LAWBOOT Lawyers & Consultants.



Any legal issues related to the IT business can be emailed to us at any time convenient to you!