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Author Topic: Masterfile Shuts Down Server without DMCA Complaint  (Read 8274 times)

bwd

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Masterfile Shuts Down Server without DMCA Complaint
« on: August 23, 2011, 12:10:10 AM »
Dear (my name),

We are writing to inform you that we have received a complaint alleging that copyright infringement is taking place on your site (my site, along with 20 others on the server) (HOSTING FOR "domain in question"). It appears that the website contains material being copied, reproduced, or otherwise displayed without the consent of the owner/copyright holder.

Infringing on the copyrights of others is a violation of the Go Daddy Hosting Services agreement (http://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/legal_agreements/show_doc.asp?pageid=HOSTING%5FSA ), as well as the Domain Name Registration Agreement (http://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/legal_agreements/show_doc.asp?pageid=REG%5FSA ).

We have included the original complaint we received regarding this matter (below) to help you identify the problem.

This notification was submitted pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and Go Daddy’s Copyright and Trademark Infringement Policy. Please review Go Daddy's Copyright Policy found at https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/legal_agreements/copyright_trademark.asp.

In accordance with this policy, as well as your hosting agreement, we have suspended this hosting account until this matter can be resolved, or until you submit a complete counter notification as described in the policy. You have 10 days to send a complete counter notification, if you wish to do so.

PLEASE NOTE: As a web hosting provider, it is not our position to act as the arbiter of intellectual property disputes or to judge who is right or wrong in a claim of infringement. We are a neutral party in this matter and at no point in this matter will we attempt to determine who, if anyone, is right or wrong. Please understand that we are not a court, nor do we have the ability or jurisdiction to determine potential fault in this case. As a result, with the exception of the above-mentioned counter notification, there is no need to send further dispute claims on this matter.

A list of the specific portions of your site in question is included below. For detailed questions, you will need to contact the Complainant at the address listed below.

 Description of the Infringement(s)

 SEE NOTIFICATION BELOW

 Complainant:

 SEE NOTIFICATION BELOW

In order to resolve this situation and re-activate your site, you have 2 options.

Option 1: Remove the content that is the subject of the copyright complaint.

In order to reactivate the site in question we will need you to provide the following information in a single email response:

   A. An electronic signature. (This can be a scanned copy of your physical signature, or as simple as typing your full name.)
   B. Identification of the material in question.
   C. A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the material has either been removed or promptly will be removed.

Option 2: Submit a complete counter notification regarding the works in question in accordance with our Copyright Infringement policy. You will need to reply via email and include all of the following elements:

   A. An electronic signature. (This can be a scanned copy of your physical signature, or as simple as typing your full name.)
   B. Identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or access to it was disabled.
   C. A statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled.
   D. Your name, address, and telephone number, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the Federal District Court for the judicial district of Arizona, or if your address is outside of the United States, for any judicial district in which Go Daddy may be found, and that you will accept service of process from the Complaining Party or an agent of such Party.

If you have any further questions, please let us know.

Thank you,

Beatrice
Copyright Claims Department
GoDaddy.com
CopyrightClaims@GoDaddy.com


ARID1016


====================

ORIGINAL COMPLAINT

====================


This is an official notification under the DMCA to effect removal of the
infringing materials noted herein.

Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly.

Regards,

Kristen Sams

Kristen Sams

Copyright Compliance Officer

Masterfile Corporation

3 Concorde Gate, 4th Floor
Toronto, ON  M3C 3N7

www.masterfile.com 

1.800.387.9010 / 416.929.3000 ex 3097

Email: ksams@masterfile.com






This is the email I received from the hosting company Godaddy after MasterFile sent their email. There is a major gap here though, after checking the DMCA website, there is no complaint on the domain name that was in question for having copyrighted images. Basically we have MasterFile pretending to be submitting claims with the DMCA to shutdown the server. I have full proof of this and documented emails to Godaddy's fraud department along with the local news channel here.

This company shut down many of my clients websites that day, which had none of their images on those sites. There was one site in question, which all of the images were purchased from TemplatesBox.com over a year ago. I would guarantee that if you search TemplatesBox.com, Dreamstime.com (Canadian based company as well), IStockPhoto.com, Masterfile.com and others you will find a lot of the same photos. DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY? Photographers need to make money and they needed to make money before MasterFile.com hired them, so what they do is upload their images to as many sites as possible and try and make as much money as possible. Some of them don't go by these copyright rules and regulations and some do. This means that if the images were out there and people have downloaded them in the past and the new photographer gets hired from Masterfile, those images are now in the mix with the extortion letters out there.

I am web developer and I know a scam when I see one. My opinion, you won't find many members on that site buying images. What you will find is a very detailed terms and condition which locks any photographer into their trap. Not sure what they pay the photographer, but I do know that their company was bought for over 21 million dollars recently. So if you have a company that no one will become a member because the prices are astronomical compared to the competition, then they are structured for a different purpose. Their company is created and manufactured to secretly obtain questionable rights to images and pursue legal action against many to gain profits.

The company that purchased them provides image scanning, much like the free technology out there which is not that great to bring to any type of court room other than to say it's inconclusive. www.tineye.com This website will allow you to search images, but go to www.dreamstime.com and select one of those images to use and you will not find images. The reason is because some websites exclude their images from being seen by search engine crawlers.

Conclusion: I have contacted authorities in Toronto and strongly believe that this company is doing nothing but portraying themselves as an unlawful law firm.

SoylentGreen

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Re: Masterfile Shuts Down Server without DMCA Complaint
« Reply #1 on: August 23, 2011, 12:31:58 AM »
Thanks very much for posting your story here.

I haven't heard of anything like this before on this forum.
I'm not sure what to make of it just yet.

I would imagine that GoDaddy is quick to shut down sites allegedly infringing so as to protect themselves from the trolls.
Were you given any warning by Masterfile before the site(s) were taken down?
Did GoDaddy reinstate your site(s) once you removed the allegedly offending content?

Usually, the copyright trolls simply go after a settlement, and the end user simply removes any allegedly infringing content.
The DMCA take-down notice seems a bit malicious if you were given no prior warning.

Yes, my colleagues and I are quite convinced that several of these stock image companies are running scams, pure and simple.
From some postings made on here, I also feel that some photographers/artists are in on the game.

Has anyone else here realized the risks that Masterfile may have exposed themselves to?
If Masterfile didn't own the copyrights to the material allegedly infringed upon, they could be sued by ever site owner that lost business due to their sites being shut down.
One day, they'll slip up.

I'm surprised that masterfile didn't simply merge with a law firm.

Thanks again,

S.G.
« Last Edit: December 16, 2011, 08:28:36 PM by Matthew Chan »

Jerry Witt (mcfilms)

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Re: Masterfile Shuts Down Server without DMCA Complaint
« Reply #2 on: August 23, 2011, 01:14:16 AM »
This story should also be shared with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and http://www.chillingeffects.org. You need to get a statement from GoDaddy, preferably in writing, explaining why non-infringing sites were removed and who delivered and signed the takedown notice.
Although I may be a super-genius, I am not a lawyer. So take my scribblings for what they are worth and get a real lawyer for real legal advice. But if you want media and design advice, please visit Motion City at http://motioncity.com.

bwd

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Re: Masterfile Shuts Down Server without DMCA Complaint
« Reply #3 on: August 23, 2011, 02:16:00 AM »
Thanks very much for posting your story here.

No problem


I haven't heard of anything like this before on this forum.
I'm not sure what to make of it just yet.


I would imagine that GoDaddy is quick to shut down sites allegedly infringing so as to protect themselves from the trolls.
Were you given any warning by Masterfile before the site(s) were taken down?
Did GoDaddy reinstate your site(s) once you removed the allegedly offending content?

No, I never was contacted before Godaddy sent me the message I put above.

I had submitted the following;

My name is "my name", I am a web developer located in "my location". I just received an email today from Godaddy stating that my website has copyright infringement, but after looking at the complaint it's completely fraud and from a image stock competitor based out of Canada. I purchase all of my images from dreamstime, istockphoto or templatebox.

Without notice for removal, Godaddy not only removed this website they remove all of my client's websites on this shared server. The legalities of shutting a website server down would be with a court order and not from a random email. If everyone was allowed to send emails and make bogus claims on competitors, all kinds of sites would be removed for absolutely no reason.

I am requesting that the server is put back up immediately and all of my websites are put back up.


- end

There was no reason to shut down the server when they have full access to remove the "one" site in question. Yes, Godaddy did not do their job correctly, but only because they were threatened by a FAKE DMCA compliance scare that was never submitted.

Usually, the copyright trolls simply go after a settlement, and the end user simply removes any allegedly infringing content.
The DMCA take-down notice seems a bit malicious if you were given no prior warning.

The website company that had the images in question was no longer in business, this would explain why no one got an extortion letter that I know of. The question here is if MasterFile is accountable for using DMCA statements to have Godaddy take down the whole server. Also, how secure is our businesses online if a company like MasterFile can make false statements and hosting companies are set to abide by them? I don't like were our internet protection is going here...


Yes, my colleagues and I are quite convinced that several of these stock image companies are running scams, pure and simple.
From some postings made on here, I also feel that some photographers/artists are in on the game.

Someone needs to stand up and put this company down. These actions are brutal and they are putting the average business owner in a terrible situation not knowing what to do, which can be very costly or put them out of business. First off, coming from a designer NO ONE I know or ever known would pay these prices for images

for example;

If you wanted enough images to be used on your website, you would be looking at over $10k a month to have the right amount of images to build a site. What company do you know would pay $120k a year for the image rights on their site. I would say, maybe an idiot might buy at image or two here and there because they don't know any better. In all reality, the site is clearly not made for selling images, it's built and creating a huge extortion scam locking as many internet photos in their hands as possible.


Has anyone else here realized the risks that Masterfile may have exposed themselves to?
If Masterfile didn't own the copyrights to the material allegedly infringed upon, they could be sued by ever site owner that lost business due to their sites being shut down.
One day, they'll slip up.

I feel it's coming soon...


I'm surprised that masterfile didn't simply merge with a law firm.

Thanks again,

S.G.








bwd

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Re: Masterfile Shuts Down Server without DMCA Complaint
« Reply #4 on: August 23, 2011, 02:57:05 AM »
Also, caught on recording (state law allows me to) MasterFile states they take all of the images in house, meaning nothing leaves Masterfile. Ummmm ok, what happens when the photographer goes to Mt. Everest to take pictures....they never left Masterfile???

He states that no images are brought to Masterfile and they take all images, but then later admits that Authors can come to MasterFile with their images with past usage info and still post on the site. This basically proves that these images are used before they are on the site and they are not following the regulations they so promise.

SoylentGreen

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Re: Masterfile Shuts Down Server without DMCA Complaint
« Reply #5 on: August 23, 2011, 11:10:03 AM »
Thanks for the extra information.  Pretty interesting stuff.  But, kind of chilling.

There's something definitely 'wrong' going on over there at masterfile.
They've gone from being really litigious to what many would call fraud.

The "we do everything in-house" sounds like just another way of manufacturing copyright standing.
It's simply baffling why so few companies/people copyright their content properly.

Kindly Keep us posted on this.

S.G.
« Last Edit: August 23, 2011, 11:21:33 AM by SoylentGreen »

Oscar Michelen

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Re: Masterfile Shuts Down Server without DMCA Complaint
« Reply #6 on: August 28, 2011, 04:42:17 PM »
This is something new that MF seems to be trying out but which could backfire as sending out false DMCA takedown notices could lead to penalties. In a case called Online Policy Group v. Diebold, Incorporated. Diebold made voting machines used in US elections. Online Policy Group was critical of Diebold's machines, and released e-mail correspondence from the company that they had obtained onto the Internet. Diebold sent DMCA takedown notices so that the e-mails would be removed. Online Policy Group sued Diebold over the takedown requests, arguing that the Group had the legal right to publish the e-mails and that therefore the DMCA oties sent by Diebold were invalid. A California court agreed with the Group and granted a request for summary judgment. Diebold later settled with the Group paying $125,000 in damages and legal fees.

mattwmc2001

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Re: Masterfile Shuts Down Server without DMCA Complaint
« Reply #7 on: December 16, 2011, 05:46:05 PM »
Hi. Found this via google.

GoDaddy just did the same thing to me.

Warner Bros. sent them a "Copyright takedown request" for a video we had embedded on the site, and GoDaddy just yanked the entire site. Note: The video is not hosted on Godaddy's servers.

GoDaddy or WB didn't even bother trying to contact us to verify or even ask us to take the embedded code down.

Nazis.




Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi)

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Re: Masterfile Shuts Down Server without DMCA Complaint
« Reply #8 on: December 16, 2011, 06:52:06 PM »
as per GoDaddy's TOS as well as legally, they do not have to notify you first, generally they perform the takedown, then notify you at which time you can submit a counter notice, and explain to go-daddy to look at the file in question and they can see for themselves that the offending video / image was not hosted on their servers. They should then put the content back online. and advice the sender of the DMCA notice that the offending content was not hosted there... Whether or not you want to persue some sort of compensation would be up to you, but it's probly not worth the hassle unless you lost a boatload of money during the downtime
Most questions have already been addressed in the forums, get yourself educated before making decisions.

Any advice is strictly that, and anything I may state is based on my opinions, and observations.
Robert Krausankas

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Jerry Witt (mcfilms)

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Re: Masterfile Shuts Down Server without DMCA Complaint
« Reply #9 on: December 16, 2011, 07:10:59 PM »
mattwmc2001 -- are you saying GoDaddy never emailed you a take-down notice? If I were you I would check and see if Warner Brothers actually filed a DMCA claim.

I am more interested in the original poster's story that started this thread. If what he says is accurate, then Masterfile could have caused not only his site, but the sites of up to 10 clients' sites to be taken down. There could certainly be some loss of revenue or maybe even the loss of clients due to this action. If this happened due to a bogus DMCA filing, then he should have pursued damages.

I wish bwd was still active on this board.
Although I may be a super-genius, I am not a lawyer. So take my scribblings for what they are worth and get a real lawyer for real legal advice. But if you want media and design advice, please visit Motion City at http://motioncity.com.

 

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