A DMCA is reference to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act and a take down notice is a notice issued under this act.

Let’s look a bit closely at what it actually pertains to.

List of Take Down Conditions

This is a list of takedown conditions:

 

1. when copyright infringing content is removed or “taken down” from a website, by the website owner, upon receipt of a DMCA Takedown Notice from their ISP / Hosting company. This notice is generated by the, or on behalf of, the illegally published content owner, distributor, publisher etc.
2. when copyright infringing content is removed or “taken down” from a website by the website owner upon receipt of a DMCA Takedown Notice from the, or on behalf of, the content owner,distributor, publisher etc.
3. when copyright infringing content is removed or “taken down” from a website by the by the ISP or Hosting company of the website that is publishing the infringing content. This occurs because the website owner has not voluntarily complied with a DMCA Notice and the ISP or Hosting company must comply with the Takedown notice.
4. when an infringing website is taken down or “offline” by it’s ISP or Hosting company. This occurs because the website owner does not voluntarily comply with a Takedown notice as described above.

So it can be issued to either the publisher or the hosting company of the content. So if I didn’t take my stuff down my hosting company could overall and take it down.

Moving on.

 

What applies, What doesn’t and what you need to have a DMCA Take Down Notice ISSUED:

Fair Use

There is a doctrine in the United States copyright law called “Fair Use” which allows people to use your content without your permission. Fair Use is now widely accepted in most countries around the world. It allows the limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the copyright owner. Items considered Fair Use would be commentary, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching or scholarship. It provides for the legal, non-licensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another author’s work under a four-factor balancing test:

1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2. the nature of the copyrighted work;
3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

This is important because if a smaller photo of yours is used or a few words out of an entire document is used this could fall under Fair Use depending on the site and the use. If someone were to take a paragraph of your work, or a site has copied your entire site or pictures, and they run a business profiting from your copyrighted work, then most likely its copyright infringement. It is usually very obvious when you see how your work is being used whether the content is being used under the Fair Use criteria or for profit.

Puppetmaster – so to take a paragraph from something and reproduce it, it first must be written – which it wasn’t – ever.

Trademark vs Copyright

It is very easy to confuse copyright infringement with trademark infringement as they are both intellectual property, but refer to different things.

Copyright as defined by the US Copyright office:

“protects original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software and architecture. Copyright does not protect facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation, although it may protect the way these things are expressed.”

 

Puppetmaster – COPYRIGHT does not cover IDEAS – IDEAS people – it was always an intention, an idea, and never ever a written pattern. Copyright DOES NOT COVER METHODS – i.e. METHODS of construction of a bag for example. 

 

Trademark as defined by the US Patent and Trademark Office:

“A trademark includes any word, name, symbol, or device, or any combination, used, or intended to be used, in commerce to identify and distinguish the goods of one manufacturer or seller from goods manufactured or sold by others, and to indicate the source of the goods. In short, a trademark is a brand name.”

To make this a little clearer copyright infringement would be if the text or images from your site have been copied from site www.yoursite.com and placed on www.theirsite.com .

 

Puppetmaster – so this has never happened.  There is NO REGISTERED TRADE MARK.

 

Photographs

This is a major problem on the net. Having your photos stolen, and it can be even more embarrassing if they are private photos you never intended on having released to the public.

Things to consider:

• Did you shoot the pictures or videos for a website?

• Were you paid for the photos or videos you shot?

• Did you sign a model release?

Puppetmaster – I told you to sign a release – and you didn’t/wouldn’t so my edits – my videos

 

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The 7 Basic Parts of the DMCA takedown notice:

 

Part 1. The SUBJECT

 

Part 2 – IDENTIFY who you are and where you are from

 

Part 3. EXPLAIN why you are sending the DMCA takedown notice

 

Part 4. Showing Proof of the copyright

This is not always clear, as you most likely do not have an actual copyright filed with the government, but that does not matter. You can still send a DMCA and even file a copyright infringement in the court of law WITHOUT having a registered copyright.

 

Puppetmaster – now here is the thing – it’s a two prong thing – first there was no registered copyright and you can only do so within 18 months of publication. So can’t do it on either thing. Secondly, as nothing was written to copy – sorry not sorry. 

 

 

Part 5 & 6 – Good Faith and Perjury STATEMENTS

 

Part 7. – Electronic SIGNATURE

 

 

The Actual DMCA The Cliff notes

Instigated with the World Intellectual Property Organisation and ratified (made into law) in 1998 under Bill Clinton.

From the Act Itself

 

“Section 411(a) of the Copyright Act requires claims to copyright to be registered with the Copyright Office before a lawsuit can be initiated by the copyright owner, but exempts many foreign works in order to comply with existing treaty obligations under the Berne Convention. Section 102(d) of the DMCA amends section 411(a) by broadening the exemption to cover all foreign works.”

 

I didn’t read any further because it’s over right there.

 

There is no copyright registered of any of the patterns, and cannot be registered as it is over 18 months.

 

The second pattern does not exist as a pattern. It is an idea. An intention. There are no written parts to STEAL From.

 

SO

 

There will be no DMCA Notice as  the claim fails on the first hurdle – no registered copyright.

All the admins of many groups of Facebook can rest easy – you will not be named as the document will never come to be.

IF a do it yourself document is created on one of those do it yourself websites – you can flush it – it’s worthless in any court IN THE WORLD.

 

I will keep reading the actual act and pick out many more tidbits to show you how ludicrous and full of hot air this balloon really is.

 

Carry on – and let fear guide you forward to action.