Removing stolen blog content with a Takedown Notice

February 8th, 2008 · 19 Comments

You often read about blog authors who complain that some “scraper” has republished their blog content on a completely unaffiliated site without permission even when then blog owner has not released that content with an “open source” or so-called “copyleft” license. Can a blog owner easily stop such vandalism? Yes. Under United States Copyright law Article 512 (17 USC §512) provides for an easy extrajudicial mechanism to protect copyright authors from online infringement.

Basically the author, or their authorized agent must get in touch with the online hosting service or “Online Service Provider” (also known as an ISP, or “Internet Service Provider”). Often blog hosting sites have particular pages that deal with providing copyright infringement notices to the ISP’s “Designated Agent”. Under the provisions of the law these “Designated Agents” are also registered with the US Copyright Office and a convenient online database is available to the public to search for the proper agent and their street address, fax number and email address.

The content of this notice is straightforward but in order for it to be effective it must comply with the statute. Basically the notice contains the following elements:

(1) A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner ofthe work that is being infringed.

(2) Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site (best to give them a list of URL links of the work on YOUR site).

(3) Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to locate the material. (list of links of the site that is infringing).

(4) Information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address at which the complaining party may be contacted (your name address and telephone number and email address, and your main page url)

(5) A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.

(6) A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

We have prepared a form that can be downloaded for your use here: Takedown Notice Form (pdf version).

Please contact me if you have any questions about using the form.

Stumble it!

Tags: Intellectual property · Internet law and blogs

19 responses so far ↓

1 Candy // Feb 9, 2008 at 11:01 am

Really useful article, thanks.
2 C-Squared // Feb 13, 2008 at 9:01 am

Thank you for providing this.
3 durano lawayan // Feb 19, 2008 at 11:16 am

Hi Alex,
I have never had an experience like the one you mentioned here, but I’ve heard of other bloggers whose posts have been copied word-for-word on another site without permission. I thought there was very little I could do about it if ever; besides, who would want to copy my posts?

Thanks for the information and I’ll pass this on. –Durano, done!
4 Bolkie // Feb 20, 2008 at 12:35 pm

Hello,

is it also scraping when some automated website stelas excerpts and publishes them with a backlink? I just started blogging last week and already i see so called pingbacks on my blog. I just dont know if this is a good thing or not.
5 glitch // Feb 23, 2008 at 5:35 am

Thanks for the information. Good for you that you are protected by your country’s law. The sad thing in our country, we don’t know if the government is implementing it or we don’t have such law. *sigh*
6 Quality Tale // Feb 24, 2008 at 12:46 pm

Yes, there should be some strategy to overcome this problem … I had also this type of experience that my articles has been stolen from my blog and many blogger used it as it is in their blogs or sites … what do for this type of theft….

Till time I have no answer….

Pl. suggest any thing good …

Regards,

Aniruddha
7 Jennie // Mar 2, 2008 at 9:12 pm

Hi Alex!

Reward Rebel just commented on my post and suggested that there is this entry that you have that might be helpful. You see I just had my most visited page copied. It makes me mad and sad.

This is my post with the details of my situation
http://www.marriageandbeyond.com/2008/03/03/help-anyone-someone-stole-my-article/

Please help! Thank you so much.
8 jessie // Mar 2, 2008 at 11:54 pm

Alex,

I’m presently writing an article about this topic because a friend-blogger complained that her article was complaining about her article being stolen.

I’ll use your article as a reference in that writ-up so that other people can read your whole article and be educated with this issue.

Thanks
9 Stealing Other People’s Articles is a Serious Crime | What Have You // Mar 3, 2008 at 12:21 am

[...] is hopeless in his intent to regain full rights to his article, I stumbled upon Alex Roshuk’s write-up about this issue. Despite the fact that the laws stated in the article is applicable only [...]
10 Dee // Mar 3, 2008 at 2:54 pm

This is a most relevant topic and I will certainly be thinking some more about it. Better yet I will be searching the internet to see if anything of mine is out there. Copyright is a serious and often overlooked area of the law yet in this high tech age when info is transmitted around the globe in the blink of an eye it a most opportune time to show it some respect. Alex few lawyers have a BCL. I know of 3 only. Good job. Also I see vous parlez francais how the hell do you type cedilla under the c?
11 Jack Payne // Mar 5, 2008 at 1:13 am

My stuff gets lifted all the time. Last year I had a real tiff with Google about this. They, for some reason unbeknown to common sense, thought for a time that I was stealing from myself. This, until I pointed out all the posting dates, which preceded the hijackers.

Thanks for the info. Worthwhile stuff.
12 Cinnamon // Mar 25, 2008 at 10:47 am

Hey, awesome post! Thanks!
13 Mrs. Mecomber’s Scrapbook » Blog Archive » Hope for Scraper Victims // Apr 20, 2008 at 3:15 pm

[...] how to fight back. Hurray! It may come in useful for you if you are a blogger. You can check it out here. There’s a downloadable pdf form, too. Many thanks to this blogger for bringing this to the [...]
14 maiylah // Jul 3, 2008 at 10:26 am

thanks for the info!
really worth reading …
15 jessicachristina // Aug 29, 2008 at 1:42 am

Thank you for this information.really it is an useful blog.
16 Ken Ilio // Sep 7, 2008 at 6:17 pm

Thank you … especially for the takedown notice that you provided in your post. My experience is with unauthorized copying/posting of my photographs. I used to ask a lawyer friend of mine to send a letter to the copyers on her letterhead but it has become a burden for her as I find a lot of my pictures being used without permission. Your information is very valuable.
17 Monica // Nov 24, 2008 at 5:42 am

well… i visit your website first time and found this site very usefull and intresting !

well… you guys doing nice work and i just want to say that keep rocking and keep it up !!!!

Regards
Monica
18 tikno // Nov 26, 2009 at 4:45 am

Really a useful post for blogger. I’m glad your country has attention about this matter.
19 Hope for Scraper Victims | Mrs. Mecomber's Scrapbook // May 4, 2012 at 10:39 pm

[...] how to fight back. Hurray! It may come in useful for you if you are a blogger. You can check it out here. There’s a downloadable pdf form, too. Many thanks to this blogger for bringing this to the [...]