DMCA takedown notice for BackupHDDVD at SF.net

[Mistar Muffin]

So I decided against that, and ended up taking down the site that day. Anyways, I got another letter from domains by proxy telling me to contact that law firm, which I truly have no intention of doing. In addition, domains by proxy (godaddy) took $20.00 out of my paypal account for an "administrative fee". I already paid for the private registration, and what, because they had to forward a single email they take $20.00 with no warning and no permission. I emailed them demanding that it be returned since I complied with the takedown notice. I'll file a claim if they don't. Here's the letter.

[Carnage`]

see, tahts why you never allow companies access to your paypal...

anyway, i think you should use one of the decss techniques to host it... hows your poetry writing skills?

[Mistar Muffin]

My poetry sucks. Also GoDaddy responded and said that if I attempted to dispute the charge they would cancel my privacy service. I told them to go ahead because they should have given me that option in the first place. ("Pay us $20.00 or have your service canceled") I would have chosen to cancel the service. It was not their right to take that money regardless of what their "terms" say.

[Doom9]

If there ever was a threat that is baseless.. it's their latest attempt. What makes me sick is that the little guy has no proper recourse.. courts should automatically award attorney's fees if a civil case goes to trial and the suing party loses - so at least if you got a competent lawyer you'd get your money back in this case. All you did is write some keys on a website.. that can hardly be construed as offering anything in violation of the DMCA.. a key hardly enables you to circumvent any copy protection (and for that matter, backuphddvd really is no circumvention tool under the dmca.. it neither avoids, bypasses, removes, deactivates nor impairs any copy protection.. it simply implements the AACS specs. Under the AACS LA's interpretation of the DMCA, any decryption algorithm would automatically be forbidden decryption tool if you can use it to decrypt encrypted and copyrighted content. If for instance I encrypt a mail I'm sending out, and somebody intercepts and manges to decrypt it with the same tool my intended recipient uses to decrypt my mail - the tool would need to be outlowed because it allowed the man in the middle to access my message (which may well contain copyrighted content.. e.g. specs for a system I developed at work) - and anybody with a fair understanding of technology has to see that it just can't work like that.

[Mistar Muffin]

I agree entirely, it is sickening. I really cannot describe the disgust I feel at being strong armed this way. Regardless of whether or not the content on my site is illegal or not, I am being fined and forced to remove it without the ability to contest this. I have NO money for lawyers and cannot even fight this. If they want the keys gone, then fine. I'll replace it with an informative wiki with instructions on the Volume ID method with the 360 addon, which is actually 100x more dangerous than the damn volume keys.

Since you are not in the US, and your site seems to be unaffected by the posting of such keys, can you possibly recommend an overseas registrar and host I can use so I might actually have some rights?

[noclip]

So GoDaddy pissed its pants and bowed to a request it had no legal obligation to do anything about, even under the DMCA. Lovely.

[celtic_druid]

I recall reading an article some time back where they setup a bunch of accounts at various hosting companies, then sent fake take down notices to see how many of the companies took their sites down. All but one took their sites down even though they even used a yahoo email for the notice.

[ChronoCross]

I recall reading an article some time back where they setup a bunch of accounts at various hosting companies, then sent fake take down notices to see how many of the companies took their sites down. All but one took their sites down even though they even used a yahoo email for the notice.

That doesn't surprise me. Hosting companies usually consist of some 14yrold to 21 year old people working to make a little extra money. They don't need the hassle of law enforcement so they will take down anything that gets notice from any email address no matter the legitimacy or shaky legal ground.

When purchasing hosting the following question should be on your pre-sale question list.

1) If you receive a notice for DMCA what is the amount of time given to respond to the complaint and is there a policy on disputing the claim while still keeping the site online?

[Mistar Muffin]

Well, I got my first DMCA letter at the same time sourceforge did, demanding the removal of BackupHDDVD from my site. They sent the letter to my host, Layered Tech, and they forwarded it to me. Except, they demanded the removal of the entire site rather than just the file (as the letter requested). I removed the file and pointed this out to them and they didn't give me too much grief. I thought I was fine until I received the second letter demanding the removal of the volume keys. I had anonymous whois from GoDaddy, so they received the letter and forwarded it to me, demanding that I comply and contact the law firm. I removed the information but I am under no legal obligation to call the damn law firm and tell them them I have complied. So about 5 days go by and I receive another email from GoDaddy telling me that I still need to contact the law firm and they have charged me $20.00 for an administrative fee. Which was taken from my bank account. I have filed with PayPal but it hasn't gone anywhere yet.

[Mistar Muffin]

Hey Doom9,

Just wanted to say sorry for almost melting your servers the other week. ;) I posted links to my takedown letters in a Slashdot post, sending most of those readers over here to check them out. I honestly didn't want to host the letters myself for fear of reprisal. I have no intention of putting the site back up, so if there is a braver soul out there that wants to do something with it, feel free to email me an offer at gmail.com<at>mistar.muffin (swap).

Ciao.

[mlansell]

It doesn't matter what the law says. It is enforcement that counts. In that arena it is the rich, not the right, that win.

The only way forward is to ingore the legal arguments and find a host in a country that doesn't give a stuff what the corporations of the good ol' US of A think.

[Mistar Muffin]

Yeah, tell me about it.