#dmca takedown request

[johnnymartyr]

Taking Down a Scraper Site for 35mmc and How You Can Fight Image Theft

by Johnny Martyr After many years of readership, I finally made my inaugural post on the internet’s largest film photography blog site, 35mmc. While in communication with owner Hamish Gill, he lamented about having found a what is known as a scraper site that was carbon-copying nearly 100% of the content from 35mmmc. All author links were being stripped from articles with their words and photos…

[sofiaruelle]

idk if there's anything you can do about it but someone is using your chappell hot to go art on teepublic & I thought you would want to know if u don't already :(

Nice. love this for me./s

uhhh anyways thank you for bringing this to my attention @hyuckieberry! I’m gonna try to figure out TeePublic’s DMCA takedown request. which is very frustrating since i am from the Philippines. and DMCA is very much bound to just the USA.

for now, if anyone sees this, PLEASE HELP ME REPORT the account.

If anyone is interested in buying the tshirt/design, please consider supporting me, its up on my Redbubble. the only place where i have uploaded the design.

Honestly, simply reblogging and liking this or the original post i made will help immensely.

[tacky-tramp]

An open letter to the Organization for Transformative Works' legal team:

Dear @transformativeworks Legal,

I am requesting that you take action on Speechify/WordStream's wholesale theft of non-commercial fanworks for commercial purposes.

As you are probably aware, Speechify, an app that uses AI voices to turn user-supplied text into audiobooks, has created a spinoff app called WordStream. WordStream has scraped many, many works of fanfiction from AO3, and has published AI-generated audiobooks of these fics. They charge users for access to these audiobooks, under a subscription model. Not only has this company, run by Cliff Weitzman, violated AO3 users' copyrights, it has done so for profit.

I understand that only authors themselves can file DMCA takedown notices when their fics are stolen. However, there are steps the OTW can take on this matter:

1. Notify all AO3 users via email that their work may have been stolen, and give them next steps. This is what companies are required to do in the event of a data breach, and that's effectively what this is.

2. Publish a blog post about WordStream's theft, and promote it on social media.

3. Send a letter to Speechify, educating them about fanfiction and copyright. Explain that fanfiction is *not* in the public domain, and therefore the users whose work they've stolen have legal recourse against them. Demand they take down all fanfiction they have stolen.

4. Reach out through your networks in tech and publishing to raise awareness of this and marshall support for a campaign to pressure Speechify to remove all fanfiction they posted without author permission.

I am a former OTW volunteer, and I would be happy to assist with any of this!

Thanks,

tacky_tramp

[erika-xero]

!ATTENTION FELLOW CRITICAL ROLE FANS!

This person is selling tons of stolen artworks on their Redbubble, including my Mollymauk piece which was featured in one of the Critical Role episodes.

I singhandedly had to file DMCA takedown requests for 83!!!! OF THE LISTING FEATURING THE SINGLE ONE OF MY ARTWORKS

Please, spread awareness among fellow artists, tag the ones who's art you recognized! Let's bury this acc under a huge pile of DMCA takedown requests!

[deposedefenddeny]

An entity claiming to be United Healthcare is sending bogus copyright claims to internet platforms to get Luigi Mangione fan art taken off the internet, according to the print-on-demand merch retailer TeePublic. An independent journalist was hit with a copyright takedown demand over an image of Luigi Mangione and his family she posted on Bluesky, and other DMCA takedown requests posted to an open database and viewed by 404 Media show copyright claims trying to get “Deny, Defend, Depose” and Luigi Mangione-related merch taken off the internet, though it is unclear who is filing them.

404 Media on Dec 19, 11:24 a.m. ET

[blackkatmagic]

hello! i was just informed that a fanfic of mine was scraped off of AO3 and I'm currently going through the process of getting it removed from the audiobook/reading site it was posted on. I've been looking through this site for other authors, and unfortunately found like 10 from you.

here's the reddit post that talks about it, and includes the site that's posted the fics: https://www.reddit.com/r/AO3/comments/1hkrb47/netflix_of_audiobooks_scrapes_thousands_of/

I'm really sorry this happened, and may this site get dumped on with a ton of DMCA claims.

Hilariously, they yanked every single one of my fics they'd stolen in the 20 minutes between me starting the DMCA takedown request and me hitting submit. Fucking cowards.

[walkawaytall]

How to Request a DMCA Takedown re: Word-Stream.com

(I, WalkAwayTall, am merely a messenger; this info was copied directly from this post on r/AO3 and posted here with permission from its author, @fuegopi. Use it as you see fit.)

----------

The relevant statute, FYI is 17 U.S.C. § 512 (c)(3)(A), available at https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/512

OPTION 1: MAKE A REPORT TO CLOUDFLARE

https://abuse.cloudflare.com/

Step 1: Select “Copyright Infringement & DMCA Violations”

Step 2: Fill Out the Form

(some notes below)

Your Full Name: I understand many fanfic authors prefer anonymity. However, your report/complaint may be taken more seriously if you use both your name and your pseud. For example, I would write, [MY NAME] (“FuegoPI” on AO3).

Holder’s Full Name: Again, that is you, the author.

Contact Information Fields: The DMCA only requires that, you provide “Information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact the complaining party” — An email address should be sufficient.

Infringing URLS: List the URL of every work you have made that is available on the offending website.

Describe the Original Work: I would list the names of your stories, the word counts, and give AO3 links.

For example: A Fanfic Story (200k Words), originally posted and available at [LINK].

You MUST check the box that says 512(f) acknowledgment, “Good faith belief, Authority to act” and you MUST provide a digital signature or your report will not be accepted.

OPTION 2: MAKE A REPORT TO GODADDY

OPTION 1: Fill out the form at https://supportcenter.godaddy.com/AbuseReport (you may not wish to do this because of the information requested; if so, I recommend sending a letter).

Step 1: Select “Make a Claim”

Step 2: Select Claim Type, “Copyright Infringement”

Step 3: Are you the Copyright Owner or an authorized representative? Select “yes.”

Step 4: Please enter the domain name associated with the website you are complaining about – Fill in “https://word-stream.com/”

Step 5: https://supportcenter.godaddy.com/ipclaims/copyright/infringement If you want to fill this out.

OPTION 2: The form is probably not for everyone, because it requires address information that the DMCA does not strictly require. As a result, I made a template letter for y’all. I recommend attaching to an email.

copyrightclaims@godaddy.com

[olderthannetfic]

This morning, I used tumblr's "insert gif" function in the new post editor, and now I'm irritated.

I've made and posted gifs on tumblr for over a decade, and it's always been something where I knew people are going to save them, repost them, try to steal them, and so on. I figured this out pretty early and I always add watermarks. No sweat.

Recently, I was adding some gifs to a post, and I saw one of my own gifs in the selection list. I added it to my post to see it, because it was one of my favourites. Then I noticed the username in the credit, "GIF by username", was some random person that was obviously not me. This gif was created by me, it even had my watermark in the bottom corner. I checked some other gifs and found more like this, all with different usernames.

After some googlefu, I discovered that if someone saves and reposts a gif, tumblr will somehow detect them as being the creator, instead of the person who originally posted it.

I vaguely remembered a form to report problems like this. But there's no form to request re-attribution at all. Tumblr only provides a DMCA takedown request page, which requires you to be the original owner of the copyrighted source material. In other words, you actually need to own the companies whose content you used, and you also have to put in your phone number and personal info.

Welp.

So now, there are dozens of my gifs in the gif search, with burned-in watermarks of my own username on them, but with some random schmuck's name listed in the "GIF by (name)" once someone adds it into their post. And there's no way to re-attribute it. It's not a big deal because they're just gifs, and I did add watermarks precisely because I knew they would get spread around without proper credit (whether unintentionally or not). But having a systemic, automated attribution problem is a new low for tumblr.

Really, the bar is now in hell.

--

[furyreblogs]

Art Theft/Repost Warning

A user reposted artwork of Fenris from Dragon Age onto Tumblr, which they had pulled from Pinterest. And is now threatening retaliatory reposts for everyone who calls them out for reposting work that doesn't belong to them. This post can be found here. I did my best to locate and credit the original artists in my reblogged post.

After several other users commented about the reposting without permission or credits, the reposter is now threatening to upload more artwork each time someone comments about the unacceptable behavior.

You can see this post threatening retaliation for those who comment to credit the artist here. Artists, particularly those who have drawn Fenris from Dragon Age II, should monitor this user in case their work is posted and report them for Copyright Infringement—Submit a DMCA takedown request. They're also actively trying to hide and remove replies on their posts.

If you recognize an artist that has been stolen from, please inform the artist directly so that they can submit a report.

[monetizeme]

An entity claiming to be United Healthcare is sending bogus copyright claims to internet platforms to get Luigi Mangione fan art taken off the internet, according to the print-on-demand merch retailer TeePublic. An independent journalist was hit with a copyright takedown demand over an image of Luigi Mangione and his family she posted on Bluesky, and other DMCA takedown requests posted to an open database and viewed by 404 Media show copyright claims trying to get “Deny, Defend, Depose” and Luigi Mangione-related merch taken off the internet, though it is unclear who is filing them.

[audioroleplayconfessions]

re the post about Scythe, it's not new behavior. This is pretty mild for him since it is in response to character.ai and that genuinely sucks. It did read as holding the series over fans' heads, but I get being unmotivated. Glad to hear he had more success with a DMCA takedown request, that's a better option.

Also recent were complaining other VAs like Siren "jumped on the no Ai chat character stealing band wagon now? 😅 guess it didn't matter when I said it 🤷‍♂️" for also pushing back on character.ai as if being anti-AI is his 'bandwagon', and saying he was "Actually a little offended" when his cyberpunk video didn't get as many views as he wanted, leading to several people I saw trying to artificially inflate the viewcount for a month after. - just looked this up, turns out he'd made several community posts at the time saying he'd trash the series if it didn't get 10k views in the first month. A commenter said "We failed to protect this audio, folks!" to which Scythe replied "Yeeeah ya did".

I could say more but I probably shouldn't, I don't want or enjoy drama, but there's so much about this guy that just gets swept under him calling himself problematic and manchild that I guess people take it as a character. I'll just say, there was a post a few days ago about how VAs respond to feedback, and Escaped made a great followup reblog on it. Scythe could do with reading it. I've seen the way he responds to feedback.

I hope he improves.

.

[synf3ll]

i'm tired of seeing that yaelokre bullshit.

it's stupid to try to control what people write about your OCs. it's understandable to REQUEST that people don't draw NSFW of them, but demanding people report everyone who posts it is ridiculous.

if that dumbass wants to control content about their characters online, they should man up and go submit DMCA complaints and takedowns themself.

if you don't want people thinking "impure" thoughts about your art, then don't post it. you can complain all you want, but controlling people is taking it way too far.

[solradguy]

hi! thank you for all your hard work. two questions: 1. can i hotlink the gg wiki, or is that discouraged? 2. do you know how japanese fandom feels about scanning and putting out of print stuff online? i'm trying to make a fansite/archive for something, but i'm also trying to figure out if i may get in trouble and how to avoid said trouble... i dont wanna get snitched on 😭

If by hotlink you just mean like sharing the link around then go for it, but if you wanted to use it as an image host for like Neocities or something then don't do that, please haha The wiki is legal under fair use laws and Arc System Works NA knows about it. We are NOT affiliated, they just know it exists and seemingly do not mind.

The Japanese fandom will get pissed at you for scanning out of print manga from like 1975 as much as they will something published just yesterday. The archival culture is totally different over there. I just do it anyway. Especially if it's rare or out of print.

My only rule is that I don't scan/upload indie artist stuff (ie., doujinshi) from 2010 to now (2024). After about a decade the artist that made it probably wasn't going to get any more money from it anyway and after that much time a lot of artists don't even have a copy of that work saved anymore. This is just my own personal rule though and I've bent it a few times in the past but only for very specific cases.

In any case, I've only ever had one DMCA takedown request and it was on Twitter because hubris got the better of me uploading scans of a brand new GG book so publicly. If a doujinka asked me to take down scans of one of their works (or I found out that they posted that they were unhappy about my scans) I would delete it, but that hasn't happened so far. Japanese fans don't really browse non-Japanese sites either, so if you just don't post about it on Twitter then they won't see it. In my experience they'll also just block you before confronting you. Though, like anywhere else, Japan is a big country with a diverse population and a lot of people also just won't really care someone's posting scans online if it's not actively hurting anyone. Scanning an artist's brand new doujinshi will get you on a multi-lingual shitlist though. Don't do that.

Depending on the IP you wanted to archive stuff for and how new the works to be archived are, I think you'll very likely be fine in almost all cases. If it's owned by Nintendo or Disney be soooooo damn careful though. The newer it is, the riskier it is to upload. IIRC sites like RetroMags also have a 10 year rule like I do and they've had very few takedown requests

Sorry this got kind of long it's 2:30am and I should've gone to bed like an hour ago lmao so I'm sleep deprivation rambling. Ok. Bed time now. Good night & good luck with your archive

[phoenixyfriend]

IDK if I've mentioned this but in addition to that year-long plagiarism fiasco, I also recently had to submit a DMCA takedown request to youtube because a content farm had an AI read out an 80k fic of mine with zero permission.

Thankfully, the DMCA request worked, though I'm not sure if it was because I hold the rights (I mean, it's fic) or because it was fanfiction and not covered under Naruto's transformative work copyright wiggle room since afaik they were in fact monetizing it.

[yukipri]

Wanted to make a quick apology.

There will be no Prime Override chapter update tonight.

Reasons are kinda depresso, so beneath cut. No need to read.

This week has been...rough. I wanted to bask in the satisfaction of having finished my May 4th art, but instead I've been spending every spare moment fighting art theft, some of the art that I'd literally just posted. I've filed numerous DMCA copyright takedown requests on Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest (well over a hundred here). I know there are more out there. I am exhausted, and it's a second type of burn out, a worse kind, on top of the burn out of drawing.

I wanted to apologize because this means that instead of drawing or writing, I was copy-pasting links and explaining to various social media staff why thieves shouldn't be allowed to post my work. How "do not repost" is on my watermark on my art itself, how it's on all my socials bios, how it's in my FAQ. Instead of drawing or writing, I had to read the comments other folks were giving people who did not contribute a single second to my work.

I was aiming to get a new chapter of the Prime Override out tonight, but I could not even start.

So yeah. I'm sorry. The emotional toll aside, the very real fear-of-safety anxiety aside (since, y'know, filing DMCAs essentially means doxxing yourself to every thief), this also just took up all the time I would have otherwise spent on art and, it didn't happen.

I also wanted to say thank you.

Many times this week I felt like an absolute idiot, a complete and utter fool for bothering to feel motivated and excited about creating, for being excited to share it, when this is the result. Especially after the marathon effort I'd just gone through...it felt like punishment, in a way, for daring to think my work is worth anything. I will, can, and have left fandoms in the past for art theft, and part of me wondered if the time had come for me this time as well.

In those times, I scrolled mindlessly through the comments y'all have left me. Both on my art posts, in the tags and such on Tumblr, and just going through all my fics on AO3, just kinda reading all the kind words you folks have left me on my work blearily through my tears, to remind me why it's worth it, and it's not just people who want to hurt me out there.

The vast majority of you are so kind, so generous, have taken the time to look at my work and give a like, a reblog, a kudos, a retweet, or the greatest gift in the form of your thoughts and allowing me to feel that I've connected with you.

So thank you. I've had a rough week, but I'll get back up again. I'll try to get out the next chapter, the next art, as soon as I am able. Until then, please know that I appreciate you, and I hope that my future work can mean something to you too.

[netscapenavigator-official]

My conspiracy for why Nintendo is currently going batshit with it’s DMCA takedown requests is because they’re about to pull a Wii U again, with the Switch 2, and they’re preemptively trying to penny pinch because they know sales are gonna either flop or fall off a cliff very quickly after launch.

After seeing what Microsoft and Sony are doing, the Steam Deck and other portable gaming machines come to market, they realized that their plans for the “Switch 2” weren’t gonna cut it, and now they’re panicking. They’re trying to do whatever it takes to keep their name relevant and penny pinch enough so they can hopefully cruise through the Switch 2 era without collapsing and get whatever the next-next console is gonna be, out, before too much damage occurs.