account suspension

[theworkshop]

hello, I just received an unexpected account suspended notice. The message attached is this:

Suspension Reason: Dmca/copyright notice received and logged, permanent. -aco.

It states that I need to open a support ticket, how can we resolve this issue?

[Livewire]

We received a copyright infringement notice regarding a pdf displayed on your website from the owner of the pdf in question; in short, they asked we remove the material, and take steps to insure the removal of information is permanent.

Because of it being copyright infringing material, it falls under Illegal Material in the TOS, which results in a permanent suspension. We cannot remove the suspension at this time.

[theworkshop]

Thanks for the speedy reply Livewire.

I was not aware material on the site was breaching any rights. I have not received any advice or request to remove any article or link.

I appreciate other people have property rights and if I had received any advice of a breach or request by owners to remove item/s I would have done so. At this point I have no idea what item is the offending one. I'm more than willing to remove any offending article and carefully review all material on the site to try and ensure no further breaches occur.

[Livewire]

I verified the content was present and not protected under your copyright; it was a catalog being displayed without the permission of the owner, who apparently was not contacted for permission for said catalog to be displayed.

They were not required to contact you for the article; they contacted us, and our TOS indicates that we cannot allow illegal material. Once they contacted us and requested we take the content down, in accordance with the TOS, it was suspended.

As I said before, there is nothing we can do at this time, as copyright infringement is a permanent suspension.

[theworkshop]

Thanks again for quick a response.

I would like to be able to somehow work out a solution other than just an outright termination of service. I have been using this free web hosting service for a number of years and until now never breached any rules. I'm not inclined to intentionally break rules and I try to observe other peoples rights were ever possible.

Was it something I posted or was it something posted by a member of the forum I hosted? I'd like to know what was posted and be given the opportunity to communicate with the owner of the copyright material and apologise to them for the misuse of their material at the very least. Please allow me that option.

[Livewire]

If it was by a forum member it wouldn'tve been nearly as permanent - it's not tied in with the forum in any way. The part that's got me confused is I looked at the file in question - it's clearly got the owner's company logo in the corner, which means it was definitely not yours. The company's website also makes it clear that redistribution of any of their files is not allowed.

I also checked with one of the admins higher than me; at this time I'm not currently allowed to disclose the filer of the takedown request, beyond saying it was filed by the company whose rights were violated.

That's literally all there is to it. We cannot unsuspend the account at this time, not when their website says "don't redistribute this," you redistributed it, and the company contacted us to inform us of the violation.


Edit: During my personal investigation into this issue as well, I located another company whose rights were violated. They -also- have a similar disclaimer on their website:

The King Springworks Pty Ltd name, logos, text and graphics are trademarks of King Springworks Pty Ltd and the information is protected by copyright. You may only use the name, logos, text and graphics within this site for your own personal use and can not be reproduced, published in any part for any purpose without written consent of King Springworks Pty Ltd.

This is double-confirmed at this point - just because this -isnt- the company that contacted us doesn't mean we'd allow their rights to be violated too.

[theworkshop]

Thanks for clarifying the situation. I accept that I may have unintentionally breached copyright rules but stress that it was in no way intended to impact negatively on the profits, reputation, services or integrity of the company involved.

Although I'm not making this an excuse, I feel that the circumstances shouldn't warrant such severe measures. Promoting a companies parts catalogue among a group of car enthusiasts SHOULD have been a positive point for the company, not negative. I was never in a position to profit from redistributing their document, it was merely to inform other car enthusiasts that the companies product existed and to promote purchase of their goods.

I'm disappointed that I am not permitted to know anything more in respect to the identity of the 'victimised' company and to communicate with them in respect to this matter. In a democratic world (such as in which I live) a person should always be permitted the opportunity to defend themselves and not be judged simply on a technicality without taking all points into consideration. This is not a case of someone undermining a company with intent to steal from them.

I am not a lawyer and I did not realise that reproducing and publishing component catalogues would be considered a breach of copyright laws. My intentions were simply to provide a centralised information source for others in my group of fellow car enthusiasts. I regret any inconvenience this has caused, please forward my regrets to the company concerned.

thank you

Poida

[Corey]

I have reviewed this and removed the file in question, and the suspension. Since a proper DMCA was not lodged and it was clearly unintentional I do not see a point in a permanent suspension. We do not disclose the complaining parties for privacy reasons unless they request so, we just verify that their complaint is legitimate. I would suggest reviewing any other material on your website and make sure you have permissions from the copyright holders to distribute it.