Reacting to a Copyright Violation of Your Content or Photos

Heads up to the genealogy community - here's what to do if you are a victim of a copyright violation of your photos or articles.

1. Contact Site Owners

If there is no contact information on the site check their WhoIs information. There is an article outlining how to write such an initial take-down letter at Lorelle

In the one and only email I send to a person who uses my content without my permission, I give 24 hours as the timeline in which such articles must be removed or a fee for the use of the article/photo must be paid to me. 

I make it clear to the webmaster that if one of these actions is not take when the 24 hour deadline rolls around, I will file a DMCA notice with his webhost, any ad services he uses such as Google AdSense and feed services if they are used. And I do it. I don't hesitate, I don't give second chances, I file the DMCA notice. I then copy the webmaster on my filing of the notice.  



2. Contact the Host of the Site

Here is an example email to send:

To whom it may concern

You are the hosting company for [name of site] 

[name of site] is using my copyrighted material (writing and images) without my permission. My work is at [name of your own site]

Kindly see that [name of site] remove *all* my blog posts, images, and     articles from their site or shut them down completely.  

3. File a Policy Violation Complaint with Google

File a Policy Violation complaint with Google if the site has Google ads. Google will pull their ads if a site violates their rules so at least you can hit the offenders in the pocketbook with your complaint.

4. File a DMCA Complaint

You can also file a DMCA Complaint  The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a United States copyright law that helps stop copyright infringement on the Internet. There is a DMCA generator you can use if you are not sure how to do this.


If you want to learn more about copyright in the USA and Canada, see US Copyright Office and Canada Intellectual Property Office 

Heads Up! Blogarama Violating Copyright?

Copyright protection is a very important issue, both online and offline. I have written about Copyright Issues many times on Olive Tree Genealogy blog. See Copyright Issues

But first, what is the definition of copyright? From the Merriam-Webster dictionary:

the exclusive legal right to reproduce, publish, sell, or distribute the matter and form of something

Basically it means if I write and publish an article on my blog or my website, and someone copies it without my permission and republish it elsewhere, that person has violated my copyright. It does not matter whether or not they gave attribution to me as the author, it's still a copyright violation.

It's heads up time again. Another splogger has hit the genealogy community. According to techtarget.com, a splog (spam blog) is a fake blog created solely to promote affiliated Web sites, with the intent of skewing search results and artificially boosting traffic.

Blogarama has many genealogy blog posts on their site - mine included - without permission.

Thomas MacEntee first brought this to my attention with his post  Splog Alert – Blogarama Violating Copyright

When I went to the site and checked my name Olive Tree Genealogy  I found twenty-five (25!) of my articles and images posted without my permission.  That's called copyright violation.

Heads up to the genealogy community - if you have a blog, you may want to check to see if your articles have been copied without permission. Here's what to do if you are a victim.

1. Contact Site Owners

Trying to contact the site owners of Blogarama doesn't work because they have carefully made sure there is no contact information on their site. Their WhoIs information shows they are a private registration so there is no information to be found there.

2. Contact the Host of the Site

I wrote to enom.com, who I thought was their hosting company, with this email:

To whom it may concern

You are the hosting company for blogarama.com

Blogarama.com is using my copyrighted material (writing and images) without my permission. My blog is http://olivetreegenealogy.blogspot.com

http://www.blogarama.com/blogs/513127-olive-tree-genealogy-blog shows a list of 25 (twenty-five!) articles and blog posts taken and republished without my permission. There may be more.  Kindly see that blogarama.com remove *all* my blog posts and articles from their site or shut them down completely.  

Enom.com very quickly replied, stating they are the domain registrar for Blogarama, but not the host. They advised me to ping Blogarama for the IP address which would allow me to find the name of the host. I did that and found that their host is cloudflare.com. I sent them my email outlining my concerns.



UPDATE: Cloudfare informs that the actual host server is Linode.com so please direct your complaint email there

3. File a Policy Violation Complaint with Google

I also filed a Policy Violation complaint with Google since Blogarama has Google ads. Google will pull their ads if a site violates their rules so at least I can hit Blogarama in the pocketbook with my complaint.

4. File a DMCA Complaint

You can also file a DMCA Complaint  The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a United States copyright law that helps stop copyright infringement on the Internet. There is a DMCA generator you can use if you are not sure how to do this.

I'm very happy to announce that those 25 articles I wrote that were republished without my permission, have been removed from Blogarama! It didn't take long. I also don't see Google ads on the site anymore so another win. 

UPDATE: Two more bloggers have had their articles removed after taking these steps.

If you want to learn more about copyright in the USA and Canada, see US Copyright Office and Canada Intellectual Property Office 

This is a Very Bad Idea!

Copyright protection is a very important issue, both online and offline. I have written about Copyright Issues many times on Olive Tree Genealogy blog. See Copyright Issues

Webmasters with copyrighted works for example, have protection against theft of their content. However the act that protects a webmaster can be (and is) abused!

"In May, the US Copyright Office came to San Francisco to hear from various stakeholders about how well Section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act or DMCA is working.  The DMCA is the part of copyright law that provides for a “notice and takedown” process for copyrighted works on the Internet." [http://blog.archive.org/ Article by Lila Bailey]

DMCA notices can be sent in error or in spite, by a visitor who does not understand whether or not a webmaster has violated copyright, or bears a personal grudge against a webmaster. This happened to Steve Morse of One-Step Search Engine fame when a false DMCA notice was filed against him. Under the regulations, his site was taken down temporarily by his host server, while being investigated.

".... the Copyright Office is strongly considering recommending changing the DMCA to mandate a “Notice and Staydown” regime." [http://blog.archive.org/ Article by Lila Bailey]

Under this proposed legislation Steve Morse's site would never have been allowed back online!  This is a Very Bad Idea and I urge my readers to read the rest of the article Copyright Office’s Proposed Notice and Staydown System Would Force the Internet Archive and Other Platforms to Censor the Web

Heads Up! Bloggers Check for Unauthorized Use of Your Content

One of my Legacy Family Tree articles
published in its entirety without my permission

Copyright issues have raised their head again. The following website, TORGGG Blogger: Toronto Galician Genealogy Group, has many bloggers' articles on its site. Perhaps you gave permission for your work to be republished there. I did not give that permission, yet two of my articles written for Legacy Family Tree were found there. 

My articles and images, including graphics I created personally, were taken without permission and published on TORGGG. My name was also missing as the author. 

Other bloggers have reported on Facebook that their unauthorized work is also found on the site. I wrote to the owner, Jim Onyschuk, jodanji@rogers.com.ed to demand he remove all articles written by me which he published without my permission. 

There is an article outlining how to write such an initial take-down letter at Lorelle

In the one and only email I send to the person who used my content without my permission, I give 24 hours as the timeline in which such articles must be removed or a fee for the article must be paid to me. 

I make it clear to the webmaster that if one of these actions is not take when the 24 hour deadline rolls around, I will file a DMCA notice with his webhost, any ad services he uses such as Google AdSense and feed services if they are used. And I do it. I don't hesitate, I don't give second chances, I file the DMCA notice. I then copy the webmaster on my filing of the notice.  

You can file a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice by following instructions on How to File a DMCA complaint. 

My word of caution for today is to go and check out the TORGGG Blogger site if you have concerns that your work might have been taken and published without your permission.  

I won't link to the site and give him a nice backlink. Just use your favourite search engine to search for TORGGG BLOGGER or copy the link you can see in the graphic above.  If your work is there and you don't want it there, please do follow up with a takedown email to the webmaster or a DMCA complaint or both.

Copyright issues, splogs and using content without permission is not okay! We must all fight this attitude that if it's on the internet it's free for the taking. Anything published online is copyright to the author the second it is published. Don't let your rights be trampled on. Don't let your work be devalued. 

HEADS UP ALL GENEALOGISTS!

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