One of the articles that I have published on ezinearticles.com have been copied and published on another website with a different signature. The website in question is owned by a big web hosting company in the USA. ezinearticles.com TOS states that the article can only be published on other websites if the website agrees to include the FULL Resource box or SIG line at the end of the article, and this is why I have published my article on ezinearticles on the first place…
What kind of legal action can take be taken against the company, can I seek monetary damages?
Rather than dive in headfirst I would contact them with a polite request that they comply with the Ezine TOS within 7 days. Copy this to Ezine .Monitor the situation and, if necessary, send a reminder again copied to Ezine. After that file a complaint with Ezine and any other article sites where they have posted it, tell them you are doing this and that you will also post this on review sites related to their area of business.
What kind of actual financial loss can you prove this has caused you? I doubt it would be worth your time, nor the legal costs of bringing it to court. A quick DMCA to the hosting company will sort this within a few hours, as they are legally obliged to pull the article upon receiving a DMCA notice (assuming they receive no counter notice).
Why would you do that? The hosting company is not to blame, so why try to shame them? The DMCA process is there for a reason, and you cannot submit a DMCA claim via Twitter - they’ll have a designated DMCA agent with a contact email, send it to them and it will be sorted within a day or so.
Guys, it seems you got me wrong. The big web hosting company themselves has infringed the copyright of my article and have posted it on one of the websites owned by them (used for link building purposes by them (and I have verified it through their whois details)). I personally feel that this falls under the willful copyright infringement of my rights. I think that if I proceeded with this to court, one can send a clear message to the big players that even the small publishers should have their rights protected. What do you think?
Right, apologies for mis-reading the original post.
Okay, firstly are you aware of the costs involved in taking someone to court over copyright infringement? Can you cover those costs?
Secondly, looking at your ‘location’, are you based outside of the US? If so, where do you intend to have this go to court? Or do you expect ezine articles to sue on your behalf?
Thirdly, have you contacted the hosting company to hear their side of the story and give them a chance to put it right? What is your priority here? To have the content taken down, to be properly credited, to make an example of them, or to make some money? From their Tos, it looks like ezine articles are happy for the matter to be resolved amicably without litigation.
Fourthly, if suing in the US, have you registered the copyright of your article? I believe that’s a requirement if seeking damages.
Personally, I’d first contact the host to find out how it got there with the wrong resource box - at the very least, this will show the court you have attempted to resolve the issue. There may even be a believable explanation as to what happened - for example, perhaps someone just made an honest mistake and added the wrong resource box. Mistakes happen.
1- I am aware that the costs are very high. No, I cannot cover the costs.
2- I am not expecting ezinearticles.com to sue them on my behalf. Ezinearticles clearly state this in their TOS: " In other words, if someone violates your copyright – it will be 100% up to you to take legal action against those who abuse your copyright to protect your interests. If you do not agree to these terms, do not submit your articles.".
3- The hosting company is involved in similar practice against other publishers. I have checked other articles on their website and I have found out that they always replace the resource box-signature with a link to their website.
4- No, I haven’t registered a copyright of my article.Are you sure this is a requirement?
The overall feeling that this company pays no attention to the small-publishers is what actually bothering me and triggering me towards thinking about a legal action. The fact that I am not located in the US is in fact a problem and I am currently looking into the possibilities of proceeding with this. A monetary compensation would be surely nice, but it is not the main reason.
[FONT=verdana]Forget about going to court. There are better ways of dealing with this problem. These are some things to consider doing:
Polite request to the company running the site.
Complaint to the abuse administrator at the web hosting company (assuming the company that runs the site is not the one that runs the hosting company; I’m not clear from the above whether or not it is).
If either the company that runs the site, or the one that hosts it, is in the USA, issue a formal DMCA notice.
File a request to the big search engines to delist the page (they all have a procedure for doing this). That won’t in itself remove the infringement, but the company will know that you’ve taken that step, and that might push them into action.
You can find details on how to do all the above (and some other suggestions) here. I’ve followed this advice myself on many occasions, and it has worked for me about 50 percent of the time.
If you’ve got no money for litigation, then my suggestions are:
Lesson Teaching Option:
If they are a big host and this appears to be part of their business model then perhaps you can do a little research, find other people affected (preferably US based) and get together for a class action or at the very least gain the interest of lawyers who see the public interested angle and will work pro bono, or no-win-no-fee.
Getting Content Taken Down Option:
As a host, they will have a network provider, someone who assigns them their IP addresses and network access. Go to Domain Tools, search their domain, click on ‘Server Stats’ tab and see who provides their IP address. Send your DMCA to the network provider’s abuse address and you should see the content disappear pretty quick sharp.
Other Option:
Send a DMCA to Google and other search engines to have the content removed from all search listings.
But First:
Send a polite but firm email to the host’s abuse address and demand they take down the content within the next 48 hours. List the URL of the offending page, and state you are the copyright holder etc (do a search for a good letter template). Tell them that if they don’t comply you’ll be contacting their network provider (list their details so they know you are not bluffing).
Update: I have sent the guy an email (requested an immediate removal of the article and a compensation), he has immediately removed the article but I didn’t hear from him back and I don’t think I will
Most folks comply with the take-down request, but you probably won’t see any compensation unless you decide to take them to court and prove loss of income or damages. Most people don’t bother, as it’s not worth the aggravation or cost of legal fees.
Infringement happens all the time and there’s little you can do about it, unfortunately. I’ve got an article on my site that’s been illegally copied over 1,000 times (that I know about)!
Registering your copyright is not a requirement. You own the work and you have the original rights to it whether registered or not. Registered just makes it easier to win legal action.
One route that someone on my own forums has used successfully is to send a small invoice to the company for their use of your content and threaten to sue them if they don’t pay. That sometimes works and they pay up.
