Many individuals or corporations were upset because, they’re held accountable for copyfraud. Although; fraudulently claiming copyright on content, or false claims of copyright violations has result you to serious trouble like having your copyrights forfeited, or have their website removed from their servers.
If you were a corporation who was held accountable for copyfraud, and exploiting small creators who write content independently, and you were ordered to forfeit your intellectual property by court, you must do it,–otherwise, you will be held responsible for contempt of court.
Sometimes, a hosting provider may terminate your account altogether to cut ties with you. If GreenGeeks has cut ties with you, and your account is terminated for copyfraud, you are no longer a member of a hosting platform. And that can cause you to lose your revenue, your subscribers, and your memberships what you rely on to monetize your website. And speaking about monetizing your websites, some ad networks who care about stopping copyfraud may cut ties with you too!
What Do I Mean?
Say if you were a company who trademarked your fictional characters with a mass scale, and you were so powerful as you write content and you copyrighting every piece of content what you create.
Suddenly, you discovered someone taking your content.
However; this person is creating content from scratch, but you filed a copyright complaint to an author of this website… however; this author has declined your request to remove your content because, your content doesn’t exist on his/her website.
Unfortunately, a website owner has filed a complaint because, you misrepresent your copyright ownership, and your copyrighted content found on his/her website. Turns out; he/she has no content that belongs to you.
You filed a copyright complaint, but a site owner has disputed your claim because, he/she didn’t take your content because, he/she has created her own content from scratch.
A website owner has an experienced lawyer who cares about holding copyright or trademark trolls accountable for this kind of fraud.
You fought back, but a site owner has won,–resulting you to pay billions of dollars for damages, causing you to be in debt, and your host was ordered to terminate your account via court.
If it happened without warning, you may need to seek an experienced lawyer who will help you get your account back via an order of a court.
I Don’t Get It!
Okay, let’s use my fictional characters, Anninne-Amelia Julisus and Ahmed M with this!
Say If Anninne-Amelia Was A Genuine Content Creator… And Ahmed M Was A Copyfraudster!
Copyfraud is not predictable. A copyfraudster can file fraudulent copyright infringement complaints. Anninne-Amelia is always careful because, she creates interesting and unique content for her audience, and she writes books and licenses them for reuse. However; Ahmed M has claimed she violated his copyright.!
What’s going to happen, that copyfraudster will give Anninne a hard time.
I think she should infringe back!
WRONG!! That makes it worse! It’s like a battle going on. And it can be a disaster.
What should Anninne do?
She must find an experienced lawyer, or advocate and speak up. If you have proof of your unique work what you created; always keep it for your records like your backups, and your important documents.
If your advocate doesn’t take action, keep speaking up. Anninne speaks up to her advocate. Example script:
Anninne-Amelia: I think this copyfraudster has sent me a fraudulent copyright claim, and I filed a dispute, but a troll is still causing issues. If this happens that will be a disaster!
Advocate or lawyer: You are imagining things…
Anninne-Amelia: IT’S NO JOKE!!
Advocate takes action immediately
A court date is set to take the copyfraudster to court.
Anninne-Amelia has her documentation of her work.
Ahmed M has his own documentation.
A court battle goes on.
Judge agrees with Anninne’s proof of her work!
Ahmed goes angry.
Judge orders Ahmed to pay for heavy damages.
Ahmed refuses for days, and continues to file fraudulent DMCA notices.
Until Ahmed was arrested for criminal copyfraud.
Outcome
Hosting terminates a copyfraudster’s account.
However; that leads to the following questions:
Why is my site terminated or suspended?
Many site owners were upset because, termination or suspension has caused them to question a host for this action. If you believe this action is a false positive, contact your host, and you’ll get an appeal, if you are lucky, your site will be restored back to normal.
If you were suspended for a valid reason, here are the following causes:
- Sites hosting erotic content that isn’t supported by some hosts.
- Websites that are scamming customers
- Misuse of copyright claiming mechanisms by copyright owners/holders
- Copyright trolling
- Trademark trolling
- Intentional copyfraud
- Child pornography
- Rape
- Prostitution
- Sexual content
I’m a copyright owner, and I lost my content, but I have a backup… why I’m no longer a copyright owner of my content hosted on my website?
Forfeiture of copyright is irreversible, unless you have a successful appeal with your experienced lawyer.
If you have your copyrights forfeited, and you were trying to update your content; your host may post a permanent notice on your website stating any of the following:
| Notice: | What it does it mean to you? | What you should do? |
|---|---|---|
|
This website is no longer copyrighted by this corporation because, a corporation associated with this content is now in the public domain… until further notice. Reusers: Be considerate before reusing this content! |
That means: You must file an appeal with your lawyer. Your content is no longer copyrighted by you, or your corporation. Reusers are welcomed to reuse your content without any restriction. That means; your content is probed by a hidden script by your host. |
You must appeal your hosts’ decision, after a copyfraud complaint has been filed, and you have limited time to do so. You can work around this issue by retracting your claim. If you were too late to retract your claim, and your attempt to retract your claim that is fraudulent may be declined, and your claim will be logged as evidence for a case against you. If your appeal has been declined; you will lose your copyrights and other intellectual property. Once you lose all of your IP… you need to restart from scratch. |
|
This content is no longer copyrighted because, this content has been blacklisted from being copyrighted,–even if content is published or updated on this website. Copyright priviliges has been revoked for a period of time. This content can be reused for a limited amount of time, please be careful! |
Your copyright priviliges has been revoked via an order of a court. This is not limited to content published on your website. Your other content outside your website may be affected by this notice. Also, if you have movies or other content; your content may be altered to replace other content what you got licensing from other resources. |
Wait for your restriction to expire. This restriction can’t be appealed. This action is processed by court. |
| COPYRIGHTS FORFEITED! | YOUR COPYRIGHTS ARE GONE. BUT YOU CAN RESTART FROM SCRATCH ON NEW CONTENT WHAT YOU SHOULD CREATE. | There’s nothing you can do about it! This is scary for your business. |
Why copyfraudsters should be held liable for copyfraud? I’m an LLC!
It doesn’t matter who you are. You are not immuned to being liable for copyfraud.
My website disappeared! What should I do?
If you believe this is a false positive, contact your host.
If your site was gone for a valid reason, you’ll be notified bia email.
Example Email
Your site example.com has been erased of content what you’ve fraudulently claimed copyright on…
Dear Ahmed M:
As a heads up; your content has been removed from your root domain, example.com because, we received a copyfraud complaint from a content owner, Anninne-Amelia Julisus. We are legally required to remove your copyrighted content from your website for the purpose of forfeiting copyrights,–ordered by a court. You are no longer a copyright owner or trademark owner of your content. Corporate accountability what we care about holds corporations accountable for copyfraud, and other deceptive practices.
Be aware any new content what you create will not count as your new copyrighted content. Your copyrighting priviliges has been legally revoked. Any corporation under this revoked status is prohibited from owning copyright to their own content, posessing intellectual property rights after any attempt to buy rights of content, or accessing any other corporation to circumvent prohibition. Circumvention of this revocation is a corporate crime, resulting your corporation being delisted from stock markets, and revenue intercepted. Also your patents are limited… you are no longer able to patent your products.
Also, you still own your own domain, but your ability to register for a new copyright for your new content is NOT possible.
Copyfraud is a violation of our Terms Of Service.
Regards: [Hosting platform name goes here]
I used my character Anninne-Amelia Julisus as a creator who experienced a problem with a copyfraudster.
Forfeiting someone’s right to copyright their work permanently or with a limited state,–or via a timed period is kind of like installing an ignition interlock device on someone’s vehicle. Sometimes, this device is called an IID!
My thoughts of stopping a copyfraudster is like holding a parent accountable for child cruelty, and spanking, and revoking his/her parenting priviliges for at least 1 or 4 years.
What Should I Do If I Want To Avoid Being Flagged As A Copyfraudster?
Take these following actions to prevent this from happening to you and your corporation what you own, or if you are an individual:
Don’t just do remakes!
Remakes aren’t creative. Remaking originals of movies, plays, or even other content isn’t necessary,–unless there’s a designated reason. Think twice before developing remakes,–especially content in the public domain.
Create interesting and unique content
What’s mentioned above; always create interesting and unique content for your audience. Whether if you are writing fictional stories, always create an extension to your work. For this instance, a second book of your story what you wrote since years ago. This approach is necessary to keep original content intact. If you keep relying on this method of creating something new, and your story continues… keep doing it.
Don’t defraud public domain content
Use public domain content sparingly, unless you are choosing a copyright-free route for your content. Use CC 0 as your route to make your content available for reuse without copyright around the world. When using public domain content sparingly, do the following:
- If you want to wrap public domain content inside your work, disclose your content has no rights to a public domain content being used in your book, movie, game, or any other media. Be sure to keep public domain content free for anyone to reuse.
- Don’t just remake this content.
- Varify if your corporation is NOT defrauding the public domain. If it happens, take action immediately!
Don’t rely on copyright schemes that are indeed deceptive
Copyrights do expire! It’s your responsibility to keep your copyrights up to date. Don’t rely on deceptive copyright schemes.
Don’t lobby for extended copyright
This is considered greedy! Avoid participating in this scheme.
If your copyrights expire for a period of time; time to move on.
If you are intentionally letting copyright expire as you publish new content, be sure to warn record labels about your content with expiring copyright. Be sure to speak to them about instructions to removing 3rd party tracks from your content, or discuss about discontinuation of these tracks playing on any media type. If you created content in your studio; speak to your creators, broadcasters; game developers, software developers, and other creators about a deadline for copyrights to be expired, or intentionally discontinuing copyright on some of your content what you’re no longer broadcasting on TVs, theaters, or on the internet, but provide free reusable content for the public. If this is the case, you need to remove trademark rights from your themes, characters, music, movies, TV shows, and other content to help prevent further disputes and other issues. Before doing this… have a meeting ahead of time, that makes it easier. When broadcasting on TV, make an announcement for your audience.
Let your old content lay to rest, don’t be like the Walt Disney Company!
Sometimes, you must set your lovely fictional character free! Although, you will be sad when your default character for your trademark or brand leaves your corp. This is necessary for your fictional character to board the public domain train. to reach a home of public domain characters. Like us; copyrights do die! A world of public domain is like heaven for content,–after copyrights has been expired.
However; the Walt Disney Company don’t want their lovely character to go! But the EFF wanted him to go because, he’s due immediately to board the public domain train! This is what happens if you don’t let your characters free after for a period of time. Don’t worry, you can speed this up by boycotting trips to any Disney locations, and becoming a cord-cutter! Well, don’t assume this will happen soon. Don’t be like this company who is infected with corporate greed!
Don’t be like other copyright trolls
These trolls are greedy, and you must avoid becoming one. Be sure your corporation has a policy against becoming a copyright troll, and enforce policies to keep trolls at bay.
If you have compulsive copyrighting within your corporation; you may end up with lots of mess. Too much copyright is bad for you and your company
Seek with a professional for help.
Skip getting licensing for 3rd party tracks for your movies. Create music within your studio instead
This approach is necessary to be more creative like long ago. Music licensing is only for media-based devices without video like CDs, tapes, and MP3s,–and music videos.
If you have licensed tracks on your movies, you may need to do a total remake of this film with alternative music installed from your studio.
For your new project, make your own music for your movies like long ago. That way if your next content has its copyright expired after some time, people in the future will reuse your old content for years to come.
Cut ties with big record labels
Independent artists always control their content. If you believe a record label supports copyright trolls, cut ties with them. This is necessary to enable these trolls to lose revenue, and refactor our creative world, and reformat our culture. This is kind of risky, speak to your professional first,–before doing it!
Cut ties with big TV networks
Hate DRM, YouTube’s Content ID programs? Cut ties with these TV networks, speak to your profesional about getting your content back to your normal control. This can take some time. We used to create TV shows ourselves, but we have to get this back because, all of the hard work what we did was amazing since years ago.
Cut ties with collecting societies
Say good-bye to these folks! Time to move on. We have to end corporate greed, and do little creators a favor… give them a chance.
Cut ties with conventional licensing agencies/services
Okay, you want to choose Creative Commons as an alternative? Cut ties with these guys first!
Choose an open-source route
Okay, no DRM for me! Open-source is a way to go for software developers. WordPress is a known CMS developed by WordPress. This is a known software what I’m currently using to post content on my website. If you were choosing open-source as an alternative to closed-source… you enable people to contribute modifications of your software, and remix it with various forms. This is useful if you want to eliminate costly licensing schemes that are traditional. GPL licenses are free, and you can save lots of money. Even people who are poor can use your software for free with an optional donation.
Opt out of trademark ownerships of your fictional characters when discontinuing certain contents
Trademark rot is common! This cleanup is necessary because, that frees up all of these resources when you decided to discontinue content that will no longer be used for your content. Don’t sell your fictional characters, donate them to the public domain instead!
Eliminate DRM from all of your projects
This is useful if you want to be kind to your audience. Eliminating DRM isn’t just helpful to enable readers to read content, or consume content… that also reduce resources, and save our planet from high levels of CO2. Although DRM is costly, and it consumes more power. If you chose to go DRM-Free… you are also making it easier for anyone to consume your content.
Replace or strategically remake content that lacks licensed tracks from big record labels
Only do this as a final attempt to republish your content with your own content. This may take some time to get it right. Useful to cut ties with musicians who were accountable for sex crimes, copyfraud, and other issues. Explain your audience about your changes to content with a valid reason.
Support the Electronic Frontier Foundation
This is necessary to support internet activists. If your corporation has a change of heart, and you believe your mistakes are reasonable to make a serious change, you can support the EFF by going to eff.org, and finding a donate link to support the organization. If you make a difference each month; you can support a fight for internet freedom.
Become an independent creator
If a corporation what you don’t want to work with is severely causing issues to our world, and there’s no alternative available… you have an option to be an independent creator. This route eliminates a need to join a network of broadcasters, record labels, big movie companies, etc. You can build your own franchise from a ground up. However; don’t be like other trolls!
Choose to license your work under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0 or higher
This is an alternative approach. If you have a change of heart, you may need to republish your content, and refactor your work for your audience. Always disclose before doing any updates. Speak to other creators who were doing parts of your work as you create something new.
Opt out of copyright ownership altogether (requires opting out of trademark ownership when necessary)
If there’s no way to have your content disposed of, you have an option to opt out of copyright ownership of your content altogether. Since this is a advanced method of leaving copyright off your work; this is considered a 1-way ticket to public domain… you need to speak to a professional before you do this. However; this is may be a recovery option if you were held accountable for copyfraud. For more information, see the recovery section of this article.
Choose a public domain route
This is a last action what you should take,–if you can’t recover from being held accountable for copyfraud. This is only done with serious caution. Once you choose a public domain root, there’s no going back! That requires you to remove all trademarks of your works. Always speak with your professional before choosing this route.
Recovery
Creating interesting and unique content, and not taking actions ordered by the courtt is not recommended. If you want you or your corporation to recover from accountability because of copyfraud always do the following:
- Educate your managers, employees, operators, CFOs, and other people in your business office about why copyfraud is considered fraudulent like other forms of fraud.
- Educate creators who were using your services about harmful affects of copyfraud.
If you just took over/bought a corporation who lost after a case of copyfraud. You may need to remove unwanted IP from a corporation what you are planning to rebrand. This is necessary to clean up the mess what a bad corporation left behind.
If you were an employee of any of these corporations held accountable for copyfraud; you may need to find a secondary job. If you experienced any difficulties with this business where you currently work at. Check their website for updates, or check their blog.
If you were any of these creators, immediately claim all of your content,–after a corporation has been held accountable for copyfraud.
If you managed to get your corporation changed after being held accountable for copyfraud; you may need to do further changes, and implement policies to prevent further issues from spreading:
- Identify why your corporation is held accountable.
- Apply changes to a corporation by implementing new policies, and refactoring business practices.
- Perform various tests before relaunching your corporation with changes ordered by a court,–when activists demanded.
- Test any of these changes, and varify if all changes ar working like they should.
- Remove all junk IP, and do a major cleanup.
- After all of these changes, either continue operation when it’s all clear, or wait for all changes to be applied.
- Continue operation like usual, and confirm your corporation meets all needs of activists.
Conclusion
This is an opinion what I’ve written, and it doesn’t constitute any professional advice, please check with your professional for a professional advice.