StopPiracy

4shared Policy/Contact Info

The following was forwarded to me by a designer who reported her work being illegally redistributed:

The reply from 4shared.com:
Thank you for the information. This account has been closed and all users' files were removed. If you know other illegal using of our site, please, do not hesitate and contact us.

Thank you.
Best regards,
Andrew

In their TOU page, 4shared.com states:

HOUSE RULES

By using the 4shared service, you agree not to do any of the following:

Post, distribute, or otherwise make available or transmit any data, message, text, computer file, or other material that infringes any right of a third party and/or any domestic or international law, rule, or regulation, including but not limited to:

1. 1. copyright, trademark, patent, or other proprietary rights;
   2. right of privacy or publicity;
   3. any confidentiality obligation.

For contacting 4shared.com about misuse, click here for their contact page, then click on "report abuse."

Reporting Copyright Infringements - Australian High Tech Crime Centre

Many of the groups actively involved in acts of piracy thumb their noses up when contacted by the designer to end the copyright infringement often because designers don't follow up by filing complaints with the appropriate authorities.

In the Australia reports may be filed with the Australian High Tech Crimes Center (AHTCC) which is a nationally coordinated body ::

The AHTCC is staffed by members of the Australian Federal Police and State and Territory police from throughout Australia, as well as representatives from private industry and government departments. (ref AHTCC About Us)

You can find the Online Crime Reporting submission form here which is specifically for the reporting of instances of high-tech crime in Australia.

If you are an Australian designer that has been affected by an act of piracy, it is well worth filing a complaint with AHTCC as well as the Internet Crime Complaints Center (IC3 - the US based FBI/National White Collar Crime Center partnership) because of international cross-over of jurisdictions between designer, selling point (ie the digital scrapbooking store/s that the designer sells through) and the location of the individual/s or group/s that initiated or is involved in that act of piracy.

Uploading.com Policy/Contact Info

Here is a statement from their abuse page:

" Unfortunately, not all Uploading.com users keep to the website’s terms of use. Uploading.com has been designed for file sharing purposes, in cases when files can not be sent as email attachments. Uploading.com does not in any way support computer piracy or any other forms of illegal info copying.

     If you happen to possess information on the files that match the description above and that you know are stored on our website, please fill out the form above indicating the link to the file, as well as your name, name of organization and your email address so that we could contact you. All the information on the matter would be essential as well. Your message will be considered as soon as possible. Illegal files shall be removed from the site and put on the blacklist file filter.

     We apologize for the illegal use of our service by dishonest users and promise we will do our very best"

To report an illegal use, click here and fill out the form.

Pando Policy/Contact Info

"Pando is free software that lets you send and receive files and folders of any size* with your existing email account."

Pando Networks expressly prohibits the use of its network and software for the illegal transmission of copyrighted material.

Pando Networks will respond if notified by content owners to disable copyrighted material from being transmitted across its network.

Pando Networks may disable individual accounts from its network if these accounts are found to be illegally transferring copyrighted material.

If you need to report illegal file sharing activity to Pando, the contact information is here.  <----------

A polite letter to ask theives to stop.

Well, many pirates/shop-lifters are all up in arms because designers have the gall to come off as "rude" when they are asking for their copyrighted work to not be illegally redistributed.  So here is something for designers to use as a polite cease and desist letter.

(Pirates reading this?  DON'T SHARE ANYTHING THAT YOU YOURSELF DID NOT PERSONALLY MAKE UNLESS YOU HAVE THE EXPRESS WRITTEN PERMISSION OF OR A REDISTRIBUTION LICENSE FROM A DESIGNER.)

Thank you to shelleyrae to writing this for me:

Here also is a template for a polite letter to those that are sharing links. If you wish you can make it available on your blog for others to use:

To the group owner:

Dear List Owner ( insert name of group )
Please be advised that a file shared in your yahoo group was done so without permission and against my TOU.  File redistribution is not permitted. (file sharing host ) has been contacted and have deactivated the link upon my request.

Please encourage your members to respect copyright law and do not permit sharing of files where the redistribution is against the TOU. You can delete files after they have been posted and moderate postings to ensure you are not legally liable for the actions of your members.  I thank you in advance for your cooperation with this matter

For more information on the efforts to stop digital piracy, including contacting Yahoo and filesharing services, please visit http://jenjen.typepad.com/stoppiracy/

To the poster of the link:

Please be advised that a file YOU shared in the yahoo group (name of group) was done so without permission and against my TOU. File redistribution is not permitted. ( filesharing site name ) has been contacted and have deactivated the link upon my request.

Please refrain from posting any materials that were not created by you. Whether you are the one who made the link available by uploading it to (filesharing site name) or are simply passing on a link you have received from elsewhere, choosing to share the link which is obviously not your own work and without the permission of the original creator is an illegal act on your behalf. The post has been brought to the attention of the list owner.

For more information on the understanding the issues of digital piracy and what constitutes illegal behavior, please visit http://jenjen.typepad.com/stoppiracy/

Best Sharing Policy/Contact Info

On their homepage, BestSharing.com has a statement that says "Warning! The uploading of copyrighted materials (and adult images) is strictly prohibited! Please, read our Terms of Services for more information."

Included on their Terms of Services is "Copyright Policy: The Best Sharing Service may be used only for lawful purposes. By using the Service, you represent and warrant that you are the author and copyright owner and/or proper licensee with respect to any hosted content and you further represent and warrant that no content violates the trademark or rights of any third party. Best Sharing reserves the right to suspend or terminate a user’s transmission(s) that, in Best Sharing’s discretion, violates these policies or violates any law or regulation." 

and

"Any questions relating to our Legal Agreements and Policies or abuse management may be directed to info@bestsharing.com

Illegal files will be removed immediately after notice. Best Sharing will add them to its file-filter, so they can’t be uploaded again. ."

There is also a form right on their website, if you click on the "Abuse" tab.  There is says: "Use this form to report Illegal files on Best Sharing.   You may also report violation of Terms of Service.  Abusive files will be deleted within hours after notice. Best Sharing is against software piracy or any kind of copyright infringement. We apologize for any kind of misuse of our service and promise to do our best to find and terminate abusive files.."

Moo.load.com policy/contact info

Mooload.com is a new file-sharing site.  It's actually very cute, with the graphic of the cow . . . that made writing this a little fun.

Their Terms of Service states:
"Any files which you feel should be removed, should be reported to our abuse department. The abuse department requires proof that the file is yours/abusing copyright before removing files . . . Mooload can and will take legal action against people abusing the service in any form, and illegal files will be reported to the appropriate authorities. Mooload moderates files as much as possible."

"To contact our abuse team please email abuse@REMOVETHISmooload.com removing "REMOVETHIS"."

AOL Groups Policy/Contact Info

Some piraters have been using AOL groups to illegially distribute copyrighted works.  If your works have been distributed through AOL groups, here is what you need to know.

Here is the AOL group homepage.

Here is their Groups Guidelines page.

The guidelines clearly state:

"Public Groups found to be in violation of these guidelines are subject to removal without notice. AOL reserves the right to investigate a Public Group when a violation has been reported or is suspected by AOL."

and

"You agree that you will not use Public Groups to distribute, facilitate distribution, or directly link to any content -- including text, communications, software, images, sounds, data, or other information -- that:

. . .

infringes anyone else's intellectual property rights, including, but not limited to, any copyright, trademark, rights of publicity, rights of privacy, or other proprietary rights."

AOL's Terms and Conditions of Use page, here, states: "If you believe that your work has been copied and is accessible on this site in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, you may notify America Online. Click here for instructions."

SendSpace

SendSpace is a site users can use to share large files.

SendSpace's terms page states:

5.3 Copyright or Trademark Infringement
sendspace Services may be used only for lawful purposes. Transmission, distribution or storage of any material in violation of any applicable law or regulation, including export control laws, is prohibited. This includes, without limitation, material protected by patent, copyright, trademark, service mark, trade secret or other intellectual property rights. If you use another party's material, you must obtain prior authorization. By using the Services, you represent and warrant that you are the author and copyright owner and/or proper licensee with respect to any hosted content and you further represent and warrant that no content violates the trademark or rights of any third party. sendspace reserves the right to suspend or terminate a User's transmission(s) that, in sendspace's discretion, violates these policies or violates any law or regulation.

The FAQ section of the page states:

Q: Are there any restrictions on the content of my files?
A: Yes. You must agree to our terms of service before uploading a file. This includes: sendspace may be used only for lawful purposes. Transmission, distribution or storage of any material in violation of any applicable law or regulation, including export control laws, is prohibited. This includes, without limitation, material protected by patent, copyright, trademark, service mark, trade secret or other intellectual property rights. If you use another party's material, you must obtain prior authorization. By using the Services, you represent and warrant that you are the author and copyright owner and/or proper licensee with respect to any hosted content and you further represent and warrant that no content violates the trademark or rights of any third party.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

"Complaints about violators of our Policy should be sent via our contact form on this site."

iHud

iHud is another free file hosting site. 

Their terms and conditions, here, explains their Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) forbids many activities, including:

Copyright or trademark infringement: Use of the PhotoJerk service to transmit any material (by e-mail, uploading, posting or otherwise) that infringes any copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret or other proprietary rights of any third party, including, but not limited to, the unauthorized copying of copyrighted material, the digitization and distribution of photographs from magazines, books, or other copyrighted sources, and the unauthorized transmittal of copyrighted software.

To report abuse, they suggest the following:

REPORTING VIOLATIONS OF PhotoJerk AUP

PhotoJerk requests that anyone who believes that there is a violation of this AUP direct the information to the Abuse Department at alan@photojerk.com.

If available, please provide the following information:
The URL used to commit the alleged violation
The date and time of the alleged violation, including the time zone or offset from GMT
Evidence of the alleged violation

E-mail with full header information provides all of the above, as do system log files. Other situations will require different methods of providing the above information. PhotoJerk may take any one or more of the following actions in response to complaints:

* Issue written or verbal warnings
* Suspend the Customer's account
* Terminate the Customer's account with or without refund
* Bill the Customer for administrative costs and/or reactivation charges
* Bring legal action to enjoin violations and/or to collect damages, if any, cause by violations