Are you concerned about getting a DMCA takedown notice? The right to information is an important human right.

When most people think of human rights, they think about genocide, racism, and access to doctors. I also add access to lawyers to that list.

A genocide leaves behind lots of evidence, and therefore gets lots of media attention.

But right now, in countries like Canada, China, and Brazil, large law firms are using laws in the United States to get information taken off the internet.

It does not matter where the information was posted, or who complained about it. 

If a company in Brazil posts information on the internet, and a company in Australia takes issue with it, they can hire a law firm in the USA to get it taken down.

Sound confusing? Let me explain.

Large law firms know that they can make a copyright claim to companies like Google, Facebook, Bing, and website servers located in the United States.

This is called a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notice. It’s when someone who thinks they are the copyright owner tries to get information taken offline.

DMCA takedown notice requirements

The DMCA form is short, and it takes about five minutes to complete one and send it. When you submit a takedown notice, you do not need to prove you own the material.

You do not even need to prove that the content violates copyright law.

Even more important, it does not matter where the content was posted. If it was posted in Brazil, and the person complaining is in Australia, the United States company still must deal with it.

Companies like Google and Facebook do not have time to investigate the content, so they just remove it. If you post a blog on your company’s website, and Google does a de-index of it, chances are that no one will find your blog.

It is basically the same thing as it being taken off the internet.

A DMCA takedown notice needs to contain the following things:

• The contact information of the person making a complaint
• Confirmation that they have a good faith belief that they own the intellectual property
• Explanation of what the infringing material is
• An electronic signature
• Other details about the infringing activity and your copyrighted work
• You need to make a declaration under penalty of perjury
• You must provide your telephone number

Submit the counter-notice

You then need to do a DMCA counter-notice. Once you submit the counter-notice, it often takes months for the content to be put back up.

This DMCA procedure bypasses the needs of the courts and justice. It is wrong.

It is also a human rights violation. These sorts of actions violate the right to information.

Anyone anywhere can complain about anything. I could get your content taken off the internet for months right now.

If people can do bad things, take advantage of people, get bad ratings, and then just hire a law firm to get the profile taken down, then there is no freedom of information.

One defence against the DMCA is fair use. You can read this information from the U.S. copyright office on what fair use really means. If you don’t think you have done anything wrong, file a counter-notification to fight for your right to use the “copyrighted content.”

Our Story About the DMCA Takedown Notices

Our lawyer directory started using DigitalOcean, a New York company, as our website server. We liked that they were in the United States, a place where legal innovation is growing.

We have been working on creating transparency in the legal industry. Our company does this by creating profiles for lawyers in Canada and Australia.

The public can then rate the lawyers and upload important information (like examples of the law firm’s retainer agreement.)

The idea is that lawyers that get 5-star reviews will get more clients. 

For law firms that get 1-star reviews, they will need to change their ways.

We also add any links to any trouble a lawyer or law firm has gotten into. If a lawyer has State Bar or Law Society rulings against them, this information can show on the lawyer’s profile.

For example, if a lawyer was fined for misusing a trust account, the public should know.

If a law firm took $10,000 from someone as a retainer and then did no work on the file, the public has the right to know.

DMCA copyright infringement

Our website has grown fast. In a matter of months, we have grown to over 50,000 unique users per month on our profiles and blog.

As of the writing of this blog, we get around 20 reviews on lawyer profiles per day. We expect this amount to grow fast.

We also have lawyers that contribute to our mission by helping low-income people get legal help.

Many law firms answer questions “pro-bono” in the form of content on our website. People submit questions, and lawyers write an article about it.

It sounds great right?

Unfortunately, not all lawyers and law firms want to be found on the internet. Many want to get away with their bad habits.

Suddenly out of nowhere, five different DMCA Takedown Notices were sent to an email account our company does not monitor. It is my position we were not served with it since we did not receive it. But that did not seem to matter for some reason.

The email from DigitalOcean said that they removed our website. It also said that we could still access the website to remove the content. This was not true. We could not get any access to the website.

Our website was down completely, and there was no phone number at DigitalOcean to call.

Learning United States copyright law

I had to spend the next five days learning United States copyright law. I manage a Chinese company, and a large law firm in Canada complained about us to Digital Ocean, in New York State.

The large law firm hired another large law firm in Chicago because they could afford it.

This was very confusing, and an abuse of process. DMCA takedown notices are being used in improper ways.

DigitalOcean did not mention that we could file a DMCA counter-notice, the way that Google links to a form where you can fill out your information when you receive one from Google.

According to the DMCA law, they must make us aware of the ability to appeal the decision.

We contacted DigitalOcean support on the phone and by email and were told our website had been taken down for not replying to the DMCA takedown. 

Getting a DMCA Takedown Notice

We sent numerous follow-up emails over five days to the Digital Oceans support team and legal team so that we could gain access to the website to deal with the content.

Digital Ocean emailed us saying we had 24 hours to take down the content and allowed us back into the system. This was also a violation of DMCA laws. 

It is up to the person that complained about the material to sue us for copyright infringement since we filed the DMCA Counternotice. It is not for DigitalOcean to force us to take down content.

When Google takes down content due to a DMCA Notice, they take down the offending pages. In this case, that would have been around 15 pages. Instead, they took down 50,000 pages.

A Canadian law firm should not be able to use American laws to go after a Chinese company.

We were told by lawyers in New York that we could sue the Canadian large law firm. We decided not to because they are large. I did not even mention their name in this article.

Sometimes you can hire a DMCA agent to file a DMCA complaint for you. This is normally a lawyer that does internet law.

Battle Over “Infringing Material”

We have since moved our website server out of the United States. It’s not right when large law firms use their brand name to intimidate our website server company.

We recovered, but it was very stressful. If we did not have the money to hire lawyers to deal with the problem, we might never have gotten our website back.

Many bloggers and artists cannot afford $10,000 on a law firm.

Hopefully, this article has provided you with information so that you can try and avoid going through what we did with DigitalOcean.

If you are stressed out about getting a DMCA Takedown Notice, speak to a lawyer near you.

Freedom of information is a human right.

Where does one send a takedown request?

Before sending anything or starting the takedown process, you should get legal advice regarding copyright issues and copyright protection. Once you fill out an online form or contact an online service provider, you have started a legal process.

You can contact internet service providers (ISP) about the copyrighted material. Getting stolen content off the internet is hard, and be careful that the site owner isn’t making use of the material in a way that is “fair use” before making a DMCA request.

You can also send a DMCA request to the content owner (or the website owner) or directly to the social media company or to the search engines.

If it is determined that you are not the copyright holder, and you were wrong about the infringing content, you could be liable. The company that owns the web page (of the web host) that you complained about can come after you.