I’ve seen quite a drastic increase in DMCA notices from Google, I hardly used to get more than 1 or 2 a year but this month alone I’ve had 5 or 6. I don’t actually host any user generated content and only have promotional material from sponsors yet I end up getting pages removed by Google and DMCA’s from random actors who I guess have regretted their choices.
We always know when an AP has decided to hire a third party to police their content.
But there seems to be a new group of ex models who have learned to use DMCA notices to get their scenes removed without studio agreement.
And now there is whatever is going on at BelAmi because we are getting DMCA for their affiliate promotions - something about JFF content?
Honestly, it’s just over the top.
And we take it very personally now as we lost it hosting due to spurious, demonstrably false DMCA.
Yes it’s bad. It’s only been one from Belami so far but several from “fan” sites. Which I don’t understand since I have never used any content from such sites.
No, we don’t either.
But I think it is disgruntled models trying to get their content down or not understanding the terms of their agreements.
I received one this weekend for a Freshmen scene. I emailed Stuart at BelAmi and here was his reply:
This comes directly from Carlos Effort. If it is only content from BelAmi and not mixed with anything from his OF, please counter notify
I’m thinking that some of these models who have JFF and OF accounts see their content on other sites and don’t bother to really check if it’s from their personal account or a sponsor. I’m guessing they just do Google searches for their name and see a list of sites and assume all those sites have their personal JFF and OF stuff and send out DMCA notices. I think it’s ignorance more than anything but I totally agree that’s it’s frustrating and time consuming to have to counter them…
Kevin.
Yes so basically it’s models on only fans and just for fans sending DMCA notices and getting pages blocked on Google for content they don’t actually own. Im not sure it’s pure ignorance on their part though, it’s possibly done intentionally. It might get the producers and their own sites in trouble eventually even if they own the copyright.
I’ve only had one issue in the past 6 months or so, but in the past I’ve gotten models contacting me directly telling me to take down content. I remind them that they’re not the content owner - they got paid and signed a model release. I also remind them that it’s a felony for anyone other than the content owner to file a DMCA notice. That usually ends it.
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I’m pretty sure it’s intent action - they clearing the way up.
Guys on GFY suggested to go counter
Here is the topic Keisha Grey & Abigail Mac DMCA's - GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum
Stuart’s response to me re that DMCA - Carlos is on a roll!
It seems Carlos was using some OF tool to try and report pirated content, but instead of checking if it was his OF stuff, just reported everything.
I have written to both Carlos and OF about this, but as this is not the first time we have had this kind of issue with him I would suggest you counter the notice.
Apart from taking more drastic steps against him that is probably our best option. Hopefully a few counter notifications will result in OF pulling access to the tool from him.
He even DMCA’d our tour pages!
I would like to believe that it is just laziness in sorting the results and checking them … I will keep pushing the matter
It reminds me of porn star “Brute Club” who is a real asshole. A few years ago, he sent out countless DMCAs to ask affiliates to take down his contents from blogs and social media even though he’s not the copyright owner. It’s a pain in the ass to communicate with sponsors to sort things out. Eventually I removed all his contents from my blogs. No one wants to deal with a real dickhead. It’s a time consuming task.
Obviously, Carlos Effort did it on purpose. Taking down the scenes he shot for studios will get more people subscribe to his OF account. Studios already paid him once for all when he’s done the shoot, so he won’t care if his behavior will hurt studio sales in the future. I believe Carlos is not the first model or the last model who sent out false DMCA. More people will follow the same path, trying to get traffic/sales for their fan page accounts.
Sometimes I get confused why affiliates still promote OF/JFF contents. Literally, OF/JFF is a pattern that cut the middle men (affiliates) out. Not to mention the payout ratio is horrible. Now this false DMCA may become a new normal. It’s not worth the hassle.
Just my 2 cents.
My response is that only my sponsors can tell me to take down content. I tell the model to talk to the sponsor (or content owner) and when I hear from my sponsor I’ll take it down quickly. And then as mentioned previously I tell them it’s a crime to file a DMCA notice when you’re not the content owner (which they aren’t).
Is there a link of defining the crime of filling a false DMCA?
Here’s a case that mentions it…
The notice must include specific information, including a statement made under penalty of perjury that the copyright owner is not filing a fraudulent take-down notice. The penalties for misrepresentation can include actual damages and attorney’s fees. Specifically, Section 512(f) of the DMCA states that:
shall be liable for any damages, including costs and attorneys’ fees, incurred by the alleged infringer, by any copyright owner or copyright owner’s authorized licensee, or by a service provider, who is injured by such misrepresentation, as the result of the service provider relying upon such misrepresentation in removing or disabling access to the material or activity claimed to be infringing, or in replacing the removed material or ceasing to disable access to it.
So the cost of your time, any lost earnings, as well as your attorney fees if you were to fight it in court. Plus perjury.
I don’t believe it was on purpose. His OF income is certainly not affected by the 1 scene we have live with him. By looking, it seems it may not even be Carlos, but a new ‘service’ being made available to them Protect your OnlyFans content - DMCA Remove.
It’s early here, and before the first coffee, but i wrote to “DMCA Remove”: Hopefully this will put a stop to it.
I require you to cease immediately sending out DMCA notices to our business partners to have OUR promotional content removed.
If you can not exercise care on what you send notifications for, you should not be in this business.
The content for “Carlos Effort” that we use is produced by us, owned by us, and all rights belong to us. You have no right to issue any notifications for this. Just because content has a model’s name in it, does not mean that they own the rights to that content.
If there is one more instance of this, we will immediately initiate legal action and support any legal action started by our business partners, who are seeing their hard-earned google rankings diminished by your reckless and negligent actions.
BelAmiOnline
update: feel free to contact them to have the notices reversed.
From: Jordy [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, March 2, 2021 9:06 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: DMCA Takedowns
Hello,
Thanks for your email. We always ask our cliënts if they have any partnerships with companies so we can whitelist the domains.
Unfortunately Carlos didnt gave us any whitelisted domains/companies.
If you can send me the URLS that have been taken down I can take a look at it and whitelist them for in the future.
Also I will contact Google for trying to bring them back up online.
Please let me know.
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That’s a worry but hopefully such a automated service might upset enough people for some action against them.
“Whitelisted domains” shows an utter ignorance for how our industry works.
I just had another one today for Sean Cody content. It’s getting worse and now Mojohost is raising the issue with me. Even if it’s not copyright infringement. What the fuck…
Does this mean we will have eventually delete all sponsor content? It’s clearly not safe to use anything now with this idiots sending DMCA for anything and everything.
Thanks. Will keep this link for reference.