19 January 2013

A Bit of Venting

In interesting news, my Mediafire account has been shut down due to a DCMA copyright claim on, uh, ... Glaze of Cathexis?  For those that don't know, that is the music that I write and record myself.  That means that I've been banned for committing copyright violations on myself.  I definitely didn't sell the rights to Fox.  Anyone else having similar problems?


Dear MediaFire User:
MediaFire has received notification under the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") that your usage of a file is allegedly infringing on the file creator's copyright protection.
The file named Glaze of Cathexis - 2012 - Canyons in the Sonic Whirlpools (stereo wav1).rar is identified by the key (8k1aj8viaz5geu4).
As a result of this notice, pursuant to Section 512(c)(1)(C) of the DMCA, we have suspended access to the file.
The reason for suspension was:
Notice of Infringement via EmailTwentieth Century Fox Film CorporationP.O. Box 900Los Angeles, CA 9003501/17/2013mediafire.com http://www.mediafire.comAttention mediafire.com:I am writing to notify you about violations of the intellectual property rights ofTwentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and/or its subsidiaries and affiliated companies("Fox") on your service and to demand that you take immediate corrective action to ceasethis infringement and prevent further violations of Foxs rights.Fox holds copyrights and/or exclusive online reproduction, distribution, and publicperformance rights in the titles listed below, which are a representative list of thecopyrighted works owned by Fox that are being infringed on your service.We have included below examples of locations on your service where infringing copies ofthe Fox titles are available. As you know, you are not authorized to host, distribute, orotherwise make available or facilitate the making available of any copies of Foxs titleson your service.Fox demands that you immediately and permanently remove from your service all copies ofthe Fox titles listed below. This includes the copies available at the links below aswell as any other copies of these same titles that you are hosting.You can take simple steps to avoid the continuing violation of Foxs rights by usingreadily-available, industry-standard content recognition technology to prevent infringingcontent from being made available by your service. This technology both can preventunauthorized uploads of copyrighted content and can ensure that the same content that hasbeen removed from your service at the request of a copyright owner is not re-ingested byyour service. See Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd. (2005) 545 U.S. 913,939 fn.12 (failure to use available filtering technologies to diminish infringement isevidence of intentional facilitation of infringement).Furthermore, we expect that you are keeping track of subscribers/account holders thatengage in copyright infringement and are taking appropriate action to terminate theaccounts of repeat infringers.This email is not a complete statement of Fox's rights in connection with this matter, andnothing contained herein constitutes an express or implied waiver of any rights, remedies,or defenses of Fox in connection with this matter, all of which are expressly reserved. Ihave a good faith belief that use of the works in the manner described herein is notauthorized by Fox, its agent, or the law, and confirm under penalty of perjury that I amauthorized to act on Fox's behalf in connection with this notice. The information in thisnotice is accurate.Sincerely,MarkMonitorAsta Jasnait2600 W Olive Ave.Suite 910Burbank, CA 91505(800) 605-4853Email:antipiracy@dtecnet.comReplies to no-reply@dtecnet.com will not be received.Addendum to Notice of InfringementRepresentative List of Titles:HOW I MET YOUR MOTHERExamples of Locations Where Infringing Materials Can Be Found:http://mediafire.com/?8k1aj8viaz5geu4http://mediafire.com/?04uwi269dgi1wkdhttp://mediafire.com/?x1k46anpn36t16phttp://mediafire.com/?amtmowydgnfhttp://mediafire.com/?pytx0q0dvbl8xg9http://mediafire.com/?zz0iu26c33mg7xlhttp://mediafire.com/?72e32ree7cl77w3http://mediafire.com/?24u5849mb47kt94http://mediafire.com/?sv5a6ba8v2k91zyhttp://mediafire.com/?uaklwwhf6lp1t2zhttp://mediafire.com/?t1unemmnmgyhttp://mediafire.com/?uml312in46x04kb
Information about the party that filed the report:
Company Name: DtecNet
Contact Address: 
Contact Name: DtecNet
Contact Phone: 
Contact Email: antipiracy@dtecnet.com / info.antipiracy@dtecnet.com

16 comments:

Zen said...

Definitely not just you:

http://www.techdirt.com/blog/?company=leakid

http://contagiodump.blogspot.com/2012/09/contagio-file-downloads-are-not.html

It's happened to some of the stuff I've posted for sure.

gilhodges said...

What Orwellian absurdity. Keep calm and carry on, Doctor. Your patients appreciate you.

Anonymous said...

Happened to me as well with my own material. When will this madness end?

icastico said...

palm to face...all I can say is internet archive, free music archive, bandcamp, soundcloud ;)

dchughes62 said...

Orwellian indeed, bullying undoubtedly.
First amendment protects free speech, and mediafire action probably contravenes if this is your material.
Similarly since this is your copyrighted material, perhaps contact the anti-piracy email indicated, to say that someone has stolen your copyright (as indicated by the notice in which Fox are claiming the copyright). The response would indicate whether these are really anti-piracy organisations or merely the security wing of big businesses

Dr. Schluss said...

Already have everything on Bandcamp and a few things on Soundcloud. I was pretty much already planning to move on from Mediafire and this seals the deal. It's too absurd to actually deal with. I probably post a few things that someone could contest, but I try to steer clear of commercially active music. You may have noticed that I've been reviewing far more psychedelia from the Bandcamp community recently. Of course getting slammed for my own creations is completely ridiculous. Any suggestions for my next file sharing port-of-call?

Zen said...

I'm making a move over to zippyshare, as it seems to be left alone for now.

Subterrestrial said...

OMFG, here we go again. The stupidity of Mediafryer and services like LeakID know no bounds. I'm not usually the type to jump on the conspiracy bandwagon, but this is just one of many instances that make me wonder if it isn't some sort of conspiracy to "bring down" creative commons artists who are "ruining the economy" and "destroying western culture" by daring to be so absurd as to give their own music away for free, music for which they hold exclusive rights? My friend Vulture, the Dutch dark ambient artist got locked out of his Mediafryer account and lost everything on it. Johnathan Zweiss of Sleepchamber got locked out of his own youtube account for posting videos of his own band. Who will be next?

Konrad Useo said...

I understand your totally legitimate gripe.Best wishes on a proper resolution.

Miles said...

Dr.,

You're not alone. This has happened to me as well. Mediafire has been systematically scanning .zip files that are held on their servers and deleting anything that appears to be linked to copyrighted material. In your case (as it was with my own), it appears that certain files and material that I owned were targeted merely by name association. In other words, a blanket scan by Mediafire revealed that something similarly named had been identified as copyrighted material. Without further investigation, they deleted the file regardless of who the rightful owner may have been, claiming that the burden of proof falls on you to prove that you are indeed the actual owner. Accused and punished without verification. If disputed, you must then submit concrete proff to Mediafire that you are the rightful owner of the copyright on said material. Only then will Mediafire release their block on that file.

It sucks, big time. After repeated attempts to verify my ownership of 'marked' materials, I finally gave up and moved on, denouncing Mediafire's Gestapo tactics in the name of copyright enforcement.

Adam le Pain said...

You could sue Fox for highjacking/stealing your intellectual property. Or have you used unlicensed samples?

Dr. Schluss said...

Nope, everything from the songwriting to the recordings to the artwork were created by Glaze of Cathexis. But thanks for all your comments - it seems like a "thing" is going on here. Even with my reviews, I can admit that it's sometime in a grey area, but I try to stick to music that is not commercially active and take I down links whenever asked (sometimes there's a reissue I don't know about). Moving on to fresher file-sharing services for now.

itslostitsfound said...

So, the copyrights for Glaze of Cathexis are owned by Fox (and/or its subsidiaries and affiliated companies) are they? Since the good Dr. is certain he has not sold the rights, have Fox stolen them? It would appear this company are making decisions for intellectual property that does not belong to them. The very thing they are accusing you of?

tek said...

There's a war on. It's real. Aaron Schwartz is a casualty.

Don't give up or give in. They, the information industry, are in the middle of a major offensive right now, on the corporate front. Google is a major part of it. They realize that the political will wasn't there when SOPA went down, but that they can block, ban and destroy whatever they want without individuals being able to do a damn thing about it.

fucking bithches.

bloomdido said...

Insane... as far as filehosts go, uploaded never seem to take anything down, and i've heard good things about AnonFiles.com

TheMad said...

Note if you apply numerology to the name FOX, it is 666...