to clarify from an icq convo.. you don't need copyright filing to file a DMCA request.
you have to go through the DMCA process, below is copy/paste from pornhub.com/dmca:
DMCA Notice of Copyright Infringement
In accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (the text of which may be found on the U.S. Copyright Office website at
http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/), Pornhub will respond expeditiously to claims of copyright infringement that are reported to Pornhub's designated copyright agent identified below. Please also note that under Section 512(f) any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that material or activity is infringing may be subject to liability. Pornhub reserves the right at its sole and entire discretion, to remove content and terminate the accounts of Pornhub users who infringe, or appear to infringe, the intellectual property or other rights of third parties.
If you believe that your copywriten work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please provide Pornhub's copyright agent the following information:
1. A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed;
2. Identification of the copyright work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at the Website;
3. Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit Pornhub to locate the material;
4. Information reasonably sufficient to permit Pornhub to contact the complaining party, including a name, address, telephone number and, if available, an email address at which the complaining party may be contacted;
5. A statement that the complaining party has a good-faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or the law; and
6. A statement that the information in the notification is accurate and, under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
All claims of copyright infringement on or regarding this Website should be delivered to PornHub's designated copyright agent at the following address:
Email:
[email protected]
We apologize for any kind of misuse of our service and promise to do our best to find and terminate abusive files.
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i have heard that PH does take things down quickly.
So even with copyright filing, doesn't help to stop your stuff being stolen, because you have to police sites like PH, file the DMCA, and then they take it down, repeat process.
Forums, message boards, etc usually don't have a DMCA staff member to handle the requests, and most likely blow you off... so this is where you can then kick upstairs to the ISP/webhost and see where that goes. Some ISP are very good/sensitive to this issue and would then contact the offending website.
But, if all else has failed, and you have done all the correct DMCA filings you can, then you are left with legal actions... this is where filing for copyrights is needed.
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I will be chatting with the folks at removeyourcontent.com as well, to kick the tires on their service and report back so that content owners will know their options.
Fight the copywrongs!