Quote:
Originally Posted by pornlaw
Copyright and DMCA are a waste of time.
If you want to protect your content - watermark it with a trademark.
There's no safe harbor for trademark infringement.
Ive taken down tens of thousands of videos off pirate sites for clients using trademark C&Ds.
You cant monetize pirated content with a trademarked watermark.
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Please don't take my response as condescending, that's not the intention. I know your credentials, and where you're coming from, and have the utmost respect (some of my clients, are your clients too!)
I am not a lawyer, but in my experience plenty of malicious actors monetize piracy through file sharing websites and chat communities, like Telegram or Discord. There are a lot of shady sites out there that do monetize pirated content and make money while freely ignoring the law. As my lawyer friends tell me, even with the law behind you, you may not get your way so easily. It may cost way more in legal pursuit than it would in mitigation. In the mean time, these sites or even Telegram groups continue to monetize and profit.
Clients of mine have had good luck with DMCAs and removing content from Google without using C&Ds. Delisting on Google does a lot to mitigate SEO impact from piracy. It may not be a perfect game from a legal standpoint, but Google has respected these requests in the past the majority of the time. My clients were happy with this.
There are also a lot of tools to decrease piracy and violations without filing C&Ds and DMCAs. My LoginBlue software requires two-factor authentication, which limits password sharing. It also tracks when user's login, and uses their IPs to provide location information. I have also partnered with a service in the past that fingerprints videos with steganography to tag user accounts who download and upload content outside of a members area. Combined, these two services provide webmasters a way to identify and shut down pirate accounts fast and that can help mitigate piracy in the first place.
Many of my clients are tired of reacting to piracy, and I can understand that frustration. The truth is that piracy isn't going to stop, and despite all of the services that I, and others like me provide, it's still going to be out there.
I don't think it's a this-or-that situation. Combined, I think what you're talking about--trademarking your content, in combination with things like DMCA services, and the aforementioned services I and others like me provide, can work together to decrease violations. That extra level of control may be enough to help webmasters sleep better at night.