How do you handle content stealing forums?
 

Delany Decolleur is going to be going live soon (web site delays) but she asked me what we can do about forums that do nothing but post stolen content and all I could say was that I have no idea.

7th Heaven is one such forum that you have to register in order to see anything and even then it is has limitations. UNLESS you purchase a membership; then you can download entire photo-sets.

So now I'm asking what are the options. Seems to me that it is a copyright violation, especially if they are making money off it. It's not even like they could say they weren't aware of what the site is being used for; you have to register, the more you post the more you get access to, and it even has tutorials on everything related to what to do.

Comments?

you could email them and ask them to take it down, then email their host, then their registrar ... but you can spend so much time trying to chase up copyright breaches only to have them pop up somewhere else. I've always found the best thing you can do is make sure EVERY photo is watermarked with a giant url across the middle. I've even gone as far as to mark member content with a url neatly and attractively across the girls flesh in some way, as this makes it hard to crop/photoshop out.

I run a sites for a couple of models/celebs here in Australia and we've found the only way to beat the forums is to join them ... post some pics there yourself ... while the traffic is usually people trolling for freebies, there's often a lot of 'fans' who are created because of these content thieves so don't necessarily write it off as a bad thing.

Good luck!

Not everyone in the adult biz shares your concern - look at some of the big sponsor programs, many from this board, that are underwriting the theft through ads and affiliate payouts...

ADG Webmaster

There's many many forums that do that too :(

Content theft is a bitch.....specially with the DMCA.... Just check out any megaupload link at any heavy adult user forum and you'll begin to appreciate the true dimensions of this problem.

Let them post I say. Its a free promotion for the site. The only ones that should be taken care of, is the bitches that post full sets/movies IMHO.

Actually, if you check out some of the big user forums that charge a membership fee, they do hand out FULL movies. Pretty fucked up. Do a search here re stolen content on forums, there's been a few threads discussing this.

All I have ever needed to do is to e-mail the admin and very politely ask them to remove my content. It has worked EVERY TIME, whether it was a forum or a torrent site. They have been very helpful, understanding and even asked me if I wanted them to put me on their "forbidden content" list (if they had one).

It might be because I'm a girl, or it might be because I've been lucky, but I do believe that by being polite you can achive much more than by threatening them in the first e-mail.

Hotlinkers should get ******* or goatse or some similar deal.

Content stealers on single images, well, most people would suggest that you just make sure the URL is on the picture so you can get free traffic.

Sites stealing all of your content, well... get your DMCA notices ready, and after attempting to contact the webmaster once, get to work sending notices to his host, his host's host, anyone one jump away, the major network provider, any site sponsors, and the registrar for the domain.

if you girl is hot, plan on spending a few hours a week on this little unhappy job.

good luck, sounds like a headache

they are bastards!

Send DMCA to the hosts and to the place where they host the pics.

what if the server is in EU or Australia or Hingkong?
What good is DMCA then?