After Lyndi wrote about having our content abused last week I got hold of Paul Jacobson to ask what the best response to the situation would be. In case you weren’t following; someone decided to sell downloads of eMarketing: the essential guide to online marketing - our free textbook. Our response was to contact the offenders, who while ignoring us, have taken down the offending downloads – which is a good start.
Paul tells me that there are a number of things to consider when approaching a problem like this.
Know Your Rights
Firstly, understand the regulations under which your content is licensed, and know what you can do when someone transgresses your rights.
In our case the textbook is licensed under a CC licence for non-commercial use and requires attribution. Clearly, while we release it for free, claiming cash for the book’s download violates the licence under non-commercial use.
Do Take Action
“Don’t do nothing” says Paul. Even if you feel the offending site is not doing great harm by publishing your content, filing a notice and protecting your content is important. In our case, even though we released the textbook for free, the offending site is ripping off customers.
Record the Relevant Information
“Make a note of what’s been done to the content” says Paul. Take down the URL of the site, find out who runs it (if possible) and grab a screenshot (something we didn’t think to do). Basically gather as much information as you can before making contact.
Consider All Actions as Part of a Potential Case
If you want to vent your rage, or let people know what’s going on through say, a blog post, make sure to keep in mind that anything you publish counts as part of the case. If we’d said – “hey this site is ripping us off, but we’re ok with that”, it would be tough argue that that’s not our view point later on.
Make Contact
Having considered all these points put a letter together to contact the offending website. State clearly who you are, how the site is transgressing the requirements of your licence and what you want the offender to do now. You should also outline what your course of action will be if they don’t stop using your content.
You can find an example of a DMCA take down notice here. And one relevant to South Africa here (thanks to Paul for drafting it).
Understand your Options – Filing a Notice
If you make contact and the offending party refuse to take down your content, you should know what your next step will be. Paul recommends contacting their service provider.
“If the company doesn’t co-operate then the service provider is normally required to take it down, because if they don’t, then they run the risk of becoming liable for copyright infringement as well”.
Given that the site in question is most probably run from the United States, any further action from us would fall under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
In South Africa we have the Electronics Communications and Transactions Act, which also allows you to “call on a service provider …to remove content when they infringe on certain rights”. While Paul pointed out that the system doesn’t work as well as it should (the relevant chapter of the Act has not been properly implemented by the Minister), it’s important to file a complaint as part of the proceedings.
To Sue or Not to Sue
If all of this fails taking a company to court would be the next step. This can however, often end up costing a great deal – and should be considered carefully.
Don’t Blame Creative Commons
One thing that should be highlighted is that the abuse of our textbook did not result from the fact that our textbook is under a Creative Commons licence. If people are going to infringe on copyright, they’ll do so whatever the license may be. Creative Commons simply makes it possible for us to avoid having to authorise every use of our content we feel is valid on a case by case basis by granting permission in advance through the license.
“The bottom line is if someone is going to pirate your content they’re not going to ask your permission… It’s going to happen more and more as more content goes online, and Creative Commons licenses are actually the best way to deal with this….it’s really not about the licenses, it’s about someone else’s behaviour.”
Well said Mr. Jacobson. The key seems to be to know your rights and take action when someone abuses them.
Did you enjoy this post? Why not check out:
Muti
that is shocking! can't believe someone would DARE try and sell the eMarketing book. Clearly they have no idea about what it's all about and stands for. Great post, good to know what steps to take. Keep up the good work!
Posted by michelle clarke on 2009/02/20