Free for a Fee

The plaintiff produces pornography and distributes it through paid membership sites. The defendants run ad-supported websites that allow users to upload videos, a total of 475,000 user-submitted videos. Moderators screen user submissions to confirm they do not contain “child pornography, animal pornography [or] spam, and to ensure that the video constitutes adult entertainment.” (Note the difference from the typical user content policy, which would *restrict* adult content, not require it). The websites have a 3-copyright-strikes-in-6-months policy, and collectively 1,000 users have been terminated for repeat infringement. Third parties uploaded plaintiff’s videos to the defendants’ websites. The plaintiff identified “thirty-seven (37) Plaintiff-produced videos on Playvid.com, two (2) videos on Feedvid.com, five (5) videos on Peekvids.com, and twenty-eight (28) videos on Playvids.com.”

For unexplained reasons, the website operator outsourced the receipt of DMCA notifications to a third party service called IncorporateNow. I don’t understand how that was an advantageous move. The opinion indicates IncorporateNow simply scans the mail/faxes and then emails them to the website operator, who turns around and manually enters the information into their normal takedown process. By introducing a third party into the equation, it increases costs, the turnaround time, and–importantly to this case–the risk of lost communications.

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Case citation: Hydentra HLP Ltd. v. Luchian, 1:15-cv-22134-UU (S.D. Fla. June 2, 2016)

The content in this post was found at http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2016/06/web-host-defeats-copyright-liability-despite-mishandled-takedown-notice-hydrenta-v-luchian.htm and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com. Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post.