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Monday, November 12, 2012

Banned from 4Shared

<Today I got a crazy e-mail from 4shared:>

Dear Sir/Madam,

We have received a notification that certain materials you posted on the 4Shared website as described below infringe upon someone else’s copyright:


http://www.4shared.com/zip/HeeXFWb7/rpg.htm


<I got really shocked... me infringing copyrights? what??? Then I went to my blog and I got into my download section : >




<So a tutorial I have made coding with Open Source tools is infringing copyrights? libSDL? maybe Code::Blocks?>

<The e-mail continues:>

Access to the material complained of has been temporarily disabled or such material has been removed. In addition, the public sharing function for your account has been disabled. For instructions on how to dispute the copyright infringement claim, please read the section titled Counter Notification Requirements below. For instructions on how to re-activate your sharing function, read the section titled Re-activation of the sharing function of your account at the end of this letter.

In accordance with 4shared’s Copyright Policy, to which you are bound by virtue of agreeing to our Terms of Use, your account will be terminated and your access to 4shared services permanently banned following three instances of copyright infringement. Unless you respond by counter notification and successfully dispute the copyright owner’s claim, this will be considered your FIRST instance of infringement under the three-strike policy.

<So I have been accused by someone I don't know from something I have not done, and unless I demonstrate It's not right I may get permanently banned... strike one!!>

Counter Notification Requirements
If you do not believe that such materials are infringing and wish to have access restored, please provide a counter notification containing the following information to 4Shared Designated Agent for Notice of Claims of Copyright Infringement (“Designated Agent”) as set forth below:
1) Identify the material that was removed or disabled, and the location where it appeared before it was removed or disabled;
2) Declare under penalty of perjury that you have a good faith belief that the material at issue was removed or disabled as a result of either mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled;
3) Provide your name, address, and telephone number;
4) Provide a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of the federal district court for the judicial district in which your address is located, or if your address is outside of the United States, for any judicial district in which 4Shared may be found, and that you will accept service of process from the person who provided the notification or an agent of such person.
5) Provide your physical or electronic signature.

Such counter notification must be sent via e-mail to our Designated Agent at dmca_agent@4Shared.com. 


 <So if I want to avoid being banned I have to send my PERSONAL ADDRESS, PHONE and I HAVE TO SIGN??? is that a judgement? should I pay a lawyer???, the email continues...>

Alternatively, you may send the counter notification to our Designated Agent using the contact information below:

Name of Designated Agent: Ganka Hadjipetrova

Address of Designated Agent: 745 Distel Dr., Ste. 110, Los Altos, CA 94022
Facsimile Number of Designated Agent: (650) 433-5471
If we receive a proper counter notice, then we may replace or cease disabling access to the allegedly infringing materials in ten business days in accordance with the provisions of the DMCA, unless our Designated Agent first receives notice that an action has been filed by the complainant seeking a court order to restrain the account holder from engaging in infringing activity relating to the material on our system or network.




You should also note that if you make any material misrepresentation in your counter notification that the material or activity was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification, you will be liable for all damages, including costs and attorneys’ fees, incurred by 4Shared or any copyright owner or copyright owner’s authorized licensee as the result of our relying upon such misrepresentation in replacing the removed material or ceasing to disable access to it.
In the event you provide us with counter notification compliant with all requirements described above and the rights owner does not pursue the infringement claim further, 4shared will remove this instance of copyright infringement from your record and will not consider the take-down notice for purposes of the three-strike repeat infringer termination policy. If we receive a compliant counter notification, we will also re-activate your account’s sharing capability. Note that regardless of whether or not you challenge the infringement claim via a counter notification, 4shared will keep the take-down notification for its records.


 <So resuming FIRST: Take down my content with no real facts that it's something illegal , THEN if you dare give all your personal data to someone you don't know you may get your content restored... It stinks!! >

Re-Activation of the Sharing Function of Your Account
Note that if you send us a counter notification fulfilling all requirements described above, your account’s sharing functionality will be re-activated.
In case you do not challenge the take-down notification, you may still be able to re-activate the sharing function of your account. To do that, you must remove all copyrighted content for which you do not hold author’s rights and do not otherwise have authorization to use. Once you have removed all unauthorized materials from your account, you must declare under penalty of perjury that your account does not contain infringing files here. Take note that you will still have access to your files if you do not verify your account is infringement free, but you will not be able to share them publicly.


 Thank you.
Sincerely,
4shared Support Team
support@4shared.com


 <At this moment I was thinking.... OK I'm pretty sure that is just an scammer, but when I got into my 4shared account and found my file has been removed I got really angry!!!!>

< Guess what? I wont reply, I wont stay in a place I can get blamed for anybody with no , I will let the account die and will never return here>

< +1 to Digital Millennium Copyright Act, they have stopped an indie developer from sharing his Open Source - projects at 4shared!! Must feel real pride..>

<Sweet Internet Freedom>








3 comments:

Jonny D said...

Bleh. What a mess we have of law colliding with the internet. I don't know the solution, but too many service providers are playing way too conservative.

Amit said...

It's a mess but if someone accuses 4Shared of breaking the law, they have two choices: either they get in trouble, or they take the file down. Unless you're paying a lot for the service, there's no reason for them to hire a lawyer to defend your file.

What was in the file?

For open source projects you might consider putting the code out in the open, instead of inside a zip file on a file sharing service. For example, github, google code, or sourceforge all are useful for open source projects.

Unknown said...

Hello Amit

You are right in the sense that 4shared wont care to defend a file... but I'm quite disturbed about how easy is to get banned from a site where I was accused with false facts...

I only had my compiled demo for windows in the file... nothing that breaked any law...

I got a svn account so I plan to post here the new code I make but , imagine people using windows: They probably will just like to be able to download a zipped file with the compiled .exe and all the files needed to play the demo...

Obviously .nix users wont care about that and will like to have the source code, but I (should) think in all the users...