Here’s a nifty little article by IP Watchdog on a subject we are very familiar with and completely agree on … the way that websites and Web Hosts obfuscate when it comes to receiving copyright infringement notices. We’ve seen it all: web forms that don’t function, web forms that the submit button doesn’t work, a link to a copyright infringement form that doesn’t go anywhere, a web form that is overly complicated and requires a CAPTCHA to be able to submit anything, or, as this article notes, a copyright complaint email address that is not the correct one to send to but anyone searching is directed to nonetheless.
Companies make money by keeping content online. YouTube could do more to fight piracy, but unless someone is paying them to do it, they make it harder. Why? YouTube makes money on ads based on view count. Piracy gets view count. They literally are de-incentivized to fight piracy. Same goes for social media platforms, pretty much any website.
So what do you do? You create a massive database of correct contact info for every site that has had piracy on the Internet. You have escalation measures from website admins to Web Hosts. You form relationships with governmental, non-governmental, and third-party intermediaries so that you have a large network to help resolve “tough” sites. That’s what you do. At least, that’s what we do at Copyright Slap. But it should be simpler. The problem is that lobbyists are paid by the big corporations, the tech companies, the ones who don’t want things to be easy. A great example is US Taxes. Literally the IRS has all the payment data you received and at tax time could send you a prepared tax document with all your information filled in and your listed return amount, filled in the way that would give you the most returns possible, and you could accept the return or decide to do it yourself. It would make tax time insanely easy for 99% of Americans, but then Intuit and H&R Block couldn’t make all their money. And they poor millions a year into lobbyists solely to prevent things being easier. And so goes the same for copyright infringement. We wish it was better. We all deserve better. But until we demand it, it won’t happen.
PS Featured Gen AI image based on the prompt “An IP Watchdog watches a DMCA” brought to you by 1990s hand drawn art. Simple, but does the job. Makes no sense, but sort of does the job, I guess.
