A friend of mine writes a monthly newsletter that he charges a monthly fee to access. He recently found out that a website ending in .au is uploading every issue of the newsletter and linking to each issue so anyone visiting the webpage can read them all for free. The site doesn’t have a link to any contact person. What can he do to stop this?
Update: My friend was able to find the uploader’s profile on the site and he dug through a couple of other pdfs he uploaded and he found his name on a school assignment. He then ran a search and found that he’s a subscriber to his newsletter. He emailed him and is hoping he’ll respond.
Get contact info for the administration of the site, they are far more likely to understand the potential legal hassles than the users of said site. As well as be more sypathetic to the idea of content theft and at least take down the infringing content in question. If the site is defending the practice, find an IP lawyer in the jurisdiction in question and bust heads.
Your friend can send a copyright takedown notice to the web host. The only tricky part is finding out where to send it. If you PM me the site address I can tell you.
Here are examples of what to send: Stock Letters - Plagiarism Today
You’d use a C&D if the web site is hosted in Australia (it may not be), a DMCA if it’s in the USA.
Thanks for the information, guys. It’s good to have for future reference but fortunately everything worked out fine. The person that uploaded the material was contacted and he replied back that he didn’t realize the articles could be found with a Google search and removed the material. Thanks again.