Using The D.M.C.A To Stop Password Trading, Content Theft Warez, Hot Linking, And Other Things That Make Webmaster Hopping Mad.
There is definitely one thing, besides the dreaded charge back, that will make a Webmaster hopping mad. It is when their content, either through password trading or copying, is stolen. I have lumped in password trading with the term theft because that is what it is...plain and simple...it's stealing.
Any time someone gives another (or legions of others) access to passwords to a pay site they are engaging in theft. Most webmasters would agree especially after they look at their bandwidth bills.
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"I have lumped in password trading with the term theft because that is what it is ... plain and simple ... it's stealing." |
For some time it has virtually impossible to shut down these various password-trading sites. Whether they are on a bulletin boards, newsgroups, warez sites or website it was extremely difficult to stop this type of activity.
Specifically, the owners or creators of these sites or posts really do not care and believe that you have no power to affect their ability to post your passwords or steal or hotlink to your content.
Out of this problem has grown a small cottage industry of programmers who have tried to devise technical ways to stop these thieves from stealing the "chickens in your henhouse." Sadly to every technical advance comes a countermeasure.
Recently our congress, at the behest of media giants such as Sony and Disney, enacted a law called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. (D.M.C.A.) This law is designed to give some teeth to enforcement of copy write laws in the Digital age.
So how can webmasters use the D.M.C.A. to halt this scourge of password traders, hot linkers and other digital thieves? Well first lets look at the two main provisions of the D.M.C.A.
First we have the "anti-circumvention provisions," contained in the D.M.C.A. This is designed to make it a crime for anyone to traffic in a technology primarily designed to circumvent a digital wall.
The Act prohibits a person from
"circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under, governing copyright."
This part of the D.M.C.A. is broad and states that
"No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title."
Obviously posting passwords on a website would fall under this part of the D.M.C.A. and can be directly used to stop these password traders. Recently Adobe Systems had Dmitri Sklyarov, a Russian programmer, arrested on one count of trafficking in software to circumvent copyrightable materials and one count of aiding and abetting such trafficking for designing a "crack" to the popular Adobe E-Books.
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Courts have also used the D.M.C.A. to prohibit the act of "Posting" materials designed to circumvent copy write protection. In a recent Court case involving the Hacker Magazine 2600 a court prohibited 2600 from posting the crack to DeCSS.
2600 had raised free speech concerns and the court analogized the prohibition to trafficking in skeleton keys with the capacity to unlock jail cells, even though some of the keys happened to bear a slogan or other legend that qualified as a free speech component.
The judge also applied the DMCA to linking via hyperlinks. The Judge stated "that those responsible for the link (a) know at the relevant time that the offending material is on the linked-to site, (b) know that it is circumvention technology that may not lawfully be offered, and (c) create or maintain the link for the purpose of dissemination."
Also an ISP, hosting company or Newsgroup Bulletin Board can be liable for copyright infringement resulting from having hyperlinks to web sites on the Internet containing infringing material. An ISP can prevent this liability by complying with certain provision in the D.M.C.A. like "taking down" websites, newsgroups or bulletin boards that are involved in copy write infringement or password trading.
In the recent past Excite@Home pulled a bunch of newsgroups due to DMCA violations. I have also had great results for my clients by using the D.M.C.A. takedown provisions to stop this type of illegal actions. Once these "problem websites" are found, my clients shoot me an email and we go direct to their pirate website or newsgroups ISP or Host with a D.M.C.A. takedown notice.
Most I.S.P. and Hosting companies understand that unless they take down the pirate site or bulletin board that they are liable for the copyright infringing. They normally take downs the site real fast. For more info on how to use the D.M.C.A. you can view a streaming video at AdultSiteLaw.com.