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July 2, 2006

I take a clip of a crucible that I locate with Google, and I use it on FAQ to illustrate an item about relationships. I also post a link to the source site for the clip. The picture is under copyright. I do not notice that the item is under copyright. US Web Site copyright custom is that if an item appears for educational purposes, and if the borrowing site does not compete with the copyright holder or try to sell the image in any way, and if the source URL also appears, and if the person using the clip is willing to remove it in case of complaint, the use is OK.

On a previous occasion, I immediately remove a picture of a girl jumping into a swimming pool when her father complains - even though no copyright appears. On various occasions, I remove FAQ entries when senders wish to remove them.

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 (about 10 weeks later)

[Name] the owner of the crucible clip, notices the clip and considers it an infringement of his copyright. He does not contact me directly. Instead, he sends a formal complaint to GoDaddy.Com, the www.TradingTribe.com ISP and requests removal of the item.

Google references to [Name] n show he is a knowledgeable software developer and that he takes an interest in copyright law. He creates a special email address to write to Godaddy: name-copyright-enforcement-godaddy.com@web.com

Without warning or notice, and without requesting that I remove the item, GoDaddy.Com, the ISP, freezes the entire Trading Tribe Web Site and posts a phone number to call.

We call GoDaddy.Com to determine the situation. GoDaddy informs us there is a complaint about a copyright item. We immediately offer to remove the offending item. We cannot do this, however as we no longer have access to the site. We ask GoDaddy.Com tech support to remove the item. Tech support says they cannot do that and that the GoDaddy legal department must authorize it. We ask to speak to legal and tech support informs us that GoDaddy legal only communicates by email. We write GoDaddy legal an email stating our wish to remove the item.

After several days of no response from GoDaddy, I begin to transfer the TradingTribe materials to another ISP.

Monday, September 25, I receive this form letter from GoDaddy:

Your question has been received.

You should expect a response within 24 hours.

This is your Incident ID: 1086966

Thanks,
GoDaddy.Com

Please do not reply to this email.

Emails sent to this address will not be answered.

Monday, September 25, We send the following to Bob Parsons' (GoDaddy's CEO's) office:

Dear Melanie,

We received Bob Parsons' picture via a marketing email and don't see a copyright notice on it. We would like to know if we may use it on our website. Here is the link to the page we would like to use it on: http://edseykota.com/tribe/FAQ/2006_Sep/Site_Down/index.htm

Thank you for your attention to this matter,

Monday, September 25, we receive:

From: support@godaddy.com
To: tt_95@yahoo.com
Subject: Update [Incident ID: 1086966] - Support Question
Date: 25 Sep 2006 13:30:03 -0700

Our support staff has responded to your request,

details of which are described below:

Discussion Notes
Support Staff Response

Dear Ed Seykota,

Thank you for contacting Online Support.

Please direct your inquiry directly to our President's Office, as they will be better able to assist you. They can be reached at president@godaddy.com . We appreciate your patience.

Please let us know if we can assist you in any other way.

Sincerely,

Ben A.
Online Support
Technician

re: letter from Seykota, September 25, 2006:
On Tuesday of last week we discovered our business website offline and your message to call you posted. We called and were told to contact copyright claims. We did so and it took 2 days to receive a return email explaining what happened and how to fix it. We sent the required information 20 minutes after we received it on Thursday Sept 21. It is now Monday the 25th and we are still not online. I would like someone to please contact me and explain why or I would like a phone number to your legal dept please. This is a business site and it is very important that it be brought up promptly.

As of Monday, Sep 25, 2006, 2:00 PM PST, GoDaddy, still does not answer any of our emails requesting information for how to proceed to follow the GoDaddy policy in their Hosting Services Agreement to: (1) reinstate the site so we can remove the item or (2) to have GoDaddy remove the item and re-instate the site.

As of Monday, Sep 26, 2006. No word from GoDaddy. Charles Cazabon sees the documentation of the problem on this site and asks me to remove his complaint from the letter from I get from GoDaddy. I ask him to help motivate GoDaddy to follow the GoDaddy policy of removing the image from the GoDaddy site and restoring the site to full working order. He sends an email to GoDaddy withdrawing his complaint.

-----

The Sep 18 Letter to Ed from GoDaddy

Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 21:30:11 -0700
From: "GoDaddy.com Copyright Claims Dept."
Subject: Copyright Dispute for SEYKOTA.COM
To: tt_95@yahoo.com
Dear Sir or Madam,

We have received notification of copyright infringement(s) taking place
on your site SEYKOTA.COM.

It has come to our attention that the website found at this domain name
contains material being displayed without the consent of the
owner/copyright holder.

This is a violation of your Hosting Services agreement
https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/
license_agreement.asp , as well as your
Domain Name Registration Agreement
https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/
legal_agreements/domain_registration_GD.asp ).
I have attached the original notification we received on this matter as
well to help you identify the problem.

This notification was submitted in harmony with the DMCA (Digital
Millennium Copyright Act)and our Copyright and Trademark Dispute
Policy. Please review GoDaddy's Trademark and Copyright Policy found
at
http://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/
legal_agreements/show_doc.asp?se=%2B&pageid=TRADMARK%5FCOPY .

In accordance to this policy, as well as your hosting agreement, we have
suspended this hosting account until this matter can be resolved, or you submit a complete Counter Notification as described in the Copyright section of the policy. You have 10 days to send a completeCounter Notification in accordance with the policy.

In order to resolve this situation and re-activate your site, you have 2
options.

Option 1. Remove the content in question.
In order to reactivate the site in question we will need you to provide
the following information in a single email response:

A. An electronic signature. (This can be a scanned copy of your
physical signature, or as simple as typing your full name.)

B. Identification of the material in question.
C. A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the material has
either been removed or will promptly be removed.

Option 2. Submit a complete Counter Notification on the works in question in accordance with our Copyright Dispute policy. (See Above) You will need to reply, via email and include all of the following
elements.

A. An electronic signature of the Infringer. (This can be a scanned copy of your physical signature, or as simple as typing your full name.)

B. Identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or access to it was disabled.

C. A statement under penalty of perjury that the Infringer has a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled.

D. The Infringer's name, address, and telephone number, and a statement that the Infringer consents to the jurisdiction of the Federal District Court for the judicial district of Arizona, or if the Infringer's address is outside of the United States, for any judicial district in which Go Daddy may be found, and that the Infringer will accept service of process from the Complaining Party or an agent of such Party.

If you have any further questions, please let us know.

Regards,

-----

The above letter to Ed includes the Sep 18 Letter from Charles Cazabon to GoDaddy

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 09:10:31 -0600
From: Name
To: "GoDaddy Copyright Claims" <CopyrightClaims@GoDaddy.com>
CC: abuse@godaddy.com
Subject: Re: Notice of copyright infringement

Original notification of copyright infringement follows. I expect prompt action on the part of GoDaddy to stop the ongoing copyright infringement by
one of GoDaddy's customers/users.

Greetings,

A user of the server at 64.202.189.134/www.seykota.com in GoDaddy IP space is violating my copyright. Here are the particulars:

1. A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

This message contains my electronic signature. I am the exclusive copyright holder of the work in question and therefore am authorized to act in this matter.

The particular copyrighted work is an image of a crucible, used as a
logo for my company.

The original work is located on my website at the following URL:
Page: http://pyropus.ca/ Image: http://pyropus.ca/images/pyropus-crucible.jpg

The infringing copy of my work is here:
http://www.seykota.com/tribe/FAQ/
2006_Jul/01/crucible.gif

4. Information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address at which the complaining party
may be contacted.

[Name & Address]

I have not authorized this use of my copyrighted work, and it is not authorized by the law. I thus have a good-faith belief that this is an infringing copy of my copyrighted work.

I trust this is sufficient for you to take action. I would like the infringing work removed immediately, and a statement that the user will not be permitted to re-post the offending work to the server in question.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.