Filing Second Life DMCA notices via Email.
When one looks at filing a DMCA notice with Linden Lab, the task appears inconvenient and overwhelming to such an extent that many of us who have had our content stolen never follow through on filing. It is not nearly so painful and complicated as you might think particularly when you do it online via your email.
Yes, I said EMAIL! When Linden Lab lays out the procedures for filing they tell you about snail mail and faxing yet they neglect to mention that they are legally required by U.S. Law to accept electronic notices via email providing that you follow certain guidelines and your digital signature is verified. What does this mean? To make it simple, it means that if you purchase a digital ID/certificate of identity authentication, it can be used to legally sign documents. In this case we are talking about digitally signing a DMCA notice which will be submitted via email to the designated copyright agent for Linden Lab. Nighty and I have written up the information that you will need to include in a DMCA notice of copyright violation, as well as having provided a template which we use when the need arises.
Quick and Dirty Steps for Filing a DMCA Notice Via Email:
Obtain a digital ID and install the certificate into your email program by following the instructions provided by the company. You can use VeriSign, Securio, StartCom, to name a few. At a later date I will post more in-depth information on the process of obtaining a Digital IDs through the various services.
When writing up your DMCA notice remember that there is no such thing as providing too much information. Here is a list of things you will want to include in your notice:
1. A detailed description of the copyrighted item. (Describe in detail the item of yours that has been stolen. The inclusion of images of your original item is always a good idea particularly if the item in question is a texture.)
2. Identify the infringing item by including any information that will help Linden Lab locate the item in-world: Give the location of the item - the name of the sim and the X,Y,Z coordinates; provide the name of the owner of the infringed item and/or the name of the "creator" if the item no longer has your name listed; and finally, include in-world screen shots of the infringing item so that it can be identified on sight by an investigator.
3. Provide your contact information: Legal name, address, telephone number, and email address.
4. The following statements MUST be included in your DMCA notice.
"I have a good faith belief that the use of the copyrighted materials described above and contained on the service is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or by protection of law. I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information is the notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed."
5. Sign and date the document with a scanned copy of your signature, either copied and pasted into the document or included as an attachment.
6. Attach your email encoded digital ID certificate to the email.
7. Email your complete DMCA notice and all attachments to the designated copyright agent for Linden Lab.
Below is an example of an emailed DMCA notice.
Dear Ms. Pirri,
As you are registered with the U.S. Copyright Office as the Designated Service Provider Agent to receive notifications of alleged copyright infringement with respect to the users of the Linden Lab Second Life Service, I am contacting you to file a formal Notice of Infringement as authorized in 512(c) code of U.S. Copyright Law.
The copyrighted content which I conten belongs to me can best be identified as a texture of a bronze stamped tin ceiling tile with an original UUID of 5555555; created on 05/05/2007. I have attached a .tga file and will be happy to provide you with the original PhotoShop file if necessary.
The alleged infringing work is located in-world on the map area labeled "ILiketoSteal, 105, 45, 55". The item is being sold by Ima Thief who is now listed as the creator of my work.
My contact information is as follows:
John Doe
55 Fifty-fifth Street
New York, NY 55555
TEL: (555) 555-5555
EMAIL: JohnDoe@JohnDoe.com
I, John Doe, have a good faith belief that use of the copyright materials described above is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law. I swear under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
Sincerely,
John Doe
