Page 40 - AVN June 2012

TECH NEWS | By Nate Glass
Infringe Benefits How repeat violators exploit weak copyright enforcement
Takedown Piracy is an anti-piracy service started in
2009 by Nate Glass, a 13-year veteran of the adult
industry. TDP offers copyright holders an affordable
and effective means to fight back against content
thieves. To date TDP has removed over 1.6 million
content infringements, and it closely monitors 200
piracy websites. For details, visit
TakedownPiracy.com.
For client after client
we found scenes
uploaded with a web
address on the video
that was in no way
connected to our
client. After typing in
the web address, we
were redirected to a
site promoting
Bangkok hotel
reviews.
”
LEGAL NEWS
There are people who upload to tube sites because they want to be the cool guy
with the best videos. There are people who upload because they are ignorant of
copyright law. And then there are the spammers. Yes, the scourge of the internet
is alive and well on porn tube sites.
But while these pests are routinely run off from other internet sites, porn tube
sites seem to welcome them with weak repeat infringer policies. Since most porn
tube sites are ethically challenged, they welcome spammers who provide the site
with full-length videos. The tube site has its plausible deniability and a whole
bunch of videos to sell ads next to. Never mind that those videos are copyright
infringements.
On a recent tube sweep by Takedown Piracy, we detected a large number of
infringing videos all bearing the same watermark. For client after client we
found full-length scenes uploaded with a web address on the video that was in
no way connected to our client. After typing in the web address, we were
redirected to a site promoting Bangkok hotel reviews. The same uploaders used
other videos to spam a site offering paparazzi photos of famous celebrities. In
both cases the websites were registered to undisclosed individuals in Taiwan and
Turkey. Of course, we sent the tube sites takedown notices for these videos, but
will it have any effect on these spammers? Not likely.
Here’s Where It Gets Interesting...
That is because sites like Pornhub and Xhamster have virtually non-existent
repeat infringer policies. On Xhamster.com, there is absolutely zero penalties for
uploading one or hundreds of infringing videos. Xhamster will not suspend your
account, nor will they remove any other videos uploaded by this same user. So if
you’re a spammer, you just create an account on Xhamster and upload as many
full-length videos as you can, being sure to watermark them with your logo. If a
few get reported, so what? It’s a numbers game at this point. You can even crop
out or blur the actual copyright holder’s watermark. Xhamster absolutely will
not punish you in any way. Recently at Takedown Piracy, we focused a lot of
attention on a major Xhamster uploader. This person bragged on his account
that he had over 300 videos removed because of copyright infringement. This
person still has the same Xhamster account today.
The site’s Terms of Service state, “It is the firm pol-
icy of the SITE to terminate the account of repeat
copyright infringers, when appropriate.” One can
only assume 300 or so infringements by the same
user do not constitute a repeat infringer in the eyes of
Xhamster.
Over at Pornhub (in fact the entire Manwin tube
network), they have a slightly less weak repeat
infringer policy, but a weak one nonetheless. While
Pornhub will delete the profile of a repeat infringer,
they will not delete any other videos uploaded by that
infringer. So, if you are a spammer and Pornhub
deletes your account, not only will all your other
videos still be available to spam your website out
there, but there is also nothing stopping you from
creating another account and doing the same thing
again. You can even upload the exact same videos
again with no penalty. For this reason, it is quite
common to find spammers on Pornhub with dozens
of accounts— if one is suspended, there are plenty of
others left. It’s also worth noting that for years
Pornhub had no repeat infringer policy at all. Only
after various anti-piracy companies made the apathy
of Pornhub public did they even implement their
current policy.
These toothless repeat infringer policies are the
polar opposite of a site like YouTube’s repeat infringer
policy. On YouTube, if you are caught uploading just
three infringing videos, your account is suspended
and every other video you have uploaded is removed
as well. It creates quite a disincentive to infringe.
For copyright holders, while it may seem like there
is nothing you can do, the simple fact that these tube
sites and others like them have no genuine repeat
infringer policy can and should be a major focal
point of any litigation you pursue against these sites.
The reason for this is simple. In order to qualify for
safe harbor under the Digital Millennium Copyright
Act, a site must “adopt and reasonably implement” a
repeat infringer policy that provides for termination
of users’ accounts “in appropriate circumstances.”
Virtually no adult piracy sites offer any sort of
repeat infringer policy, as doing so would amount to
running off the pirate uploaders that make their busi-
ness models work. In 2011, when file-sharing service
Hotfile actually implemented a repeat infringer policy
for less than a week, it resulted in a mass exodus of
uploaders and in turn the site lost 80 percent of its
traffic. It is no wonder a site like Xhamster or Pornhub
would not want to turn away repeat infringers. It
would be biting the hand that is feeding them.
So, we have spam for penis pills, spam for “get laid
tonight” dating sites, and sexual tourism masked as
Bangkok hotel reviews. At this point about the only
spam missing from Pornhub and Xhamster is the
Nigerian email scam, but maybe it’s only a matter of
time before someone figures out a way to incorporate
it into their uploads.
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