I also agree that there is a lot of room for improvement in the currently law. There needs to be greater defense against false DMCA notices, but also greater incentive to use filtering technology on sites such as Youtube. In short, the current arrangement serves no one.

As far as Google’s response goes, I’m sorry to hear that you’ve had so much trouble with them. If you want to, you can email me the particulars and I’ll see if there’s anything I can do.

I hope that you’re doing well and thank you for the comment!

Water: I wouldn’t know, I gave up on the Web advertising game a long time ago…

I also agree that there is a lot of room for improvement in the currently law. There needs to be greater defense against false DMCA notices, but also greater incentive to use filtering technology on sites such as Youtube. In short, the current arrangement serves no one.

As far as Google’s response goes, I’m sorry to hear that you’ve had so much trouble with them. If you want to, you can email me the particulars and I’ll see if there’s anything I can do.

I hope that you’re doing well and thank you for the comment!

Water: I wouldn’t know, I gave up on the Web advertising game a long time ago…

This is a national disgrace, and I am pleased to see people like you, and the NLPC up in Washington, starting to take note. I have fought this issue for many, many years now and have been completely blown away by the consistent level of arrogance, hypocrisy, greed, unethical business practices, and downright lies demonstated by these so-called industry leaders.

How anyone could possibly give Google a “D-” is beyond my comprehension. My small graphics development company, alone, has sent them four (4) official take-down notices since May 2007 and have never gotten a formal response. In fact, both the infrignement activity, and the Adsense activity, seems to increase after Google receives notice.

These are not only civil violations in this country, they are felonies as well. The executive management teams of these companies are also liable under our copyright laws. Why are these laws NOT being enforced?

Why are individuals and small companies asked to play on an uneven copyright playing field in this country?

Like the network executive once said many years ago “We’re mad as hell … and we’re not going to take this any longer”

We are in the pricess of organizing several huge legal and publicity actions that are going to put these issues squarely in front of all politicans in Washington. We are going to ask everyone to take a pledge for or aganist copyright protection in this country, before foreign governments make these decisions for us.

Enough is enough!

Keep up the good work. There are us out here who appreciate what you do.

George P. Riddick, III
Chairman/CEO
Imageline, Inc.

griddick@imageline2.com

This is a national disgrace, and I am pleased to see people like you, and the NLPC up in Washington, starting to take note. I have fought this issue for many, many years now and have been completely blown away by the consistent level of arrogance, hypocrisy, greed, unethical business practices, and downright lies demonstated by these so-called industry leaders.

How anyone could possibly give Google a “D-” is beyond my comprehension. My small graphics development company, alone, has sent them four (4) official take-down notices since May 2007 and have never gotten a formal response. In fact, both the infrignement activity, and the Adsense activity, seems to increase after Google receives notice.

These are not only civil violations in this country, they are felonies as well. The executive management teams of these companies are also liable under our copyright laws. Why are these laws NOT being enforced?

Why are individuals and small companies asked to play on an uneven copyright playing field in this country?

Like the network executive once said many years ago “We’re mad as hell … and we’re not going to take this any longer”

We are in the pricess of organizing several huge legal and publicity actions that are going to put these issues squarely in front of all politicans in Washington. We are going to ask everyone to take a pledge for or aganist copyright protection in this country, before foreign governments make these decisions for us.

Enough is enough!

Keep up the good work. There are us out here who appreciate what you do.

George P. Riddick, III
Chairman/CEO
Imageline, Inc.

griddick@imageline2.com

RS: It’s a simple bell curve issue. Microsoft, with a C, should be in the middle of the pack, not at the lead. When I started this series, I envisioned there would be a tall, narrow bell curve hovering on the C range. Instead, it’s proved to be very lopsided, centering on the C-D range and favoring the F crowd. Besides, when five out of seven services have severe problems with their DMCA/Copyright policy or no policy at all, there is an issue.

I guess we’ll see how things evolve though.

Steve: Generally, when I look at these policies, I look for the following things.

Registration with the USCO
Complete information on their site
That the information between the two matches
A policy to ban repeat infringers
Full contact information for the DMCA agent
A thorough explanation of how to file a notice
That the policy is easy to locate on the OSP site

If a site is missing two or more of those things, I bump them down to a D. The exception is if the site has a single issue that puts it in direct conflict with a law, such as with Google.

If a site shows a great deal of thought in one or more areas, I upgrade it to a B. It gets an A if it shows some kind of radical advancement that makes things much easier for Webmasters who need to file a complaint.

That’s a general rundown of the process. Not complete in every regard but it gives you an idea of what I do with each host.

Hope that answers the question!

RS: It’s a simple bell curve issue. Microsoft, with a C, should be in the middle of the pack, not at the lead. When I started this series, I envisioned there would be a tall, narrow bell curve hovering on the C range. Instead, it’s proved to be very lopsided, centering on the C-D range and favoring the F crowd. Besides, when five out of seven services have severe problems with their DMCA/Copyright policy or no policy at all, there is an issue.

I guess we’ll see how things evolve though.

Steve: Generally, when I look at these policies, I look for the following things.

Registration with the USCO
Complete information on their site
That the information between the two matches
A policy to ban repeat infringers
Full contact information for the DMCA agent
A thorough explanation of how to file a notice
That the policy is easy to locate on the OSP site

If a site is missing two or more of those things, I bump them down to a D. The exception is if the site has a single issue that puts it in direct conflict with a law, such as with Google.

If a site shows a great deal of thought in one or more areas, I upgrade it to a B. It gets an A if it shows some kind of radical advancement that makes things much easier for Webmasters who need to file a complaint.

That’s a general rundown of the process. Not complete in every regard but it gives you an idea of what I do with each host.

Hope that answers the question!