Forum:Yahoo copyright infringement

Okay. This isn't as big a deal as it may initially look, but please bear with me anyway. Recently, users at Starwars.Yahoo ("The World of Star Wars") have copied Darthipedia articles verbatim (as well as pictures, though they are less of any issue) to their blogs and user profiles, without giving due attribution(see here and here). This violates the GDFL (don't Google it, you'll get some shit about the Geelong football league), which applies to all wikia articles. It states that content can be reused elsewhere once the original creators (in this case, Darthipedia) and the original article are linked to. Obviously, this wasn't the case on these userpages.

I filed a "report abuse" thing on each of the users, informing Yahoo! (they insist on adding the horrid ! every mention) informing them of the violation and requesting they ask the users to provide attribution or to remove the content:

Name: AdmirableAckbar Email Address: URL: /users/44cffb26bfc06e3ce361def87413c910?act=view-blog%26blog_id=154356 Subject: Other textarea_14718: Both the text and the images on this page are taken from the website http://darth.wikia.com (see http://darth.wikia.com/wiki/Darth_Animal). While the images are not copyrighted by the website (and so are free to use by all), the text is licensed under the GDFL (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_the_GNU_Free_Documentati on_License). This means that while it is free to copy and redistribute, both the GDFL and the original article must be linked to and mentioned. I do understand that this is a user profile and not created by the site itself, but the GDFL still applies. This is not a big issue, but the administration of the wiki request that either the original article and the GDFL are linked to or the content is removed (the former is probably the best option for all). It is also requested that you notify the users of this email. Please email me at conorscanlandublin@hotmail.com or contact the site at http://darth.wikia.com/wiki/Talk:Main_Page. Hopefully this can be sorted with little effort, and everyone will be happy. I look forward to hearing your reply.

Jedimca0 also consulted with Wikia and sent an email to Yahoo!, though I don't know the outcome of that. Anyway, here's Yahoo!'s not-exactly-overly-helpful reply:

Hello, Thank you for contacting Yahoo! Inc. ("Yahoo!"). Yahoo! respects the intellectual property rights of others and we ask that our users do the same. Accordingly, Yahoo! has established a policy for receiving and processing notifications of infringement in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA"), other applicable laws and/or Yahoo! policies. While Yahoo! strives to assist, in Yahoo!'s discretion and accordance with applicable law, in the protection of intellectual property rights, your recent correspondence was insufficient to constitute an effective Notification of Infringement ("NOI") within the meaning of the DMCA and/or as required by Yahoo! policy. The elements required for an effective NOI, and the contact information for submitting a NOI to Yahoo!, are set forth at: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/copyright/copyright.html Please be aware that you may submit a NOI in response to this e-mail. To be effective, an NOI must contain substantially the following (reproduced in relevant part from http://docs.yahoo.com/info/copyright/copyright.html): 1.	A description of the copyrighted work or other intellectual property that you claim has been infringed; 2.	A description of the location where the material that you claim is infringing is located; 3.	A statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the reported use is not authorized by the copyright or intellectual property owner, its agent, or the law; 4.	Your address, telephone number, and, if available, e-mail address; 5.	A statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information is accurate and that you are the copyright or intellectual property owner or authorized to act on the copyright or intellectual property owner's behalf; and 6.	An electronic or physical signature by the person making the submission (i.e., you or such other person authorized to act on behalf of the complaining party). If the submission is made electronically, the authorized person making the submission should designate his or her electronic signature by typing a forward slash ("/") before and after his or her typed name and follow this electronic signature by again typing his or her name. For example: /Jane Doe/ Jane Doe This format is intended to represent a signature and typed name as is customarily found within the signature block of traditional, or "hard copy," business correspondence. Once Yahoo! has received a NOI containing each of the required elements detailed above, Yahoo! will expeditiously proceed to process your request. We wish to thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. Please contact us if you have any questions or we can further assist you in this matter. Regards, Copyright/IP Agent, Yahoo! Inc. copyright@yahoo-inc.com c/o Yahoo! Inc. 701 First Ave. Sunnyvale, CA 94089

Anyway, I've no intention of going through Yahoo!'s time wasting, painful little process, so I'm happy to let it go. However, I thought I'd open up a discussion where others could suggest ideas and where we could discuss future infringements, since I can see this becoming a problem in future.  AdmirableAckbar   19:12, 17 April 2008 (UTC)