DMCA Notice – aka Cease and Desist

[mtgrares]

My Google Project forge-card-game received a DMCA notice of violation and will be deleted. I could file a counter-notice but it doesn't seem like it would change anything. On my blog I didn't post any links to http://code.google.com/p/cardforge/ because I didn't want that project to receive a DMCA notice either, especially since you guys use it for source code control. For my blog I downloaded the most recent version that you guys posted and uploaded it to mediafire.com

This is sort of an ongoing issue. The more publicity something has = more likely to receive a DMCA notice.

I talk more about the DMCA notice on my blog.

E-mail Subject: [#833169638] Google Code DMCA Notice Received

Hello,

Google has been notified, according to the terms of the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act (DMCA), that some of your materials allegedly infringe upon
the copyrights of others. The URLs of the allegedly infringing materials
may be found at the end of this message. The notice that we received, with
any personally identifying information removed, may be found at
http://www.chillingeffects.org/notice.cgi?sID=82935

Please note that it may take several weeks for the notice to be posted on
the above page. For this reason, we have attached a copy of the notice for
your reference.

The DMCA is a United States copyright law that provides guidelines for
online service provider liability in case of copyright infringement. We
will be removing the materials on the 3rd day from the date of this
notice. If we did not do so, we would be subject to a claim of copyright
infringement, regardless of its merits. See
http://www.educause.edu/Browse/645?PARENT_ID=254 for more information
about the DMCA, and see http://www.google.com/code_dmca.html for the
process that Google requires in order to make a DMCA complaint.

Google can reinstate these materials upon receipt of a counter
notification pursuant to sections 512(g)(2) and (3) of the DMCA. For more
information about the requirements of a counter notification, and a link
to a sample counter notification, see
http://www.google.com/code_dmca.html#counter

If you have legal questions about this notification, you should retain
your own legal counsel. If you have any other questions about this
notification, please let us know.

The affected URLs are listed below:
http://code.google.com/p/forge-card-gam ... p&can=2&q=
http://code.google.com/p/forge-card-gam ... 2&can=2&q=

http://code.google.com/p/forge-card-gam ... p&can=2&q=
http://code.google.com/p/forge-card-gam ... z&can=2&q=

Regards,

The Google Team

[Braids]

i wonder if i'll ever be sent one to change my user ID or avatars on this site

[mtgrares]

The lawyers seem to only go for the "low hanging fruit" aka the easy stuff.

[Chris H.]

Rares blog site and the "p/forge-card-game/downloads" site seems to attract their attention. Rares has pretty much lost interest in the project and in the blog.

Rares, do you really want to maintain the blog? You may have pretty much talked yourself out over the years and may not have much to say there at this point in your life.

Let the blog die? Let "p/forge-card-game/downloads" die? You could still drop by here on occasion and say hello when the need arose.

[Rob Cashwalker]

The last time, it seemed like the meat of their complaint was the name. What was the reasoning listed this time?

[DemoneNero]

i wonder if i'll ever be sent one to change my user ID or avatars on this site

Bloody hell if they see my avatar I'm screwed
It's taken from the Banshee card
Well,I hope this isn't the end of Forge

[zerker2000]

They're probably annoyed that 'forge/cards' contains the text of good chunk of their cards, in a form that would be hard to present as derivative work.
Since you're not an owner of the actual project, I don't think they have any standing against you personally; someone involved with the project should probably prepare everything on google code and this forum for migration, since they may be DMCA'd as well. I doubt Wizards could do anything if we moved the hosting to Russia, and I vaguely remember a separate website already having been set up for the project.

[Hellfish]

I think just removing that project from google code to sate their bloodthirst and moving the main development to a europe-based server is all we have to do here. I'm no lawyer but I remember there having been discussion about it before and some point was made that the rules text can't be copyrighted in europe.Also, in my uninformed opinion, this is probably just more empty posturing to show they are defending their trademark since by following just a few links further from the blog they would've found the actual source repository and could've shut that down as well.

[Braids]

. . . someone involved with the project should probably prepare everything on google code . . . for migration, since they may be DMCA'd as well.

yes, i did Raise the Alarm a few days ago. there since have been many a Swift Maneuver regarding the code repository.

edit 1: i doubt they can do much about "this forum".

[mtgrares]

The last time, it seemed like the meat of their complaint was the name. What was the reasoning listed this time?

Don't know, I posted the whole email message. The first link takes you here which says, "The cease-and-desist or legal threat you requested is not yet available. Chilling Effects will post the notice after we process it. "

Rares has pretty much lost interest in the project and in the blog. Rares, do you really want to maintain the blog?

The blog gets 250 to 300 hits a day and I remember when it only got 3 hits a week, so I enjoy its moderate success. Other misc information, the average person stays 1 minute and 44 seconds and 77% of the time only looks at the first page.

I have lost some interest in the project but it is no ones fault. My computer is old and doesn't run the current version of Forge. And truthfully I can only run the October version from last year which is the last release before the card files were individually split-up. I could put up a Paypal donation link for a new computer but I never had the guts (really).

You may have pretty much talked yourself out over the years and may not have much to say there at this point in your life.

Very true, I often use topics from the forum and then cut-and-paste the post (while giving the original author credit).