Hello, everyone! After weeks of promotion we are using this post to launch the latest tool in our ongoing efforts to defeat digital piracy. We have been working on this project for the better part of the year and believe it has the potential to make a significant impact on the liquidity of illegal music online. If you have any questions about the content of the blog, or if you would like more information regarding the distributional services offered by Haulix, please email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Today is a very exciting day for all of us at Haulix. For more than a month now we have been teasing a new tool to help in the fight against digital piracy, and this afternoon we are beyond thrilled to finally make that offering available to all Haulix clients. We call it ‘Piracy Takedown,’ and in the paragraphs below we will look at what it is, what it does, and how it will help keep your music safe.
Haulix was founded with the goal of creating a secure and place for labels and independent artists to store and distribute their unreleased media. We like to think we have accomplished that goal to an extent, and every day we strive to find new ways to further our efforts because like it or not music piracy is still a very big problem in the modern entertainment industry. Until now, the most a client could do to stop leaks was to attached a watermark to their files, which in reality is more of a preventative measure. With our new ‘Piracy Takedown’ tool, however, clients are able to actively fight the distribution of their copyrighted materials online before and after its scheduled release date without having to make more than a few simple clicks. Our state-of-the-art system, which was desinged with a little help from the the fine folks at Toppletrack, will crawl the internet in search of your illegally shared files and automatically issue DMCA Takedown Notices to the appropriate service providers. They’ll also track all recovered links and inform you when those links have been removed.
The best part about our new system is that it does not crawl the internet once or twice, but rather over and over and over again for as long as a client is a member of Haulix. It doesn’t matter if the content in question has been released or not, as long as you select to implement the ‘Piracy Takedown’ feature Haulix will combat the unwanted distribution of your files online.
This sounds great and all, but how does it work?
Good question, anonymous person on the internet. Using the screen shown in the screenshot below, submit one of your promos or manually add a new album. Once submitted, we will crawl the internet looking in all of the popular illegal networks and Google searching for your album and tracks. When the system encounters an illegal link or file, it automatically submits a takedown request to the internet service provider of the suspect site.
This next screen is to show you what a completed form will look like. You must fill in all the information in order to begin the takedown process.
Once your your files have been submitted and all the information has been added, click ‘Confirm & Submit’ to move forward. The next screen, shown below, asks you to review the information once more and confirm that you understand how pricing works for this feature. Your may upload and protect one release for free, but after that each additional release will cost a one time fee of $9 per track for the first 12 tracks of an album. Each additional song will be free. If you agree to these terms, click ‘Submit for Piracy Takedown’ to proceed.
At this point, your release will be placed into our system and scanning for illegally shared files will commence. Click on “My Takedowns” to monitor progress. Haulix will continue to proactively seek out illegal links and files for as long as you are a customer.
The screenshot above was taken less than an hour after the files were originally added to the system. As you can see, no files have been removed, but the system has already targeted more than 50 links. If you click on the numbers under the ‘In Process’ heading a pop up will appear to show you where the URLs in question:
We will be exploring and further promoting this feature in the weeks ahead. If you have any questions about getting started, or if you would like a guided tour through the setup process, please do not hesitate to email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. We will be happy to help in any way we are able.
Hello again! If you’re reading this on the day it goes live then you already know we are just a few short hours from the start of the last weekend in April. We have been trying our best to work hard throughout the afternoon, but every time we look out the window and see Spring finally starting to show itself we have to fight the urge to break a window and run to the nearest park. You’ve been there, right?
Each and every Friday we like to take a brief break from our regularly scheduled programming to update and reflect on everything happening at Haulix HQ. We are far more than a music blog, as many of you already know, and posts like this give us an opportunity to share more our efforts with all of you. If you have any questions about the content of this post, or if you are interested in learning more about the secure music distribution services offered by Haulix, please email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. We can also be found on Twitter and Facebook.
This week at Haulix HQ we spent a lot of our time focusing on the upcoming launch of our automated DMCA Takedown Notification system. It’s likely that we are still a couple weeks away from launch, but we are moving closer to going live with each passing day. We do not have specifics on pricing information just yet, but once live this tool will scan the net for clients’ files and automatically issue perfectly-worded DMCA Takedown Notices without you (the client) having to do anything at all.
Outside of DMCA Takedowns and our efforts to put piracy to an end, we also took a good chunk of the week to examine our current email efforts. Brainstorming has begun on how we can better serve our clients in this way, but plans for the future are nowhere near ready for public consumption. When the time comes we’ll let you know.
As far as the blog is concerned, the past seven days have without a doubt been our most active to date. We had a big discussion on photo pit etiquette, walked through the DMCA Takedown process, and waved goodbye to our ‘My Life As A Music Pirate’ series with a one of the world’s only interviews with a confirmed pirate. In case you missed anything, here is a full list of this week’s content:
In addition to creating these columns we also spent a lot of this week planning what we’re tentatively calling ‘Year 2.’ This blog turns one in June and we plan to roll out a variety of new content to help kick things off right.
Well, that is all we have to share for now. Make this weekend the best of 2014 so far, but please don’t do anything that puts you or the people around you in danger. It’s all fun and jokes until someone sets the house on fire, as they say.
Have a great day, everyone. We’ll be back tomorrow with an all-new ‘Journalism Tips.’
Hello again. We have spent a lot of time in the last month talking about piracy and the many things you can do as an artist to prepare for and, if necessary, handle leaks. Today we are going to revisit that topic once more to talk about the steps that need to be taken once your material has already leaked online. You may think all hope is lost, but with a little hard work you can curve the unwanted availability of your material in a big way and we are here to help. If you have any questions about the content of the blog, or if you would like more information regarding the distributional services offered by Haulix, please email james@haulix.com and share your thoughts. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
If you have been following our company updates over the last few weeks may already know this, but recently Haulix began working on a new update to our distribution service that will allow clients to automatically issue DMCA takedown notices for their copyrighted material. We are admittedly still a few weeks from launch on that project, but we wanted to begin our promotional efforts this afternoon by shedding some additional light on the purpose of these notices and the creation/submission process currently in place.
DMCA stands for Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which is a group of laws that protect copyrighted content and its creators on digital mediums. The DMCA was signed into law in 1998 and has since been the source of the vast majority of infringement issues arising from the continuing spread of digital media. There are many aspects to the law that are worth taking the time to research and understand, but for the purposes of this post we are going to look at the part most are familiar with (at least by name): The DMCA Takedown Notice.
A DMCA Takedown Notice allows copyright holders to request an Internet Service Provider (ISP), search engine, host or other type of site-owner/manager to remove material that is infringing their copyright, regardless of whether or not said copyright has been properly registered. In other words – it provides a means for artists and the people who back them (labels/agencies) to ask that their content not be shared without authorization.
In order to file a DMCA Takedown Notice, you must first establish three things:
You either own the copyright or have the right to claim infringement because of a copyright you license. If you do not have either of these, you are already wasting your time.
The alleged infringement is not covered by an exception, like Fair Use or free speech laws. Stanford Law’s website describes Fair Use as ‘any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and “transformative” purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work. Such uses can be done without permission from the copyright owner. In other words, fair use is a defense against a claim of copyright infringement. If your use qualifies as a fair use, then it would not be considered an illegal infringement.’ You do not need to understand all the ins and outs of this law to file a DMCA, but you do need a “good faith” belief that the alleged infringing use is not covered by any law which would permit its use.
The content is capable of being infringed online, which essentially means that the work in question is available in digital form. Some examples include text files (txt, rtf, doc, docx, etc), Images (smb, jpg, png, gif, etc), video (mpg, avi, mov, etc.), Music/Audio (aif, mp3, mp4, wav, etc), and images found on social networks (Facebook, Tumblr, etc.).
Once you have determined all three of these things to be true, it is time to move forward with filing a DMCA Takedown notice. It is important to understand that there are very specific provisions of the law you must comply with or the receiving agent may ignore your request:
1. Make sure you have found the proper source of the infringement – When you find your content on another website it may or may not be common knowledge who their hosting company is, but thankfully the internet provides a number of tools to aide in the discover process (I recommend domain tools.
When contacting ISPs with Takedown Notices that are often specific email addresses provided on the host company’s website. You may need to hunt for it, as no two sites are ever the same, but searching DMCA may quicken your hunt for results. If you try and discover there are no specified contacts listed for DMCA Notices, search the US Copyright Office List Of DMCA agents. It should be current.
2. If an online form specifically for DMCA Takedown requests is provided by the contact you are trying to reach it is wise to use that form as your initial point of contact as it is – unsurprisingly – your best bet for yielding a timely response. This may not happen with larger companies (like Google or Bing) generally use forms to direct specific issues to their different departments. There may be separate departments for music and images, for example, or perhaps a bunch of smaller teams dedicated to all digital piracy. You experience will vary by contact.
3. If you discover there are not forms provided and you still feel driven to fight for your rights as copyright holder you will need to take it upon yourself to send your notice to the designated DMCA agent (refer to #1 for help with locating this individual). Email will likely be acceptable for complaint submissions, but you will need to check with your specific agent to learn how they prefer to handle requests. It may be 2014, but some people still think fax machines are the best way to send business materials. Don’t waste time thinking about how much simpler or quick things could be and comply. This is another war for another day.
4. If you find yourself in a position where you need to create the Takedown Notice, there is a very specific set of information you will need to provide (and it is the same as what any form would ask you to fill out). According to lawyer Sarah Hawkins, your DMCA Notice must:
• Be in writing (this includes both hardcopy or digital)
• Be signed (whether in writing of via electronic signature) by the copyright owner or agent
• Identify the original copyrighted work (or works if there are multiple) you claim has been infringed
• Identify the material that is infringing your copyrighted work
• Include contact information so the designated agent can reach you, if necessary
• Include a statement your complaint is in “good faith"
• Include a statement the information in the notification is accurate
• Include a statement that under penalty of perjury you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
I know that list can be a little overwhelming upon first glance, but in the age of the internet there is virtually no form letter in existence that does not come with hundreds, if not thousands of examples available online, for free, that you can copy/paste and adjust to fit your needs. You should always triple check your letters to make sure everything comes across in your own voice and that the above list is followed to a ’t,’ but it’s completely understandable if you choose to use a template letter in order to begin filing your first DMCA Takedown Notices. In fact, I have included a letter below you can feel free to duplicate, manipulate, and use however it is needed. If you have any further questions about these notifications, just comment below and let us know!
I am the copyright owner of the works listed below and the following is true and accurate to the best of my knowledge.
The original work, which I claim copyright for, appears online with my permission at the following locations:
[Insert URLs where your original work is located]
Copies of this original work have been attached to this email for your evaluation and determination.
The allegedly infringing [work – image/sound/video] appears on the following sites:
[Insert URLs where your work is being used without your permission]
My contact information is [address/phone]
The information of the alleged copyright infringer based on what I have been able to find is [insert all the information you have about the site/person behind the infringement]
I have a good faith belief that the copyrighted works referenced above that appear on the website for which you are the registered DMCA agent is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or by law.
I declare, under penalty of perjury, that the following information is true and correct to the best of my knowledge and that I am the copyright owner [or have the license to the copyright] entitled to exclusive right which I believe are being infringed.
signed [insert name] on [date – day/month/year] in [city/state]
[signature]
**TERMS & CONDITIONS OF USE: While forms are commonly used and available elsewhere around the Internet it is important to understand the limitations provided by forms. A form, by its very nature, is previously written, usually to address a typical situation. Unfortunately, in law there are few typical situations. While this form will be useful for some, the use of a form should not be viewed as a replacement for competent legal advise adapted to your particular situation. Haulix accepts no liability if you do use this or a modified version of this Agreement.**
Hello again, everyone! It’s Friday at Haulix HQ, and truth be told there are only a few short hours before the weekend arrives. We have been working around the clock in recent days to prepare the next updates to our promotional distribution system, but today we are taking a step back to reflect on everything we have accomplished. Thanks you for joining us.
Each and every Friday afternoon we like to pause our normal routine of interviews and advice columns to provide an update on everything in development here at Haulix HQ. We may run a music industry blog, but that is certainly not all we do. Music security is our top priority, and in recent weeks we have been working hard to develop cutting-edge technology that take our servicing platform to a whole new level. Let’s dive in.
Before we go too far, we wanted to give a special thanks to Hypebot for the feature they ran on us earlier this week.
Okay, onto life at Haulix HQ. If you read the feature mentioned above you were among the first to learn of the next update coming to our distribution platform. We are still a couple weeks from launch, but we are integrating a new system to automatically distribute DMCA takedown requests. We cannot go much more in depth at this point, but we feel once completed this update will exponentially strengthen the security we can provide our clients and their media.
As for life on our blog, things have been moving surprisingly fast thus far in April. We ended March with the launch of our Concert Photography series, and have already been inundated with requests for upcoming posts. We also spoke with a handful of the top 100 music blogs, but for now we are keeping their names under wraps. You can find everything posted in recent days below:
That’s all we have to share right now, but we are very much looking forward to the content planned over the weekend. If you have time, please stop back by. If not, have a great and safe escape from work. We’ll see you on Monday.
