intellectual-property internet international dmca
Is it legal for a website to require registration in order to submit a DMCA?
<p>This is about one of the big file sharing websites that currently has 30+ links to my original content. I sent them an official DMCA, they replied to make a registration on their website and use their own form in order to submit the links.</p>

<p>I already sent them an official DMCA, are they allowed to do this?</p>

<p>Furthermore, they rejected my registration twice, because the email doesn't match to some domain.</p>

<p>Is that legal too? I thought they are required to remove the links when they are officially notified my a DMCA.</p>

<p>To answer part of your question, the takedown and restoration process of the DMCA is not required.  It is a legal way a hosting site can stay in the clear for copyright infringement.  Therefore, if the site didn't take down what you complained about, they're participating in copyright infringement (if that's what's happening).</p>

<p>Since they did not take down the material (assuming your DMCA was in the right legal form), if you do sue over copyright infringement you can sue the site as well as whoever uploaded your stuff to the site.</p>

<p>I don't think that linking to your stuff would itself be copyright infringement, so I'd suggest consulting a lawyer specializing in IP.</p>

<p>The site doesn't actually have to do anything. However, they have now lost their protection from being sued by copyright infringement. You sent a DMCA notice. They could have acted and kept their protection from lawsuits, but they didn't act and lost their protection. You don't have to sign up for anything, that's pure nonsense. They act, or they don't, that's all that matters. </p>

<p>I hope you recorded their reply, which clearly says "we received a DMCA actice and we are not acting on it promptly", so if there is indeed copyright infringement going on, you can now sue them. There is nothing else you need to do. If this went to court, the judge would ask you if you sent a DMCA notice, and would ask the company if they acted promptly. If the company said "but but but Nikolay wasn't registered" the judge would tell them that this is completely irrelevant and has nothing to do with the case and that he or she doesn't care one bit about this. </p>
