Recent VP Site Downtime: DMCA Notice against uploaded content

Forum Abuse Examples
1

Hi Everyone,

Our sincere apologies for the recent downtime.
I am partly responsible for not noticing a DMCA Notice against a user-uploaded content within the stipulated time-window (and thus not acting on it).

We are taking steps to ensure that multiple persons get marked on such critical emails to increase oversight on such issues.

Meanwhile all of us can do our bit too.
Uploading any copyrighted content (without due permission) is violation of someone’s IPR. Material meant for private circulation is meant to be private. NOT to be uploaded at public forums like VP.

Simple test (if you have received a forwarded email/WA report): Search for the report/pdf on Google yourself. If you can locate it easily, its uploadable. If not, please refrain :smiley:

In future, please be super-vigilant
a) before uploading any content, please take a moment to double-check if it is freely available in public domain; otherwise please refrain from doing so, however valuable the content might be
b) please help bring to our notice (Moderators, Admins) by actively flagging whenever you notice any such violation

These two steps (if followed well) will help us keep up the reputation VP enjoys, and ensure uninterrupted service levels. Please refer VP Guidelines on IPR Violations. We always try to keep educating folks. Errors may happen inadvertently too.
We remain committed to DELETING offending content promptly, when brought to our notice.

Thanks again for bearing with us patiently.

PS: In case you do want to upload private content (you find the content relevant and value-additive to ongoing discussions, say) the right way is to ASK for permission from the Content Owner. In the past responsible VP Members have persisted with, written to the content owners, and got the permissions before uploading!. (Case on point @NauticalTwilight International Generics 2.0 thread for IQVIA content)

This notice is to inform you that material posted on one or more of your Droplet(s), was the subject of a notification of claimed copyright infringement pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). A copy of that notice is included below.

139.59.43.82
Type of Abuse: dmca
Copyright Owner’s Full Name: Citigroup Inc., Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Citigroup Global Markets Limited, and Citibank, N.A.
Reporter Full Name: Citigroup Inc., Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Citigroup Global Markets Limited, and Citibank, N.A.
Address: Fross Zelnick Lehrman & Zissu, P.C., 151 West 42nd St., 17th Fl. | New York, NY 10036
Phone Number: 2128135900
Email Address: enforcement@fzlz.com
URL(s) of the infringing content: https://forum.valuepickr.com/uploads/short-url/ebCmDbLFhWd0FFHyl6h8Ti6Pyc7.pdf

48 Likes
3

@Donald
Just wanted to check if below report can be shared in VP forum as its a mosl report.

2 Likes
4

Thanks @satishwe
This one is available in public domain. Most MOST reports are available freely online, by the way
(https://www.motilaloswal.com/site/rreports/637478080521495489.pdf)

I did a simple search with “motilal oswal 3QFY21 Results + Aegis logistics pdf”
When in doubt about uploading any forwarded report received on email or WA, we can do a simple test as above, and check if freely available. This one is.

10 Likes
7

Some participants upload copyrighted books

These are available for download on Russian and libgen websites however should not be uploaded on the site in jurisdictions that allow copyright enforcements

3 Likes
8

Not a lawyer.

Specific to the report, this is first in terms and conditions:
"This report has been prepared by MOFSL and is meant for sole use by the recipient and not for circulation. The report and information contained herein is strictly confidential and may not be
altered in any way, transmitted to, copied or distributed, in part or in whole, to any other person or to the media or reproduced in any form, without prior written consent of MOFSL. "

I think we would be better off sharing the link to the report rather than uploading the report itself if it is freely available.

Generally
Does will “freely available” test hold ? As in freely available content over the net does not mean it is legal to distribute it.

  1. If I as person take a report from somewhere and host it.Is it legal ?
  2. If for some reason the report is open to public does it mean I should distribute it(download or host it) ?

I think we are better off pointing to the report.

9 Likes
9

@scr
You are right. In general, we are always better off pointing to the link. If the link is free for public, folks will be able to access it. If not, only those who have login/access will be able to.

In this specific case, it is NOT as if someone else not authorised (rogue host) is making the reports available. The MOFSL reports are freely available from MOFSL site itself. And therefore, no harm done.

3 Likes
10

@edwardlobo
Please actively point us (Admin/moderators) and FLAG - wherever you have seen transgressions in the past, and any new ones that do come up. Some folks may be doing it unknowingly. Your help/activism will also go a long way in educating new folks to do the right thing :slight_smile:

4 Likes
15

Guys/Gals

We received another DMCA violation notice today. Luckily this has been spotted in time and corrective action is being taken.

Please NOTE this kind of violation puts VP in a very difficult spot with hosting providers and concerned institution whose copyright is thus violated.

The NOTICE period for taking down offending material is very short, and we run the risk of protracted site downtime, if we are unable to remove offending material quickly. It is a cumbersome process of removal from file-servers, and unwarranted wastage of precious tech support time.

Request everyone to
a) be alert to this and make sure to NOT UPLOAD any non-public material at VP
b) please flag when you see such material uploaded by someone (It could be that someone new to VP may be genuinely unaware, and makes an inadvertent mistake)

Before flagging do check if the report is indeed available for free public consumption. A simple search with “exact filename”) may be the quickest way to ascertain public/private document. (So that we avoid flagging every report upload :slight_smile:)

Hi,

We received a DMCA violation Notice today for the Morgan Stanley report you had uploaded in the iDFC thread as below

This is a Mar 2019 post.
Please make sure to go through all your current and previous posts and revert to us if there are any other instances where you might have uploaded any other private (not free for public consumption) reports.

Please do this and write back to us ASAP, as merely deleting the post is not enough (the download link would still remain active); We have to actually delete from the fileserver and its a cumbersome process, every time.

10 Likes