OT: How to shut down pirate DVD reseller sites?

ken c wrote on 4/26/2009, 7:12 AM

Hi, on the topic of piracy, I've noticed a disturbing trend of pirate sites that actually sell bootleg DVDs, have fake whois domain info, making it very hard to shut them down... any ideas on how to stop them?

I know if they take paypal/google checkout I can (and have) filed info (DMCA abuse complaint C&D) w/them, but they just re-open a new account... it's like "whack a mole" type of thing, shut it down, another pops up.

Though the general consensus from internet marketers is, don't both trying to fight piracy, it's a losing battle, focus instead on your paying customers .... (and to an extent I agree since it's impossible to plug all the leaks) ... it would be helpful to know how to shut down an overt pirate site that blatantly pirates/copies my high-priced dvd systems at a fraction of retail... any ideas/tips?

Some of these sites are very professional looking, and average users may assume they're "legit", even though they're not.

thx,

-k

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Comments

Serena wrote on 4/27/2009, 10:40 PM

In Australia to rent out a DVD you must have the permission of the copyright owner. Where DVDs are imported for the purpose, that permission is incorporated in the contract. Otherwise you're out of bounds and can be sued.

The discussion in this thread has concentrated too much, in my opinion, on the particulars of the products in question. I've no idea whether Ken's DVDs provide valuable information or are overpriced or misleading or whatever, but isn't that irrelevant? I get peeved when people copy my DVDs (for their personal use OK, for their friends and relatives not OK) and would be very annoyed if they started selling those copies.