Wednesday, November 28, 2012

DMCA: it's happened again, with Joy Division this time.

Today I received two notices from Mediafire stating the two Joy Division files (Part 1.zip and Part 2.zip) for the University of London Union were suspended due to DMCA complaints.

Dear MediaFire User:


MediaFire has received notification under the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") that your usage of a file is allegedly infringing on the file creator's copyright protection.

The file named JD - 1980_02-08 ULU (2012 master) part 2.zip is identified by the key (8nwbdu0xrzkvyge).

As a result of this notice, pursuant to Section 512(c)(1)(C) of the DMCA, we have suspended access to the file.

The reason for suspension was:

                I have a good faith belief that the use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.

Information about the party that filed the report:

Company Name: GrayZone, Inc
Contact Address:
Contact Name: GrayZone, Inc.
Contact Phone: (718) 360-9941
Contact Email: grayzone@grayzone.com


Copyright infringement violates MediaFire's Terms of Service. MediaFire accounts that experience multiple incidents of alleged copyright infringement without viable counterclaims may be terminated.

If you feel this suspension was in error, please submit a counterclaim by following the process below.

 I have no idea who GrayZone is.

This is very frustrating.  This material, while released at one point, was given to the label by US.  We enter the questionable area of ROIO (Recordings of Independent Origin) copyright.  Is it worth it for me to file a counterclaim?  Do I - as an "originator" of this work, have any grounds to do so?

I am not re-upping the files.  I also am not going to post High Wycombe (Still's CD2 from the 2007 reissues), also freshly mastered by me after discarding my 2006 work as-released.  That said, punters who did not download ULU yet can find it on the darker sides of the internets; I know at least one site that might be known as why.cd or some similar name has the FLACs available.

Additionally, Mediafire (the 2nd account I used) has suspended the analogloyalist account.  Therefore all previous re-upped links are dead.

At this time I am not re-upping anything - if I decide to re-up anything - until I finally sort out hosting.  It is expensive; with the bandwidth used the contributions from my readers doesn't really cover more than a week or so from what I've researched so far.

Due to the heavy spotlight on this blog, I question whether I can post anything not recorded/owned by me myself and I, such as my old bands.  Why would I want to?

Let's see comments.

Drew

8 comments:

  1. Your post have brought many a dark day brighter. I check your site daily to see if there will be any new posts. Your commitment is unparallelled and I would hate to see it swept away by the DMCA. Long live The Analog Loyalist.

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  2. You should definitely fight it. You have a legitimate argument and by not fighting it you allow the suits a victory that they haven't earned. It'd be one thing if you'd posted your remaster of Closer (which has to be better than the disappointing version that Rhino released), but you supplied the tapes in the first place.

    Also, I'm pretty sure that even Pete and Barney would agree that Joy Division's legacy is best served by great-sounding shows.

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  3. Obviously you should get all the support we, Analog Loyalist's followers, can provide. The first need, as I understand it, is money. If, say, a third or a quarter of the 21000 downloaders were to give a few pennies, how much would you need to be able to pursue your unvaluable work? Just name a figure. To whoever it may concern (grayzone.com and its colleagues), I buy stuff (records, cds, even digital, anything!) and will always as long as music is available on any format (and I own the 2007 JD remasters édition). Keep us posted Drew and carry on!

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  4. You've been Shermanised. Grayzone is a legal firm run by one Dorothy Sherman. Her company trolls the net issuing DMCA takedown notices and then charges the original copyright owners (usually the label) for her services. She successfully got a load of stuff pulled from Dime a few years back. Her "clients" are usually artists who have links to Warners.

    See the comment thread here....

    http://norecordshopsleft.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/steven-wilson-altamont-karma-tapes.html#comment-form

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  5. Hello Analog Loyalist...
    Don't give up too soon. At some point in the future, a Russian blogspot and file hoster will probably appear, rendering the anonymous blocking of postings a thing of the past...

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  6. Check out the Lost Turntable for a story about hosting problems. This post might have some value for you... http://www.lostturntable.com/?p=1957

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  7. Such great content, your work is appreciated. See you out there on the dark torrent-y side of the interwebs...

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