Hi all,
Before I get started I just want to say that there's a fair to good chance that some of you already know this, if so I apologise for wasting your time. I'm just writing this to help those producers who don't seem to know how to effectively take down video clips from VK.com since I know for a fact that there are some people out there that have been struggling.
I'm not going to go into explaining what VK.com is to people who don't already know, just in case there are any wannabe pirates out there that haven't stumbled upon the site yet, although it's probably a matter of time at this point.
If you're a producer, (or a Russian) you know.
Anyway, as people who are friends with me on the TMF know, I recently became friends with and started helping on behind the scenes stuff with 'French Tickling'. He's a super cool guy and one of the things he asked me to help him with was to help him take down about pirated clips from other websites, including VK.com. While I was going through VK.com searching for his clips I began to notice other producers videos illegally uploaded there as well. I reached out to a few of them that I had spoken with previously but they all expressed deep reservations about even bothering to file takedowns. They claimed that VK was very difficult to get takedowns through although they thanked me for letting them know.
So I continued noting down all of the clips I could find and began sending off the DMCA takedowns after getting some professional advice on a good letter format to use for the takedown notices. In total I think we filed about a hundred in the space of a week and a half...
And it worked. As in, 100% of the clips were taken down.
So... I thought it might be useful to share the letter.
Ok so firstly, if you don't already have one, you're going to need to get a VK account. There is no way to launch takedowns if you don't. Sorry about that but there is no other way around that. That means sharing your phone number with a website associated with the Russian government. I wish you didn't have to do that but there isn't. If it's any help, FT and I haven't had any problems and if the Russian government really wanted your phone number they could probably find it somewhere.
Next, go to this page: https://vk.com/dmca.
You're going to need to be logged on for this next part but I'll explain it here.
The first box you'll see is titled: Information about infringed content.
Here is what you put:
'To whom it may concern,
I am writing to notify you of the copyright infringement and unlawful use of copyrighted material that appear on the service for which you are the designated agent. One your users (Username of user that has illegally uploaded your content) illegally uploaded a copyrighted video file titling it "(Insert the name of your clip that they have uploaded it under)"
Link to Unlawful content: (link to the clip on VK.com)
The infringing material, which I contend belongs to (your real legal name), includes the following:
(A brief description of what the clip contains. This should include the length of the clip, the setting, any distinct articles of clothing that people are wearing, and the nature of the bondage. Here's one I used previously [A 12 minute clip of a woman in a sleeveless blue top being tickled on her upper body with her arms tied above her head.])
This letter is the official notification under Section 512(c) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (”DMCA”) and I request the immediate removal of the aforementioned infringing material from your servers.'
(This is a really important line. Do not forget it)
The second box is called 'Confirming documents.' This is where you link your store where the original clip can be viewed.
Just write 'Links to official lawful content:' and then paste your link. (that's the link to the specific clip page not your store page)
Below that you have either the option to report this as a Natural person or a legal person. for goodness sake report as a legal person. It's much less invasive. That being said you will still have to fill out everything there except the PSRN. Apparently you don't have to so don't bother.
Below that there are some checks you need to tick so tick all of them and then submit. It'll warn you that it'll take 24 hours for you to hear back from them and ask you if you still want to proceed, which you do. In my experience it only takes about four hours although it has occasionally taken up to twelve.
If this is your first submission the admin will probably respond telling you to put a special code up either on the clip that you've reported or on the heading of your site. Either way you should be able to just put it up on the heading of the site. It far more convenient for future use. Once you've done that, reply to the admin telling them that the code has been placed and where you've placed it
For subsequent filings you can include this line after you've linked your own store in the second section: 'VK Code: (Insert VK Code) placed on main store page above top banner at the advice of Support agent #(Support Agent Number) to prove ownership. Scroll up to the very top to view.' They may occasionally ask you to change the code. If they do, follow as instructed.
I'll just quickly touch on removing multiple clips in a single report. This can only work if they're from the same original uploaded. If you find fifty clips from fifty uploaders I'm sorry but you have to file fifty reports. However, if one uploader has uploaded fifty videos then you only need to file one report, although I'd still recommend breaking it down into two reports.
If you want to report multiple clips in one report I strongly suggest numbering them any time you have to list them. That includes the 'Link to unlawful content' section as well the name that the uploader has given the clips, the description of each clip, and finally the link to lawful content section at the end.
Make sure that 1. corresponds to 1. across the whole report. You don't want to give these admin staff any excuse to reject the submission.
If the thought of describing each single solitary clip in one report where you're reporting twenty-something clips in one go makes you uncomfortable, there might be a way you can make it easier for yourself. Usually, if I'm reporting a set of clips I'll just describe each of them individually. However, if it's a huge number of clips at once I sometimes just write a simple line that describes all of them. The one I use for French Tickling is this:
'The video starts with a still image of a woman where the words FT SYSTEM are prominently displayed. The clip then continues into a video of a woman being restrained and tickled in a familiar room while she and her tickler speak French.' That's all you need. It's worked every time I've used it but I avoid using it where I can.
One last thing. The most difficult type of clip to report is always a clip that you are no longer selling on your store since you can't link to it's specific page. If the uploader has pirated some of your other clips you can include it amongst the rest. When you get the the confirming documents section for this clip, just write: 'Clip no longer publicly available. Can provide further proof of authenticity if required.' I've done this several times and never once been asked to provide further information.
However, if the clip is on it's own and the uploader hasn't pirated anything that you currently have available, I recommend just leaving it. There's not much you can do about it.
I hope this helped some of you guys that have been struggling with VK pirates. I'm sure some of you have been reading this and rolling your eyes saying, "I knew all of this." But hopefully there are a few of you that didn't know and found this helpful.
There is actually one other important matter regarding VK that I need to discuss with producers but I think that conversation is better had in private. I'll be reaching out to a few producers that I know and have spoken with previously. If you're a producer and you're reading this please feel free to contact me. It might honestly be better so that my message doesn't get lost in the pile.
For now I'm going to continue filing DMCA's to VK although I'm also researching ways to disrupt a far more infamous tickle piracy site.
Before I get started I just want to say that there's a fair to good chance that some of you already know this, if so I apologise for wasting your time. I'm just writing this to help those producers who don't seem to know how to effectively take down video clips from VK.com since I know for a fact that there are some people out there that have been struggling.
I'm not going to go into explaining what VK.com is to people who don't already know, just in case there are any wannabe pirates out there that haven't stumbled upon the site yet, although it's probably a matter of time at this point.
If you're a producer, (or a Russian) you know.
Anyway, as people who are friends with me on the TMF know, I recently became friends with and started helping on behind the scenes stuff with 'French Tickling'. He's a super cool guy and one of the things he asked me to help him with was to help him take down about pirated clips from other websites, including VK.com. While I was going through VK.com searching for his clips I began to notice other producers videos illegally uploaded there as well. I reached out to a few of them that I had spoken with previously but they all expressed deep reservations about even bothering to file takedowns. They claimed that VK was very difficult to get takedowns through although they thanked me for letting them know.
So I continued noting down all of the clips I could find and began sending off the DMCA takedowns after getting some professional advice on a good letter format to use for the takedown notices. In total I think we filed about a hundred in the space of a week and a half...
And it worked. As in, 100% of the clips were taken down.
So... I thought it might be useful to share the letter.
Ok so firstly, if you don't already have one, you're going to need to get a VK account. There is no way to launch takedowns if you don't. Sorry about that but there is no other way around that. That means sharing your phone number with a website associated with the Russian government. I wish you didn't have to do that but there isn't. If it's any help, FT and I haven't had any problems and if the Russian government really wanted your phone number they could probably find it somewhere.
Next, go to this page: https://vk.com/dmca.
You're going to need to be logged on for this next part but I'll explain it here.
The first box you'll see is titled: Information about infringed content.
Here is what you put:
'To whom it may concern,
I am writing to notify you of the copyright infringement and unlawful use of copyrighted material that appear on the service for which you are the designated agent. One your users (Username of user that has illegally uploaded your content) illegally uploaded a copyrighted video file titling it "(Insert the name of your clip that they have uploaded it under)"
Link to Unlawful content: (link to the clip on VK.com)
The infringing material, which I contend belongs to (your real legal name), includes the following:
(A brief description of what the clip contains. This should include the length of the clip, the setting, any distinct articles of clothing that people are wearing, and the nature of the bondage. Here's one I used previously [A 12 minute clip of a woman in a sleeveless blue top being tickled on her upper body with her arms tied above her head.])
This letter is the official notification under Section 512(c) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (”DMCA”) and I request the immediate removal of the aforementioned infringing material from your servers.'
(This is a really important line. Do not forget it)
The second box is called 'Confirming documents.' This is where you link your store where the original clip can be viewed.
Just write 'Links to official lawful content:' and then paste your link. (that's the link to the specific clip page not your store page)
Below that you have either the option to report this as a Natural person or a legal person. for goodness sake report as a legal person. It's much less invasive. That being said you will still have to fill out everything there except the PSRN. Apparently you don't have to so don't bother.
Below that there are some checks you need to tick so tick all of them and then submit. It'll warn you that it'll take 24 hours for you to hear back from them and ask you if you still want to proceed, which you do. In my experience it only takes about four hours although it has occasionally taken up to twelve.
If this is your first submission the admin will probably respond telling you to put a special code up either on the clip that you've reported or on the heading of your site. Either way you should be able to just put it up on the heading of the site. It far more convenient for future use. Once you've done that, reply to the admin telling them that the code has been placed and where you've placed it
For subsequent filings you can include this line after you've linked your own store in the second section: 'VK Code: (Insert VK Code) placed on main store page above top banner at the advice of Support agent #(Support Agent Number) to prove ownership. Scroll up to the very top to view.' They may occasionally ask you to change the code. If they do, follow as instructed.
I'll just quickly touch on removing multiple clips in a single report. This can only work if they're from the same original uploaded. If you find fifty clips from fifty uploaders I'm sorry but you have to file fifty reports. However, if one uploader has uploaded fifty videos then you only need to file one report, although I'd still recommend breaking it down into two reports.
If you want to report multiple clips in one report I strongly suggest numbering them any time you have to list them. That includes the 'Link to unlawful content' section as well the name that the uploader has given the clips, the description of each clip, and finally the link to lawful content section at the end.
Make sure that 1. corresponds to 1. across the whole report. You don't want to give these admin staff any excuse to reject the submission.
If the thought of describing each single solitary clip in one report where you're reporting twenty-something clips in one go makes you uncomfortable, there might be a way you can make it easier for yourself. Usually, if I'm reporting a set of clips I'll just describe each of them individually. However, if it's a huge number of clips at once I sometimes just write a simple line that describes all of them. The one I use for French Tickling is this:
'The video starts with a still image of a woman where the words FT SYSTEM are prominently displayed. The clip then continues into a video of a woman being restrained and tickled in a familiar room while she and her tickler speak French.' That's all you need. It's worked every time I've used it but I avoid using it where I can.
One last thing. The most difficult type of clip to report is always a clip that you are no longer selling on your store since you can't link to it's specific page. If the uploader has pirated some of your other clips you can include it amongst the rest. When you get the the confirming documents section for this clip, just write: 'Clip no longer publicly available. Can provide further proof of authenticity if required.' I've done this several times and never once been asked to provide further information.
However, if the clip is on it's own and the uploader hasn't pirated anything that you currently have available, I recommend just leaving it. There's not much you can do about it.
I hope this helped some of you guys that have been struggling with VK pirates. I'm sure some of you have been reading this and rolling your eyes saying, "I knew all of this." But hopefully there are a few of you that didn't know and found this helpful.
There is actually one other important matter regarding VK that I need to discuss with producers but I think that conversation is better had in private. I'll be reaching out to a few producers that I know and have spoken with previously. If you're a producer and you're reading this please feel free to contact me. It might honestly be better so that my message doesn't get lost in the pile.
For now I'm going to continue filing DMCA's to VK although I'm also researching ways to disrupt a far more infamous tickle piracy site.
