Content Creators Union offers free DMCA assistance to grids

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Press Release: Content Creators Union offers DMCA assistance to grid owners

LINCOLN CITY, Ore. — The Content Creators Union was founded as a platform to collaboratively protect content creators intellectual property rights. The CCU has now developed a methodology in which it acts as an impartial third-party DMCA agent to help grid owners and content creators facilitate the filing and handling of DMCA complaints.

Michael Sietz

“More often than not, the first contact a content creator makes with a grid about possible copyright infringement is not through an official DMCA filing,” said CCU founder and president Michael Sietz, also known as Michael Somerset in-world. “There are also residents all over that have a vested interest in not just the creators rights but the rights of a creators’ friends and customers. Guidance and clarification on how to handle these complaints is much needed.”

The owners and staff of 3rd Rock Grid have been the first to recognize the CCU as an agent to sort facts from feelings, get impartial recommendations to act upon and guide the process in a concise way.

Before a DMCA is filed, there are many options through which to clear up the matter with very little disruption.

The CCU is offering to be the DMCA agent for any grid that is interested. As for the cost, the CCU will not take money from any grid.

There is a $105.00 filing charge to register a DMCA agent with the U.S. copyright office, but the money goes directly to the copyright office.

“The filing with a copyright office is something each grid owner should have done whether the CCU is your DMCA agent or not,” said Sietz.

Most grid owners that take intellectual property rights seriously have already registered their DMCA agent or soon will. The US government has a website specifically set up for the registration of DMCA agents: http://www.copyright.gov/onlinesp/

An official DMCA is a very structured process. It has very specific requirements by law that must be carried out. Grid owners that register are granted “safe harbor” and are not legally liable for infringing content uploaded by their members unless they knowingly maintained the pirated content or profited from this infringement.

“Many complaints fall into the realm of ‘he said, she said’,” said Sietz.

The CCU’s DMCA procedures are openly documented and the CCU applies a restrained policy in any investigation, concentrating only on offending content. The CCU will not engage in any proactive content screening, but only acts upon the subject matter of specific complaints filed. A simplified explanation video can be found here: http://youtu.be/LF9lWAoj0hM

The Content Creators Union now has over 200 members. As stated on the CCU website,  members names are not published. Some of the founding members have allowed their names to be published, however, with explicit permission. There are no union dues, and no cost for the assistance we offer.

“If you pay L$1,500 for a full perm animation to use in Second Life, you do not want to find it for free in some garage sale sim,” said Sietz. “If you as a consumer have paid good money for items that have now become a freebie, the value of that creation drops to zero. Protecting valid content rights is not just for creators. It is also the creators responsibility to the customers to maintain the value of their investment. Our interest is in the protection of copyright for content creators and providing their customers with options to easily safe guard the value and uniqueness of their content.”

There is a donation button on the website, but so far the site and domain name registration has been supported by grid members, most of whom  have content for sale on a variety of grids.

“We ask only to help others, not for members to pay our bills,” said Sietz. “We earn our money in content creation and sales and give back through services like this free and open DMCA handling service. We look forward to engaging in conversation with grid owners around the metaverse to introduce our services in a more personal setting.”

 

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