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I'm starting a company that helps publishers remove their pirated digital products from the internet preventing users from downloading them for free!

I personally check and find their products (Software, games, movies, music etc ...) and file a DMCA notice! Removing pirated content from fire-sharing networks/sites for a monthly fee.

And my next goal is to develop a system that enables every publisher to do this easily themselves.

What i would like to know:

  1. Do you think companies would be interested in my service? Would you be interested?
  2. How do i get companies (software, game, movie companies etc ... , Microsoft, apple, adobe, colombia pictures, EA games ...) to use my service?
  3. How much should i charge them?

Any comments/suggestions?

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One better idea - create Torrent spoofer - i.e. devise a way to spoof hashed pieces of files... – Daniel Mosmondor Nov 4 '10 at 22:03

7 Answers

up vote 1 down vote

Sorry, but in my opinion this service is pointless. Do you really think that pirate sites can be shut down in this way?

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+1 on that. like copy protection is simply makes no logical sense. – NetTecture Sep 3 '10 at 14:26
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this system doesn't shut down the pirate site, it simply asks them to remove the pirated content from my clients! many file-sharingsites agree to pull down pirated content if they get a proper DMCA notice. But this is very complicated, i just want you to know that it is possible so that you can help me with my questions as mentioned above. here are a some of the many file-sharing sites that agree to pull down copyrighted content: extratorrent.com/copyrights megaupload.com/?c=abuse sumotorrent.com/infos.php?page=dmca rapidshare.com/abuse.html – John Sep 3 '10 at 23:11
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Sorry again, but you really do not know what you are talking about. Probably from 100^100 sites there are some 1-3 that will remove content. But what is the point? – Ross Sep 4 '10 at 6:13
I assume, you realize that the content in torrent networks is not on torrent sites but on users computers? – Ross Sep 4 '10 at 6:28
@Ross I think he knows what he's talking about and possibly you never released a Desktop software, please correct me if you have and tell me why "crack/warez" wasn't a problem for you. Because based on your answers, it looks like you don't really know what you are talking about. – the dictator Mar 31 '11 at 12:16
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up vote 1 down vote

I would use this service if you did for people plagiarizing my blog posts.

Closing down file-sharing sites sounds like a fool's errand. But hosting providers often take down spammy websites, especially if there were multiple DCMA filings against the same account, which is typically the case.

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up vote 1 down vote

This may be a pointless idea to consumers and us, but its a great business niche to get into. Many firms have compliance issues and would invest in a product like this if it were legitimate and would even reduce the % of their products being pirated by a small percent. Specially for digital goods where the cost is in production and marketing and profits are high on each copy sold because expenses have usually been met. (meaning profits are made after a huge initial investment)

I think you can really have a winning model. I would have a "WatchDog" service for free, and let customers konw that their "script, program, movie is pirated". Then i would have a paid service where you file the DCMA dispute and have authority to do it on behalf of company x.

Even though large companies (movie studios, software, etc) have in house attornies many few have a system in place where they dispute systems like this.

The trick with something like this is not to see "Metallica" like and say you want to squash a service. Rather that your service ensures good quality and lower prices for everyone. I think i would start with all the Rapidshare and hotfile sites and then move on torrents, P2p. You will never get rid of the guy in CHina selling software or movies on a DVD.

Last work with FBI. Copyright violations are expenses, and let the hosters know youw ill file a claim.

THis is a great venture to get PR for, and can get some busineses really excited if done right. Best of luck!!!

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up vote 1 down vote

I hate to burst your bubble, but I've been toying with the exact same idea, only I'm going for a different twist to it. I've developed a custom spidering script with a custom language detection algorithm that will spider known breeding sites for pirated software, run an analysis on the content using my language detection algorithm and calculate a score based on what types of words are used (frequency, relationship between words), etc.

I then offer the client different ways of getting the content removed, all automated. The way you're initially planning on implementing the idea yourself is pointless and a waste of time and money. Someone paying you like $20 a month for you to manually find the materials is ripping yourself off big time. My advice is to get the automation down pat, it's going to be your biggest downfall.

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up vote 0 down vote

I think you may have something here but I'm to small to care myself at this point. But I know that these filings are done systematicly from some firms and speeding that up may be something a company would be willing to payout for.

I personally don't care for the tactics and for smaller operations it may make no sense. I'm a bit confused though is this software automated solution that you are building or is this going to just be a service with labor costs with labor scalling?

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it is going to be a service that i do at fist, but i'm working on automating most of the process. It's a complicated process but it is possible! Once im finished with the software, publishers will be able to do this easily with minimum effort! but my question is: how do i get companies to use my service? – John Sep 3 '10 at 23:03
Are there journals or web articles relating to DMAC and how to file to protect or forums dealing with it. I would think your market research should start there. This service can't be new so look for competitors and how they are reaching the market. There will be midsized firms trying to figure out how to file this for the first time and where what to do. Look for them and I believe you'll find your market. – John Bogrand Sep 6 '10 at 15:55
up vote 0 down vote

Actually, closing down file-sharing sites is NOT a fools errand, and it is not a bad idea at all. There's a huge problem when someone knows the name of your application and they want to download it. This problem lies in not knowing your business's--or product's--direct website URL.

  • So what happens? - Your potential customer searches Google for your application.

  • Then what happens? - file-sharing sites are at the top of the search. Now your customer realizes that it is easier for them to download a free copy than it is for them to purchase your product.

How do you battle this? As a small developer, you then spend a good chuck of your precious time making it more convenient for your customer to PURCHASE a copy. After all, if your product is great, then of course a potential customer wants to buy it. His idea for a business service filing DCMA's makes complete sense to the small and medium desktop software developers: it will save them tons of time and money!

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It's a good idea, but manually saving DCMA's is not viable for one man and if he prices it too high he risks losing out on clients and if he prices it too low, he's ripping himself off. – DigitalSea Apr 1 '11 at 14:18
up vote -1 down vote
  1. Depending on the cost I would use your service, because actually we have a member in the team who takes care of this. It's generally much not to do but it's not fun to spend 1 hour to send DMCA notices around and then a week later checking whether they've been removed or not.

If I can oursource a pointless task for cheap I would do it in a heartbeat :)

  1. No idea to be honest, but it's going to be hard even if you can. You should also focus on SMBs

  2. Depending on the company and products that you keep track of possibly, while an EA game is massively pirated a fairly obscure product means only 5 DMCAs a week

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