ROYOUTH is DOWN
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I cant believe it. I really cant. Friday Februray 24, 2006 I recieved the following email from 1&1 Internet who is the registrar of the domain ROYOUTH.COM:
Dear Cosmin Ghiurau, (Customer ID: XXXXXXX)
Thank you for contacting us.
Re : royouth.com
1&1 Internet, Inc. recently received notice under Section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) alleging that the above website infringes upon copyrighted materials. As a result, 1&1 has temporarily suspended your account. Under the DMCA, you are entitled to provide “counter-notice” to 1&1’s DMCA agent claiming that the material does not infringe copyrights. If the copyright owner does not bring a lawsuit in district court within 14 days, 1&1 may then reactivate your account.
A proper counter-notice must contain the following information:
1. The subscriber’s name, address, phone number and physical or electronic signature [512(g)(3)(A)] 2. Identification of the material and its location before removal [512(g)(3)(B)] 3. A statement under penalty of perjury that the material was removed by mistake or misidentification [512(g)(3)(C)] 4. Subscriber consent to local federal court jurisdiction, or if overseas, to an appropriate judicial body. [512(g)(3)(D)]
For more information on the DMCA, see http://www.copyright.gov/onlinesp/. For additional information on the Safe Harbor Provisions and assistance on drafting a proper counter-notice, see www.chillingeffects.org.
If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
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Sincerely,
Richard Winslow
Technical Support
1&1 Internet
…and with THAT notice the domain was LOCKED and I have been on the phone with 1and1 all day on Monday (Feb 27th) in which after calling technical support they just told me to change the DNS settings back to how they were ( I didnt know how they were changed in the first place) and all should be well…
doing that monday morning, by monday afternoon royouth was working again… but in the evening complaints once again came in that royouth wasnt working. I called 1and1 and to my luck after getting connected to their support team in India they told me that their ‘billing department’ that handles these issues are only in the office from 9-5 EST.
So Tuesday morning Feb. 28th at 9am, I call 1and1 billing, after on hold for literally 10 minutes, I am connected to ‘Ben’ who after explaining the situation tells me for the first time that because someone uploaded a copyrighted image or content on the site, they had to lock my domain immediately. What is really is absurd is the fact that they locked my complete package under which i had the royouth domain along with 26 other domains!
Because yesterday I tried to change the DNS’s to have the website back online (which their technical support told me to do), now the entire package is locked because of this.
Why am I writing this? Basically because I, along with 13,500 other members are being held hostage by 1and1 and their legal team. 1and1 told me it will take 2-4 weeks for their ‘legal team’ to even contact me about the matter. I already placed the complaint on ‘chillingeffects.org’. After doing so I contacted 1and1 again and after 5 minutes, I told them I wanted to speak to their legal team, they put me on hold, and someone else came on the line and hung up in my face. So now I am literally being held hostage.
What to do? -If you enjoy royouth.com and wish to see it back online asap please copy and paste this message below and send it to complaints@1and1.com
To 1&1 Internet Legal Team,
I am a dedicated user of ROYOUTH.COM which is a legal 501(c)3 non-profit organization. This is an online community of over 13,500 members. This February 24th our webmaster recieved an email that royouth.com acording to Section 512 of the DMCA Act allegedly violates copyright information on the website.
The webmaster NEVER recieved notice prior to this and subsequently had the domain unjustifiably locked and in result has lost clients and income.
Please UNLOCK the account and resolve this matter immediately for the sake of over 13,500 members of this vibrant online community!
Sincerely,
[Your name here]
Please, Please, Please lets join together to get this resolved as soon as possible. Send this text to all of your friends in your email contact list, lets join together to overcome this!
If you have any other questions, comments, or concerns please email me: cosmin@jumpeye.com
