Copyright Material deleted from my site

[RutKiskasca]

I just had an interesting conversation with my web hosting company. It seems that a folder containing a few hundred AMVs that were hosted on my site has been mysteriously deleted from the server.

Kiskasca Productions maintains a large web hosting account with ixWebhosting. This hosting account allows us up to 12 domain names, around 100 subdomain names, unlimited server space, 500 Gb per month traffic limit, and unlimited FTP sub accounts and email. We use this available hosting to provide space for several members of this community, free of charge or in exchange for services and assistance. We accept donations, but only one person has ever donated, and we don't solicit them.

This directory that got deleted contained the ROS and ROS2 projects, all the AMV Hell projects, RVG and RVG2, a large collection of Animix material, and around a hundred other videos hosted for various people here, plus of course Kiskasca Productions entire catalog of videos. We still have a backup of all these files, but it is here with me in Iraq, and between me and the server is a skinnly little pipe with a satellite connection that enjoys about 50% uptime and a 1 Gb/week limit on traffic.

When I spoke with tech support about restoring the files on the server side, the Indian tech support lady told me that the admins had noticed a lot of "copyrighted material" in that folder, and wouldn't be able to restore it for me, with the backup that they had. They had deleted another file on the server (because somebody that participated in the last contest on the site uploaded a fishing page into it...jerk). They claim that they didn't delete the other file, and that I must have done it. Hmmmmmm....

Anyway, why do I bring this up? Well, several reasons, I guess. If we as editors want to continue to create amvs and host them ourselves as well as on this site, we should research how our web hosting companies will react to that content on their servers. ( I suspect that my web host became interested in this folder because a girl with pretty eyes-The Animation was being downloaded from it a few thousand times a month...probably being streamed right from the web browser.)

The other thing is this...all the videos that I hosted for other people had links to their profiles on animemusicvideos.org. Now, my hosts policy on copyright material is that if they think something is a clear violation, they will notify me, but they won't delete it (right, so what happened here?) Someone elses host might have a more litigious approach to the matter...like reporting you and everyone that looks like you for copyright infringement? Who knows. The bottom line? A lot of disclaimers and definitions have started cropping up on a-m-v.org since the whole thing with the Evanesence videos cease and desist order. Is there something that we as members should be doing on our sites if we are going to annoounce that we are "affiliated" with a-m-v.org? Is there a criteria that we should follow to protect the community from the different standards for content that we may allow on our personal sites, that we link or affiliate with this site?

I will be working with the site admin for Kiskasca.net to sterilize our site, to make sure that it contains all the same disclaimers and legal boilerplate that a-m-v.org contains, and that it includes a special disclaimer that our site is in no way affiliated with the administration, management, or content of this site. I will also be working to restore our content, which will continue to include free hosting space for any editor that wants to host material that is not allowed on a-m-v.org. Not because we feel that a-m-v.org improperly limits its content. On the contrary, a-m-v.org has an outstanding team running it, and they manage their content and membership extraordinarily well. For those that want to experiment with live action editing, Hentai content, extreme violence or sexual nudity, a-m-v.org is not the place for that. To encourage the activity and support our fellow editors, however, Kiskasca Productions will continue to make this type of hosting our contribution to the community (in addition to monetary donations to animemusicvideos.org, which we should ALL do more of.)

[NMEisMIA]

I could have told you that out on the lawn, but what does it mean?

[mexicanjunior]

( I suspect that my web host became interested in this folder because a girl with pretty eyes-The Animation was being downloaded from it a few thousand times a month...probably being streamed right from the web browser.)

My bad...

[requiett]

The question is... will I care? "Oh my god," what? Why does everything gotta be a federal case with you? Yeah, you heard what I said. I said it. Do you ever have anything good to say?

[AquaSky]

Req, while it might not affect you, quite a few people were hosting their non-.orgable videos there. So yeah, it does matter, because that's a loss of hosting for them. With roughly a hundred videos affected by it, it's much more efficient to post a notice here than to track down contact information for all of those creators and e-mail or PM them individually.

[RutKiskasca]

The question is... will I care? "Oh my god," what? Why does everything gotta be a federal case with you? Yeah, you heard what I said. I said it. Do you ever have anything good to say?

Are you quoting from something? Is this a reference to some movie quote or something? I tried to figure out what you were talking about, but I reallly couldn't see where your reply had anything to do with me or my post.

Do I actually never have anything nice to say? I'll have to review my posts...hmmmm...

[requiett]

But really... I don't think it's any major deal. Just get another host who won't whomp on your ass for hosting AMVs.

[RutKiskasca]

( I suspect that my web host became interested in this folder because a girl with pretty eyes-The Animation was being downloaded from it a few thousand times a month...probably being streamed right from the web browser.)

My bad...

No kidding, MJ. You accounted for most of my traffic in <a href="http://kiskasca.net/webalizer/usage_200 ... January</a>, <a href="http://kiskasca.net/webalizer/usage_200 ... ebruary</a> and <a href="http://kiskasca.net/webalizer/usage_200 ... ">March</a>.

No problem, though. I was proud to help bring this fine product to as many unsuspecting people as possible.

[RutKiskasca]

But really... I don't think it's any major deal. Just get another host who won't whomp on your ass for hosting AMVs.

Actually, my point is 180 degrees out of phase with your understanding of it. This host isn't going to whomp my ass. Nobody can figure out why this folder was deleted. They have an old backup of the site that includes the folder with the phishing content in it that got introducted, so they can't restore from that. They had a note in my file that said that it looked like I had a lot of copyright material in one folder, but they hadn't even issued me a warning on it, let alone asked me to take it down. It was kind of hard to bridge the language barrier, but the fact that they brought up copyrights and then said they couldn't help me piqued my interest.

My reason for bringing it up on here was, like aqua said, to make sure people knew that when they started seeing a bunch of link problems for files I was hosting for them, they knew why. Also, to spark a conversation on whether we should discuss carrying over some of the new SOPs and legalese I am seeing on a-m-v.org over to our own sites. Sites in the same webring, or that list a-m-v.org as an affiliate, that then turn around and don't observe the same careful standards that a-m-v.org follows, might "draw fire" so to speak from people who don't know better or have anything else to do than go hunting for trouble to make.

I love you, Requiett. You cheer me up. (See, I have good things to say!)

[requiett]

It's not that I don't understand what you're saying. I just don't feel like reading your essay length explanations. A true master of media says what they need to say in minimal length. Why do you think those long-winded dudes on TV end up on informercials and shit?

Personally, I'm more in favor of supporting other AMV hosting sites besides the org first. I like it better when people go to the length of having their own media hosting.

And they DID warn you in that long-ass term agreement you agreed to concerning copyrighted material when you got that host.