Fuck Playboy Enterprises International
 

I'd like to thank Legal of Playboy Enterprises International for submitting a DMCA notice to my server provider for a Playboy picture that was either part of one of MY galleries promoting Playboy, or a plug for another site's gallery promoting Playboy. I can't actually check which at the moment as my site was taken down as the server provider couldn't access the offending Wordpress post so they disabled the entire site pending further action.

It's nice to see how professionally Playboy Enterprises International deals with these problems, not bothering to even attempt to contact the site's owner in question, which isn't a big deal considering that right at the top and bottom of the site (when it is online, obviously not now) there is a fucking link for contacting me, which I am certain would have been much easier than going to the trouble of sicking their legal dogs on me.

if the host just yanked it you might still find it in google's cache

that is kind of fucked up

ouch man...

Was it a Cindy Margolis gallery? If so, a warning was served.

I agree, why not try to use the "Contact Us" button.

I once registered a domain with "playboy" in it, to promote playboycash.com sites. Two weeks later, Legal sent me a C&D and asked that the domain be transferred to them. When I explained that I registered the domain to promote playboy, she simply stated to "refer to the playboycash.com TOS" that prohibits affiliates from using the term "playboy" to promote their sites.

I transferred the domain to her and wont ever touch anything playboy again.

I only promote ICS and their reality sites now.

hahahahahaha

and playboy wonders why it is so far behind the web game

HAHAHAHAHA

Playboy has a trademark to protect. If they let you have a domain with the word Playboy in it - then they have to let everyone else have one too. Before you know it...they can't keep track of what's going on with their trademarked name. This totally makes sense to me - not sure why you have a problem with it :Oh crap

well, there are hundreds of companies with trademarked names that allow affiliates to promote their sites and MAKE THEM MONEY from domains including their name that the affiliates bought....it is just part of the game

basically, it boils down to playboy not really caring about their online division to have affiliate managers monitor what affiliates are doing with their playboy domains, so they just say "don't do it at all", while all that is doing in the long run is losing them money by not having thousands of affiliates push them because they are so archaic in their views and procedures

I dont have a problem with it. I acknowledge that all sponsors are free to run their programs however they wish and set whatever guidelines they feel are necessary. Like I said, I simply dont promote them. That way I dont run into any problems.

Realitycash has always treated me well though. So I just stick with them now.

So... did you have rights and licenses to the content? Were you following the webmaster rules? Were you not infringing to licensed trademarks?

Or is it that anything can be taken for personal gain, and the internet is free game?

Please be VERY specific, and in great detail before you blame programs for possibly your own errors. :2 cents:

I'll be more than happy to look into the absolute details, and post the full results. :)

Hey TD - thanks for the headsup on AmericanMusical! I bought a Fender Precision Bass and a Les Paul from them already! I love their "no-interest" 3 payment plan :thumbsup

From what I can tell, the issue is with a single Wordpress post plugging another site's gallery and has a description stating that the model is a Playboy model (which is what I have usually said when I plug a gallery containing Playboy content). The gallery itself is not one which I have made, as although I registered as an affiliate I have not made any galleries yet on that domain that promote Playboy.

I honestly have no idea if I violated any webmaster rules with the post, and I would have assumed that if I had that I would have been contacted and informed of this, not have a copyright violation notice sent to my server provider as the first action. I notice that there is a rule against modification of images, and when I plug galleries I always use a smaller cropped thumbnail image of a standard size to fit the sites layout, although if this is classed as 'modification' then I'm not sure how any site could plug a Playboy gallery. I am also fairly sure that there was no 'explicit sexual' images on the same page as the post containing the single Playboy image, although there is possibility that I screwed up the custom coding for my Wordpress install and it allowed this, however I doubt that would result in a DCMA notice.

As to having the 'rights and licences' to the content, given that I am simply plugged a gallery designed by an affiliate to promote Playboy I don't really see how this is relevant, as how could any site promote another site's galleries? I can't load the full terms and conditions here in Safari for some reason as I just get a giant window full of black. What conditions are relevant to affiliates in relation to getting their galleries plugged elsewhere, i.e. What do they need to make other webmasters aware of when they are trying to get their Playboy galleries plugged?

Anyhow, once I get the domain back online I will remove any that mentions or promotes Playboy (as requested by my host) so I don't receive another DMCA notice while this is sorted out :)

For reference, this is the top section of the email which I received from my host:
(the 1st url is a Wordpress permalink autogenerated from the post title)

I think it is kind of crazy that playboy set out to completely have a site shut down before contacting the affiliate to change what is needing to be changed

I hope this gets worked out, I've plugged some Playboy galleries from partner sites on mine and used the word "Playboy" in the description (as in "Playboy Playmate whatever her name is posing") and I sure hope I don't have to go back and delete them :(

waiting for the outcome of this, hope it get's resolved to all parties advantage

heh, if his side of this story is accurate i'll not be pushing any playboy content.. ever.

paysites either need to look at affiliates as business partners, or independent marketing companies providing a performance-based service.

this isn't how you should treat either entity.

too much risk for too little reward.

Try promoting Reality Cash instead.

Great content, and same reliable company.

:thumbsup :thumbsup

interesting thread

Does Playboy even convert? Their pics are so airbrushed they look like cartoons.

Any updates on this?

lol, must be fun trying to push playboy sites without using the word playboy.

that sounds fucked up

Well, I managed to get my site back online, and have removed everything promoting any Playboy content from all of my sites. Other than my contact with my host company I still haven't received any contact at all from anyone representing Playboy, and no response yet from TexasDreams since his post here.

I'm not even sure who I would contact at Playboy to get clarification of what their problem was exactly with me plugging an affiliate's gallery, so for now I will simple not promote any of their material until I get some form of explaination of what exactly I did wrong. I hope that removing all Playboy-related content and plugs from my sites should hopefully prevent them being taken completely offline again due to this problem.

For all webmasters who promote and/or plug galleries made by Playboy affiliates I would hope that some explaination is forthcoming, as I am still at a loss as to what exactly I did which warranted a DMCA take-down notice, and how me plugging another sites gallery is any different to the literally hundreds of other sites who do this and (as far as I can tell) who have not received DMCA notices nor have their entire sites disabled as a result.

I'm just happy at the moment that my site is back up :)

Did your hosting co. have an explanation as to why they didn't contact you and allow you ample time to remove the offending material instead of just unplugging your website. That would piss me the fuck off :mad:

They said that as it was contained within a Wordpress post they couldn't remove the material without the admin password, so instead they disabled the whole site. Somewhat overkill I suppose

All they had to do was ask you to remove it - and you would have. Unplugging your whole website is overkill - yes! Did you lose any money because they unplugged your site? That's pretty fucked up if you ask me. I only hope that my hosting co. would have the common professional courtesy to at least attempt to contact me before unplugging my site in a situation like this. :Oh crap

Well done, Playboy, keep biting the hand that feeds you, it's a great approach to recruit affiliates !

Scary stuf !!

Playboy's legal department vigorously defends itself on line when webmasters potentially uses it's content improperly.

With that said, send me off an email and I'll try to figure out what happened for you and work to fix it. Drop me a line at rochard <at> adult.com.

Was it Playboy.com material or playboycash.com material you had on your blog

They are two different things. I would like to get more details from you so I can understand what went on.

Please feel free to email me ice at adult dot com with as much detail as possible including details of the image(s) in question

I see you host at dreamhost, so dreamhost attempted to modify your site themselves rather than just contact you?

Glad I dont host anything there, thats fucking scary

In reality Playboy doesn't really need your promotion... that stuff sells itself! :)

hehe, nice, every playboycah rep is in here helping this guy....that is actually pretty cool

Hey Ice, when is the playboycash renovation going to be done, I am eagerly awaiting!!!

that is like saying hustler doesn't need affiliates promotion...while, yes, they would survive without the affiliates, but having affiliates and treating them like partners has helped them make millions of dollars more than they would have if they didn't have affiliates

Soon and it's going to ROCK!

Thanks :) I wasn't sure who to email so emailed both of you. Hopefully we can get this all sorted out