Protect Your Content !
Now that you have read the prior three articles – which you can find here;
Part 2 – https://adultbizlaw.com/2020/05/19/new-to-onlyfans-heres-what-you-need-to-know-part-2-class-is-in/
You need to know how to protect your content from theft and copyright infringement. Someone can simply come along and download/copy your content, strip off any watermark you may have on it, possibly even blur or cut out your face, repost the content as their own and begin collecting income off your hard work. This recently happened to several models whose photos and videos were infringed by another model who had a similar look and body. It was alleged that in one week, the woman who stole the content made $21,000 from the stolen content. So as you can see, infringement does pay. So you need to lock your content down and prevent people from stealing and reposting it.
Unfortunately, that is not an easy or inexpensive process. It will require time, effort and investment.
Copyright, Copyright, Copyright !
The first, the easiest and least expensive way to protect your content is to register a copyright for it. A copyright is a way to tell the world that you own that content. Again, I could fill a book on the topic of copyright. Entire practice guides for lawyers are devoted to copyright enforcement and infringement. Unfortunately, I cannot go into that level of detail in this article. However, I have previously discussed the issue of registering your copyrights. You can find a link to that article below. I recommend that you read it and then return to this article and continue reading.
Copyright, Piracy and the DCMA
One aspect that registering your content with the US Copyright Office is that it shows anyone who may want to steal your content that you are serious about protecting your work. Those Content Creators who are too lazy to file for and receive this basic level of protection are basically telling thieves and infringers that they do not care enough about their own content to protect it, therefore its likely you won’t do anything to them once its stolen. It’s like leaving the front door of your house open to burglars. You would lock your front door, and you should register your copyrights.
If you were just insulted because you don’t register your copyrights and I called you lazy, I apologize, but it literally takes just a few hours each month to complete the registration process. Spending hundreds of hours shooting and editing content, and then not spending a few hours to register the copyrights is laziness. And I can promise you that not registering your copyrights will cost you money.
Trademarked Watermarks & Logos
The next level of protection you can have when it comes to making sure your content is not stolen or infringed, is registering a trademark for the logo or the name that you embed on your content. First, if you are not adding a watermark to your videos, you should do so immediately. The watermark may be your company logo, or it may be the domain name of your website address or it maybe your performer name. Whatever you choose to embed into your content, I would suggest that you also have it registered as a trademark or service mark with the US Patent and Trademark Office.
The benefits of having a trademarked logo embedded into your videos is immense. I have found that it is much easier to remove my client’s content from tube sites and illegal offshore hosting companies when I send a Cease & Desist letter under a theory of trademark infringement as opposed to a DMCA take down notice for copyright infringement. The DMCA has no real teeth to it. Honest companies will abide by your DMCA requests but dishonest companies and tube sites will have your content reposted in a few days. Once a trademark C&D is sent, it is on that webhost or tube site to make sure your content stays down. That is not true with the DMCA.
To learn more about trademark and piracy see – https://adultbizlaw.com/2012/11/15/piracy-trademark-law-a-way-to-stopcontent-theft/
Unlike copyrights, I would recommend that you do not DIY with trademarks. Trademark registration is far more complicated and expensive. If you make a mistake you may have to start all over again and pay an additional filing fee. Further, if your filing is incorrect, your trademark may be worthless.
You should definitely hire an experienced adult industry attorney that understands the issues surrounding registering a trademark for models and performers with large fan bases and potential stalkers. If done incorrectly an inexperienced lawyer can expose your real name to stalkers. I have filed dozens of trademarks for adult performers and for some of the largest companies in adult. There is a way to do it right.
DMCA Take Down Services
Despite my above mention comments about copyright and DMCA, I still think its important that each Content Creator, utilize the services of a DMCA take down service. These are companies that usually charge a monthly rate to automatically scan the Internet for your content, and if they find it on a tube site or another file sharing site, they send a DMCA letter on your behalf demanding that your content be removed.
They may send a few letters a day on your behalf or dozens. It depends on how popular your content is and how widely it’s been stolen and infringed. Obviously, the more widely your content is shared on free sites, the less likely customers will pay you for it.
Depending on the costs of the service, I would highly recommend hiring one such as;
They have been around forever and are well respected in the adult industry. They have removed millions of illegally uploaded and infringed videos. However, be aware, as good as they are, and this is true with all DMCA take down services, they will not be able to get all of your content removed from every site. That’s when you may have to hire an attorney to assist. Often a letter from an attorney will have more effect than from a notice from a DMCA agent.
Conclusions
I cannot recommend strongly enough that you immediately do the following;
- Register your content with the US Copyright Office;
- Hire an adult attorney and register your logo as a trademark; and
- Hire a DMCA take down service to send DMCA take down notices for you.
While registering your content and sending DMCA take down letters may result in most of your content from being stolen and illegally uploaded, having a trademarked logo embedded on your videos provides even greater protection.
While these steps are neither cheap nor easy, they are necessary to make sure that your content is protected. The sooner you take these steps, the better protected your content will be. If a majority of your content has already been stolen or infringed, it will be much more difficult, if not impossible to protect that content after the fact. You must register your copyrights within the first 90 days after you post your content to your account for the strongest protection.
AdultBizLaw.com 
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