We have seen a lot of ridiculous stuff from SiteLock recently, but this has to take the cake. They have now filed a DMCA takedown notice against our website for including a screenshot of their homepage on in one our posts.
In a post discussing how SiteLock was labeling a website as being “secure” while that contained malicious code that compromised credit card credentials we had included a screenshot of their homepage backing our mention of them claiming to be the “The Global Leader in Website Security”.
You can see how that portion of the page looked before the takedown:
Beyond the fact that it is fairly clearly fair use, what is the purpose of hiding people from seeing that on our website?
They also filed a notice against another image. This time it is even more clear to be fair use since in a post discussing how SiteLock is falsely claiming that WordPress installations have vulnerabilities, we included the screenshot from their post to discuss the fact they were showing vulnerabilities existing in a version of WordPress they didn’t exist in that version.
You can see how that portion of the looked before the takedown:
Worth noting is that the textual content in SiteLock’s screenshot is actually not generated by them, instead copied from other sources.
What makes this even more ridiculous is they clearly now know that their post is showing that they lack a basic understanding of WordPress security, but instead of fixing their post, they are trying to hide you from seeing an image on our website.
The only reasonable explanation we can think of for them doing this is that they thought they could get the pages those images were on removed by filing this, because removing the images alone doesn’t do anything to cover up what they are up to.
Full DMCA Takedown Notice
Abuse Department,
My name is Logan Kipp, I am contacting you on behalf of my company
SiteLock, LLC. A website that your company hosts at IP *66.39.94.41* (
WHITEFIRDESIGN.COM) is infringing on at least one copyright owned by
SiteLock, LLC.Content has been taken from our official websites, SiteLock.com and
wpdistrict.sitelock.com, and used without the authorization of
SiteLock, LLC on the website WHITEFIRDESIGN.COM.Infringement Instance #1:
ORIGINAL image URL: https://wpdistrict.sitelock.com/wp-
content/uploads/2016/
08/list-900×237.pngINFRINGING image used in page:
http://www.whitefirdesign.com/blog/2016/
09/06/sitelock-spreading-false-information-about-
wordpress-security-to-their-customers-through-their-
platform-scan-for-wordpress/INFRINGING image URL: http://www.whitefirdesign.com/blog/wp- content/uploads/2016/09/sitelock-false-wordpress-
vulnerabilities.pngInfringement Instance #2:
ORIGINAL content URL: https://www.sitelock.com
INFRINGING content used in page:
http://www.whitefirdesign.com/blog/2016/
02/26/sitelock-labels-website-as-secure-despite-being-very- dangerous-for-
visitors/INFRINGING image URL: http://www.whitefirdesign.com/blog/wp- content/uploads/2016/02/sitelock-global-
leader.pngThis letter is official notification under United States Code Title 17
Section 512(c), the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and
I seek the removal of the aforementioned infringing material from your
servers. I request that you immediately notify the infringer of this
notice and inform them of their duty to remove the infringing material
immediately, and notify them to cease any further posting of
infringing material to your server in the future.*Please also be advised that United States Code Title 17 512
requires you, as a service provider, to remove or disable access to
the infringing materials upon receiving this notice.* Under US law a
service provider, such as yourself, enjoys immunity from a copyright
lawsuit, provided that you act with deliberate speed to investigate
and rectify ongoing copyright infringement. If service providers do
not investigate and remove or disable the infringing material this
immunity is lost. Therefore, in order for you to remain immune from a
copyright infringement action you will need to investigate and
ultimately remove or otherwise disable the infringing material from
your servers with all due speed should the direct infringer, your
client, not comply immediately.I am providing this notice in good faith and with the reasonable
belief that rights that SiteLock, LLC owns are being infringed. Under
penalty of perjury I certify that the information contained in the
notification is both true and accurate, and I have the authority to
act on behalf of the owner of the copyright(s) involved.Should you wish to discuss this with me please contact me directly.
Logan Kipp
SiteLock, LLC
8701 E. Hartford Dr.
Scottsdale, AZ 85255Phone: 1-877-257-9263 x 9012
—
*Logan Kipp* Product Evangelist *Mobile: *480-232-4171 *Desk Phone:*
877.257.9263 ext 9012 *International: *1.415.390.2500 ext 9012 *Email:
*Logan@SiteLock.com <logan@sitelock.com><http://www.facebook.com/SiteLock> <http://twitter.com/sitelocksecure>
www.sitelock.comCONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The information contained in this email,
including any attachment(s), is confidential information that may be
privileged and exempt from disclosure under applicable law, and is
intended only for the exclusive use by the person(s) mentioned above
as recipient(s). If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby
notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution, or use of the
information contained herein is strictly prohibited and may be
unlawful. If you received this transmission in error, please
immediately contact the sender and destroy the material in its
entirety, whether in electronic or hard copy format.
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