What if the due date on my DMCA Notice expired?

*IT IS NOT TOO LATE.*  If the DMCA notice that you received and/or ignored or threw in the trash has expired, the copyright holders have THREE YEARS from the alleged date of infringement to file a lawsuit against you in a federal court.  So there is time to solve the problem, if it has not already escalated into a lawsuit.

[This article is a continuation of the “WHAT DO I KNOW ABOUT RIGHTS ENFORCEMENT” article.  It made sense to separate out the topics and keep them short and to the point.]

If the DMCA notice had a deadline which has expired, since RIGHTS ENFORCEMENT is a knock-off of the CEG-TEK system, my best guess is that following the expiration of whatever date you were given in your notice (likely 30 days), a second letter will be forwarded over to you stating that “because you did not settle, now we want $3,500 for that one title,” or whatever they are asking for.  This too can be negotiated by an attorney.

NOTE: Why $3,500?  Marvin Cable used to ask for $1,850, if I remember correctly, and that was back in 2012.  Also, CEG-TEK’s business model was not to sue anyone, so their settlement letters lacked ‘teeth’.  However, RIGHTS ENFORCEMENT settlement letters are made with an explicit threat that they will follow-up with a lawsuit against the internet subscriber of your account if you do not settle.  For this reason — because their threats have ‘teeth’ — you can expect to see higher follow-up settlement amounts, akin to a settlement if a lawsuit were filed.


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