RSS Deleted Files Lawsuit Copyright Infringement

  • Resolved seifz

    (@seifz)


    4 years, 8 months ago

    Hello,
    I don’t know how this happened but these may affect many of you. We were using the WordPress RSS aggregator on our website for a year and we were very selective on what we post on our website. Many were deleted as oppose to publish. Now I have received a copyright infringement letter for an image that was on deleted article. They send me a link that has my domain and followed by “_trashed”. Can someone explain to me how a trashed file got accessed by anyone without hacking my website? Anybody has any related experience.
    Thanks,
    Seif

    • This topic was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by seifz.
Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

  • It is not possible for trashed files to be accessed publicly.

    The image could have been part of an article that was indexed by search engines and deleted later. The copyright owners could have automatically detected that article and sent you a notice.

    Is there anything else we can assist with?

    Thread Starter seifz

    (@seifz)

    Thanks for your message but they in fact the only evidence they have is this link below. I also checked if it was ever posted on wayback machine and never been posted.

    Infringing Webpages (I emptied my trashes after the fact):
    ? https://www.mydomain.com/__trashed-6411/

    • This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by seifz.
    • This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by seifz.
    • This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by seifz.

    @seifz I would suggest that you have a word with your host to understand how the trashed files may have been publicly accessible.

    As far as our plugins are concerned, when a file is deleted, it is no longer accessible to site visitors.

    Furthermore, if the article or file in question was made available by the source site through an RSS feed, the source site cannot file a copyright infringement claim.

    Thread Starter seifz

    (@seifz)

    @hypersonic Interesting. Do you have any link that you can recommend for your last statement on RSS feed?

    @seifz I would like to clarify that my last statement was just a quick tip about RSS feed content being publicly available. However, none of our team members are qualified to provide legal advice on this subject and we therefore cannot elaborate further.

    Hence, if you would like further details on contesting the claim made by the publisher, it will be best for you to contact a competent lawyer.

    I hope this helps.

    Thread Starter seifz

    (@seifz)

    Thanks, I understand. It was very public, AP news.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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