DMCA Official Takedown Demand
An (initial) official DMCA Takedown Demand has been issued for the college review at the requested location. StudentsReview has promptly removed it pursuant to the DMCA (Title 17 USC) section § 512 (c)(1)(A)(iii) and section § 512 (c)(1)(C).
Fraudulent
A third party did not demonstrate that it is the author of the review.
It has exploited US copyright law and created what appears to be (based opon our information and knowledge) a perjurious request for the purpose of censoring the student's opinion and experiences from public view. According to that law, which does not have due process or require presentation of fact or proof, the service provider (StudentsReview) has to remove that material until a DMCA counter-notice can be generated. The cost to StudentsReview is high, and the risk is high to students, if all of StudentsReview's advice and reviews somehow gets de-activated because of only a false allegation. Furthermore, StudentsReview protects the students' privacy and anonymity in their experience, and the DMCA takedown is a ploy to gain access to a user's identifying information, so that they may be attacked individually.
Pursuant to section § 512 (f), an author of a false DMCA notice has committed purjury and gross misrepresentation of fact, and is now liable for damages. It has abused the DMCA process expressly for the purpose of censorship and suppressing constitutionally-protected speech, reaffirmed by the Communications Decency Act. In OPG vs Diebold, abuse of the DMCA and purjury were successfully prosecuted, and StudentsReview will investigate that path. Existing law has already protected student and college reviews; parties may not use irrelevant law to circumvent those protections.
Secondarily, students have expressly granted StudentsReview unilateral license to the copyright of their reviews [1], but does not allow us to reveal a user's contact information (such as email or IP address).
[1] By submitting, you are granting free license to StudentsReview to use your comments and review in any manner that does not violate your anonymity and privacy.
Under our unlimited license, StudentsReview is a rights holder to the review and the data connected to it, and will protect it's author's opinion and experiences by issuing a counter notice and restoring the data as soon as possible.
Reviewing/Removing data
StudentsReview has a process for evaluating reviews for validity and falsification. It also has a process that allows authors to demonstrate ownership and remove reviews after authorship. The process is easy, and requires no burden on the legal system. Other users and institutions have used both successfully to remove reviews. It is detailed clearly HERE. This entity decided not to use that process.
Trademarks, name Copyrights, other marks of ownership
Often entities try to claim that the appearance of school name on StudentsReview violates their trademarks and copyrights. All school names, institutions, and their administrative owners are provided by the US Department of Education. These are Public License under U.S. Government Works & FOIA, and used under Fair Use. Despite being already in the free and public domain, the use of school names by StudentsReview or its authors lies somewhere between "uncopyrightable facts" (as a telephone directory may list the names of businesses) and "Fair Use" (Commentary (New,Factual,De Minimis,Unrelated,Good, Disclaimer Shown [2])). StudentsReview does not display the official logos of the school unless those have also been uploaded directly to StudentsReview by representative staff, or appear in Creative Commons or in the US Department of Education. Furthermore, the acceptance and servicing of government loans for higher education are subject to governmental accountability and oversight. Attempts to suppress reporting of incorrect or non-complying loan servicing to students may be a Federal Offense, please see the HERE and HERE.
[2] Disclaimer: StudentsReview makes no claims, promises, or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the contents of this site, and expressly disclaims liability for errors and omissions in the contents of this site. Furthermore, StudentsReview is not affiliated with any University or Institution.
