Sending a DMCA takedown notice without full legal name?

You should seek help from an attorney. There are likely contract issues here with respect to the website that you performed on and you may or may not be within your rights to send a DMCA takedown notice. An attorney will be able to develop a strategy for protecting your privacy, but doing this will likely require a better understanding of certain details regarding this situation.

It is likely that any rights to the footage, or your likeness contained therein, were assigned to the website operator who would be free to license that content to third-parties. This being said, there are plenty of operations who display/distribute such content even in the absence of a proper license to do so. Using a fake name would not meet the requirements of a proper DMCA notice and, furthermore, if you have indeed assigned your rights away you wouldn't be in the position to make the request in the first place. A reasonable path forward would be to first evaluate the terms of any agreement you executed with the original website and determine what, if any, rights you still have.

I agree with Attorney Redinger here. In order for the DMCA take down process to work correctly, you have to assert ownership over the images and just because they are of you does not mean that they are owned by you. Further, if the entity that posted them does not have the contractual right to use them to promote their business then you may have a claim against them for a violation of your right to publicity and privacy. But I would be sure to have the contract vetted assuming there is one to make sure that you did not assent to this use. I suggest that you consult with a lawyer in private and discuss your objectives in more detail. You can start by calling around to several for a free phone consultation, get some insights then pick the best fit to work with. Best regards, Frank Natoli-Lapin, LLC

First, the law does NOT require the sender of a DMCA takedown notice to reveal her real name. In fact, the owner of the allegedly infringed copyright does not even have send the notice. The required identification requirements in the notice are specified by 17 U.S.C. 512(c)(3): (i) A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed. … (iv) Information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address at which the complaining party may be contacted. A copyright owner may, therefore, authorize someone to act on her behalf to send the takedown notice, such as a trusted friend, significant other, attorney, business manager, agent, enforcement agent, etc. Second, my colleagues are quite correct: The agreement you entered into with the company that published your webcam videos may have provisions that assigns to it the copyrights in those videos or, at least, a license to republish them or to sublicense the right to republish them. You may not have the right to send a DMCA takedown notice. This is a big deal because there are penalties in the law for sending improper takedown notices. Third, websites that operate from overseas do not have to comply with a DMCA takedown notice. They are not, generally, subject to our laws. Sending such notices to overseas companies is a complete waste of time. Speak with your own copyright attorney. Expect to be told that it was ENTIRELY foreseeable by you that your videos would be copied and republished throughout the world. Perhaps not lawfully, but the law cannot prevent bad things from happening – it most often can only attempt to remedy a wrong once it occurs. And sometimes there is no remedy.