Getting rid of my old web site.

[ffutures]

I really want Virgin to take down my old NTLWorld web site. The problem is that they have repeatedly said they would do so then done nothing. I'm no longer an NTL customer and have no access to it - one of the reasons why I'm no longer a customer is that they cut off FTP access while I was still a customer and couldn't be arsed to fix it. So I can't delete or modify files, the only content I control is the "Forgotten Futures news" blog that it accesses. At the moment every post I make there has to end with a warning NOT to use the old site, since it's woefully out of date and files may be corrupt or contain viruses. This has been a problem for a while, but with the end of shareware distribution of Forgotten Futures it's really important to put a stake through it.

The trouble is that there seems to be no mechanism to do this - I've considered a DMCA takedown letter, but since I put the content there in the first place that seems a bit iffy. Now I'm wondering about some other form of legal action - preferably something I can do cheaply! A solicitor's letter is one possibility, I suppose, but even that would cost a few quid.

Any suggestions?

Comments

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Maybe they can be accused of illegal seizure of intellectual property? Since you can't modify or remove the information without their approval.

[drplokta]

You can't accuse people of crimes that don't exist. There's no such crime as "illegal seizure of intellectual property".

[uk-sef.livejournal.com]

I find that rather odd since I got an email from Virgin the other month claiming that they were no longer going to support the previous NTL World webspace and that I should host all my files somewhere else. I had in fact already started doing that a *long* time ago and had merely been a bit slow in finishing up and changing the forwarding service to point to the new webspace. I think Virgin's deadline has now passed (by a month?) and, indeed, my attempt just now to view the old space is hanging (and ultimately failed) while the new space (still pathetically incomplete - must try harder!) is showing instead for the forwarded domain name, just as expected.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

That's encouraging. On a quick check the front page is still there but a lot of the other pages no longer work, so maybe it's slowly vanishing.

[coth.livejournal.com]

If you can show you have asked them to take it down and they haven't done, can you go to the Ombudsman? If so, try one last "or else" letter to them, with a deadline.

Failing that, a letter to one of the newspaper or magazine consumer columnists?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Good idea.

[robertprior.livejournal.com]

I'd be inclined to try a DMCA notice, on the grounds that it is your intellectual property and they no longer have your permission to distribute it.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

As drplokta points out below, DMCA really only applies to the USA. I'd forgotten that.

[drplokta]

No point making a DMCA request. Since neither you nor Virgin are in the US, the DMCA has no jurisdiction.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I'd forgotten that.

[twinfair.livejournal.com]

Check your site again. Virgin Media announced a few months ago that they were discontinuing their webspace for all customers. I was very cross as I used it. It remained for over a month after the deadline but my site (which was also and NTL space) went last week sometime. In theory yours should have gone too or is in the process of being cleared out.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

The front page was there a couple of days ago, the rest wasn't - so it looks like the site has gone wrong, which is the worst of all possible worlds!

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I stand corrected, it's gone! Thanks!