<story><title>Ask HN: How to stop download.cnet.com from hosting my app?</title><text>download.cnet.com is hosting an ancient version of my app and I never submitted it to them or contacted them in any way. They simply stole my installer and content from my website without asking or getting permission. I won&amp;#x27;t get into my reasons for not wanting any of these download sites to offer my software. They are of course entitled to provide a link to my website and some do that and only that which is OK.&lt;p&gt;there is a link in in old HN post (&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=2910554&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=2910554&lt;/a&gt;) that no longer works:
&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;cnet-upload.custhelp.com&amp;#x2F;app&amp;#x2F;answers&amp;#x2F;detail&amp;#x2F;a_id&amp;#x2F;2064&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;cnet-upload.custhelp.com&amp;#x2F;app&amp;#x2F;answers&amp;#x2F;detail&amp;#x2F;a_id&amp;#x2F;2064&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;anyone know if there is good contact form or email address for any of these download sites to ask that they not offer my app?&lt;p&gt;If I am not successful getting them to comply, would a DMCA be appropriate and would I be asking for legal troubles if I submit a DCMA?</text></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>textman</author><text>OP here. thanks for the suggested links which I will try. I hope I don]t offend any open source folks here but this is commercial software with a EULA  that clearly states the software may not be redistributed without written permission so it is a license violation and has cost me some $. I found out from a potential customer that alerted me to this and said he thought my software being on sleazy download sites creates a bad image for me. I am a tiny, 1 person  bootstrapped operation so I really don&amp;#x27;t want to go the DMCA route if I can avoid it.</text></comment>
<story><title>Ask HN: How to stop download.cnet.com from hosting my app?</title><text>download.cnet.com is hosting an ancient version of my app and I never submitted it to them or contacted them in any way. They simply stole my installer and content from my website without asking or getting permission. I won&amp;#x27;t get into my reasons for not wanting any of these download sites to offer my software. They are of course entitled to provide a link to my website and some do that and only that which is OK.&lt;p&gt;there is a link in in old HN post (&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=2910554&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=2910554&lt;/a&gt;) that no longer works:
&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;cnet-upload.custhelp.com&amp;#x2F;app&amp;#x2F;answers&amp;#x2F;detail&amp;#x2F;a_id&amp;#x2F;2064&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;cnet-upload.custhelp.com&amp;#x2F;app&amp;#x2F;answers&amp;#x2F;detail&amp;#x2F;a_id&amp;#x2F;2064&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;anyone know if there is good contact form or email address for any of these download sites to ask that they not offer my app?&lt;p&gt;If I am not successful getting them to comply, would a DMCA be appropriate and would I be asking for legal troubles if I submit a DCMA?</text></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>ivraatiems</author><text>If the version of your software they are hosting is subject to a non-permissive license, you should simply be able to tell them so and theoretically, they&amp;#x27;re obligated to take it down. The DMCA may or may not be precisely the right tool (license violation and copyright violation are similar but not 100% the same thing), but it should also work OK. (IANAL, but  this is my experience.)&lt;p&gt;If your software is MIT licensed or similar, you can still ask, but you&amp;#x27;re probably SOL if they don&amp;#x27;t agree to remove it. With those kinds of licenses, they&amp;#x27;re under no obligation to remove it just because you ask them.&lt;p&gt;Simply contacting them at any of the email addresses listed here: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cnet.com&amp;#x2F;about&amp;#x2F;contact-us&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cnet.com&amp;#x2F;about&amp;#x2F;contact-us&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt; or calling them should get you routed to the right person eventually. You could also try generic emails like legal@cnet.com, abuse@cnet.com, dmca@cnet.com, etc. In the worst case, here&amp;#x27;s a list of CNet employees: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cnet.com&amp;#x2F;about&amp;#x2F;meet-us&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cnet.com&amp;#x2F;about&amp;#x2F;meet-us&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt; - figure out their email format (e.g. firstname.lastname@cnet.com) and shoot them some emails.&lt;p&gt;However, you should be prepared for them to simply do nothing unless&amp;#x2F;until there&amp;#x27;s an attorney involved.&lt;p&gt;Do you stand to lose income or receive some other kind of material injury if they don&amp;#x27;t take it down?&lt;p&gt;Edit: The help center at the bottom of the Download site took me here: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;cbsi.secure.force.com&amp;#x2F;CBSi&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;en_US&amp;#x2F;Knowledge&amp;#x2F;Copyright-complaints?retURL=%2FCBSi%2Fapex%2Fknowledgehome%3FsfdcIFrameOrigin%3Dnull&amp;amp;popup=false&amp;amp;categories=CBS_Interactive%3ACNETDownload&amp;amp;template=template_download&amp;amp;referer=dl.com&amp;amp;data=&amp;amp;cfs=SFS_Download&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;cbsi.secure.force.com&amp;#x2F;CBSi&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;en_US&amp;#x2F;Knowledge&amp;#x2F;...&lt;/a&gt; - this might be what you want?</text></comment>