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LegendsOfAmerica.com quickly consumed Weiser, and in 2004 she quit her paying job asa Business Consultant to dedicate more time to building the site into a viablehistorical, educational and travel resource. By early December, 2005,LegendsOfAmerica.com gained a following of over 13,000 unique visitors a day,including numerous educational sources, such as teachers, students and educationalwebsites; as well as being featured in the Scout Report, named Worldstart.comÂ's coolsite of the day, recognized by familyfriendlysites.com, EarthlinkÂ's Pick of theWeek, and was even named Yahoo Pick of the Day in August of 2004. It was an honorfor the Lenexa, Kansas woman, especially coming from Yahoo, one of the top web sitesin the world, which also just happened to host WeiserÂ's website.
So, it was a shock to her when Yahoo shut down the entire site -- over 3,000 pages,after an unsubstantiated allegation of copyright infringement was made in regards toa few photographs. Making their case, backed by the rules of the DMCA (DigitalMillennium Copy Right Act), Yahoo notified Weiser on December 5th of the allegation,asking her to not only to remove the pictures in question, but an entiresub-directory of photographs having nothing to do with the allegation; the removalof which would have severely impacted a large portion of the web site and herbusiness. The notification went on to explain how Weiser could reply to theallegation if she felt it was by mistake or misidentification within 48 hours, whichshe immediately did.
Weiser says, Â The photographs in question are from the National Library of Congressand other historical archives, all of which are now in the public domain due totheir publication dates in the late 1800Â's and early 20th century.Â
The accusing site, WithoutSanctuary.org features some of the same pictures in a bookabout Lynching in America. Weiser says none of her photos came from their websiteor book, but that she did go ahead and remove eight pictures that she could notclearly identify the source.  After replying within 24 hours, then not hearinganything back from Yahoo, I honestly thought that would be the end of it, and evenif it wasnÂ't that they would simply block the disputed material, which was stated asa possible action in their notification. Instead, Weiser says Yahoo disabled herentire site on December 7th, crippling her business.
 IÂ'm a firm believer in copyright protection, and the DMCA regulations do providesome protection of those rights, but to go through an accusation with no due processand literally shut the door on my livelihood takes the actÂ's intent too far.Â
Weiser goes on to say, that even though she agreed to remove the disputed material,YahooÂ's lack of response to repeated voicemails and emails to their legal departmentprevented her from getting any resolution through them.  I couldnÂ't get an answerfrom anyone. The only  liveÂ' people I could talk to were in customer service, andall they could do is refer me to their legal department voice-mail, which to date,has returned no calls.Â
Weiser continued by saying that the idea that someone could make an accusation basedon the DMCA and shut down a business, without due process, frightens her. Â I makeevery attempt to ensure IÂ'm not infringing on someone elseÂ's rights, and since thiswas the first complaint made to Yahoo about my site, I really expected them tosupport their customer by investigating before taking such a severe action andpotentially ruining my business.Â
According to YahooÂ's copyright material on their website, Weiser could take legalaction against the accuser if the material was found to be misidentified, but Weisersays sheÂ's not the litigious type. Â I just want to provide a fun and informativesite on the American West, but with a host that will ask questions before acting onpotentially false and damaging accusations.Â
Weiser successfully moved to a new hosting service over the weekend andwww.LegendsOfAmerica.com was back up on December 12th. While still in the processof reloading all the material, she has added a copyright policy to her web site,inviting anyone that feels they have been infringed on to notify her directly.  IfIÂ'm wrong, IÂ'm more than willing to rectify the situation, Weiser said. Shecontinued by saying, that although she is not a litigious person and would prefer toavoid unnecessary legal fees, she will seek legal means to protect her site fromfuture unsubstantiated incidents.
For additional information, visit the website at http://legendsofamerica.com, e-mailat info@legendsofamerica.com, call 913-708-5119, or snail mail at 7457 Quivira Rd,#166, Shawnee, KS 66216
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