DMCA takedown notice on my licence theme

[ZakLdn]

Hi there I have been sent a DMCA takedown notice for a theme I bought "Retina" in 2014 via Out Of The Sound Box and Shopify have turned my store off with no notice, and have not helped me at all accept to tell me to buy it from them when I have already bought it from a store that sells if for Shopify Themes in 2014.

I want to speak to a human being to get this resolved and I cant get an answer ive spoken to live chat and all they have told me to do is what the email asked me to do. Which is a counter notice which I did and im still being asked to rebuy the theme via Shopify even though I have bought it already Via Out Of The Sandbox.

I am a tiny company and really at a loss as to what to do. Can anyone help me?

[shaz11]

Hello,

i'm having the same issue. I've seen on their instagram that it is happening to several stores. 

[ZakLdn]

I ended up writing to the developer  of the theme, Pixel Union showing that I had purchased it and my order number etc.  I also did write to Out Of tThe Sandbox a few times as that was who I bought it from 10 years ago and they have never responded.

The actual developer Pixel Union who were quick to reply they requested copies of the Shopify emails  and they  wrote to Shopify and then my store was out back to normal. 

[shaz11]

I also contacted both out of the sandbox and Pixel Union. I provided them the receipts for my purchase and also the shopify email as well as the DMCA notice. I have not heard back but am hoping they contact shopify within the next 1-2 days or my shop will be taken down.

[jmp4179]

How long did it take for Pixel Union to reply? I sent an email to their support address a few hours ago, witha copy of my original purchase receipt, but have not heard back.

[ZakLdn]

took around 24/48 hrs

[Ben310]

Possible "DMCA Trolls" who initiate vexatious DMCA and IP Infringement claims in bad faith. More on that from the Shopify CEO as well as General Counsel on LinkedIn here and here.

[SurfPointBreak]

We had the exact same thing happen to us during the busiest time of year, Christmas.  We had previously purchased a theme from Out Of The Sandbox and received a DMCA notice without warning, taking our site down during a busy sale period, resulting in significant revenue loss.  Based upon no notice given or warnings and having legally purchased the product, we are exploring legal options against the company.  Since this seems to be a widespread issue, where PixelUnion / Out Of The Sandbox is actively taking down paying clients thru DMCA erroneously, we think this falls under class action territory.  

[FT-KARATE]

We have the exact same problem now 😞 how did you solve it in the end and did you do anything else? Also like changing the theme ...?

[ZakLdn]

I ended up writing to the developer  of the theme, Pixel Union showing that I had purchased it and my order number etc.  I also did write to Out Of The Sandbox a few times as that was who I bought it from 10 years ago and they have never responded.

The actual developer Pixel Union who were quick to reply they requested copies of the Shopify emails  and they  wrote to Shopify and then my store was out back to normal. 

[Hockeywebsite]

Shopify has harmed my business as well.   I have been with shopify for 10 years with three websites.  This Monday they shut down our main website.  When I asked why, they told me that I did not pay for a theme.   I asked them why they did not call me but only sent me an email that went directly into my spam folder.  I then told them that I do not have a web designer in house and that I have paid web designers over the years to build websites for me so how would I know what theme is paid for or not.  Anyway when they shut down my site I contacted them and when they told me that a theme was not paid for which was installed three years ago.   I paid it right away and I sent them the receipt.  Two days later my website is down!  We have lost around $20K so far plus good well and worst of all we still do not know when it will be back up.  I just received an email from the theme and they told me that they will try to get to my email ( receipt I sent them ) however if I paid them another fee they would expedite my situation.  Since I am in the customer service business I know that this is not the way to treat your loyal customer of ten years.  Thanks for letting me vent!

[JosephMalki]

The same just happened to us today. They took it down without notice (email went to SPAM) and we have been offline for over 24 hours now. When we saw this message from them, we were in a panic and paid for the theme right away and it is still not live. We have lost about 10-20k worth of sales and have been getting calls and emails for the past 24 hours. 

This email is to inform you that we have taken your Shopify store, ----------------------------, offline. If you are using Shop, your store is temporarily hidden in the channel.

You can still resolve this issue by: 

• Purchase: consider buying the theme from the theme developer using the link provided in the notice, or
• Delete: if you choose not to purchase the theme, then you must remove the theme

If you require any assistance with buying the theme, please contact the theme developer directly at support@pixelunion.net. If you require any assistance removing the theme, please contact support. Reply directly to this email to let us know when you purchase or remove the theme. 

Please note, we require the theme developer to get in touch with us to confirm theme purchases made outside the Shopify Theme Store.

You have the opportunity to send a counter notice explaining why the content removal was an error. If the counter notice is valid and contains all the below information, then we will re-enable your store in 10 business days.

• The legal name and sufficient contact information of the person submitting the counter notice.
• Identification of the content that has been removed and the original location of the content before it was removed.
• A statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good faith belief that the content was removed as a result of a mistake or misidentification.
• A statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of Federal District Court for the judicial district in which your address is located or, if your address is located outside of the United States, you consent to jurisdiction of the Federal District Court for the District of Delaware, and a statement that you accept service of process from the party who submitted the copyright notice or its agent.
• Your physical or electronic signature

Thank you for your attention to this matter, 

Shopify Trust & Safety

Ticket ID: -------------------------------------------------------

[maac10]

Put another one on the list. We had this theme activated back in 2018 and has been online ever since. All of a sudden we get an email from legal @Shopify stating we did not pay for the theme and the took the entire site down. Of course there was the option of paying for it again or deleting the theme entirely.  Since the turbo theme is no longer available we opted to just delete the theme and use another. Unfortunately, for anyone thinking about doing that, Shopify locks the site so even doing that will not resolve the issue. We have since sent shopify and email stating we have deleted the them but are still waiting. Shopify is becoming more and more like Amazon where they shut you down without any warning. I am half tempted to start a lawsuit against support@pixelunion.net for loss of business. 

I think the issue is the result of a merger of out of the sandbox and pixelunion. They don't care if they take down a legit site, they just want to get any money owed them. This has to be illegal somehow. 

[jmp4179]

You need to contact this address for help: support@outofthesandbox.com
I never got a reply from Pixel Union but the Out of the Sandbox support helped me pretty quickly. I also sent a reply to the shopify email address that sent me the notice - legal@shopify.com - and they agreed to put my shop back up for a week while I was waiting to hear back from Out of the Sandbox.

[SurfPointBreak]

Yeah, we did that as well.  But even with that, we were down for some time, as it took time for a resolution.  Our DMCA take down happened during the busy holiday season and we lost a bunch of sales.  We are considering legal action.  If you bought a product or service, a company can't turn around and take it away from you years later and materially hurt your business in the process.  Especially not because it appears they merged with a another company and lost their client list.  Out of the Sandbox should face a class action lawsuit in my opinion, as they have apparently taken down hundreds of other companies that bought their services resulting in probably millions of dollars of lost revenue and business harm.