How to stop download.cnet.com from hosting my app?

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't want to go the DMCA route if I can avoid it.

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'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.)

If your software is MIT licensed or similar, you can still ask, but you're probably SOL if they don't agree to remove it. With those kinds of licenses, they're under no obligation to remove it just because you ask them.

Simply contacting them at any of the email addresses listed here: https://www.cnet.com/about/contact-us/ 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's a list of CNet employees: https://www.cnet.com/about/meet-us/ - figure out their email format (e.g. firstname.lastname@cnet.com) and shoot them some emails.

However, you should be prepared for them to simply do nothing unless/until there's an attorney involved.

Do you stand to lose income or receive some other kind of material injury if they don't take it down?

Edit: The help center at the bottom of the Download site took me here: https://cbsi.secure.force.com/CBSi/articles/en_US/Knowledge/... - this might be what you want?

For the future, and as a Windows/OSX-specific hack, there are HFS/NTFS extended attributes attached to any downloaded file indicating the domain/URL it came from. You could introspect this and refuse to run the installer with a suitably angry message.

edit: ah sucks, seems on Windows this only gives you the network zone the file came from, not the URL. I think on OS X it is definitely the URL though https://superuser.com/questions/1513910/windows-extended-att...

People are suggesting sending a DMCA takedown notice, but is download.cnet.com hosting OP's software because a user has uploaded it? If they have chosen to host it themselves, why isn't this ordinary copyright infringement for which the operators of the site would be liable without any safe harbor under the DMCA to protect them in the first place? The US legal system provides for considerable damages in cases of copyright infringement, so if there is reasonable evidence for a claim and OP believes they have lost money as a result of the infringing hosting, an initial discussion with a real IP lawyer might be a more useful starting point for OP here.

This is precisely what the dcma is for

Your app could show a popup, warning that a new version is available together with a link or an alternative mechanism to download the latest version from your website.

Obviously your app cannot do this now.

Hope this could be useful to others in the future.

Short answer: file a DMCA takedown notice if you want them to stop violating your copyright (distributing it without permission). Anything else is wasting time; they will ignore polite letters.

First thing to try is the "Report Software" link, and say that you're the author, and it's against the EULA to redistribute the software, and you will take legal action if it's not removed with x days.

Just the threat of legal action may be enough to get them to remove it.

Are they violating your copyright? Does the license of the software which they obtained allow them to give copies away? If not, then this is a straight case of copyright infringement.

I don’t know about your options, but download it and see if it’s actually your installer or if someone has modified it.

Send a DMCA to them. They'll either comply or ignore it in most cases.

Did they alter your app in any way? Did you check the hashes?

No matter how slimy CNET is (and that is very slimy) I don’t really consider it “stealing” that they downloaded something you specifically provided as a download.

But they do a lot of misrepresentation (apart from other slimy things) and you are well within your rights to object.

As another posted commented: this is what filling a dmca claim is for, and you can do it without paying a lawyer or anyone else. The only problem is whom to send it to. You’ll find that CNET’s download is actually download.com. You’ll have to start there.