This document showcases how Saruei continues to censor and remove fan art from all platforms through a DMCA service called CamModelProtect. All links, including the rule34 ones should not contain any NSFW content on the direct pages linked. We start with terminology to clear up confusion.
This document explains the following points
You can’t easily use the DMCA to strike down fan works because many are protected by fair use under U.S. copyright law (17 U.S.C. § 107). - https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/107
Fair use permits non-commercial, transformative works (like fan fiction or fan art) if they add new meaning, use minimal original content, and don’t harm the market for your work. Since fan works often meet these criteria, DMCA takedowns can be risky, legally challenged, and may alienate your fanbase.
Instead, a cease-and-desist letter can directly request the creator to stop using your IP, avoiding platform disputes and fan backlash. Alternatively, IP law (copyright or trademark) can address significant infringements through court action.
When you use CamModelProtect to submit DMCA takedown notices, they only file on your behalf. Saruei remains legally responsible for the DMCA notices , as stated in the Terms of Service at CamModelProtect.
Screenshot from https://CamModelProtection.com/terms-and-conditions .
It is important to understand that when you sign up for a cheap service such as this, there is not a human handling these takedown notifications for you. Instead, a bot scans search engines for your claimed terms and blindly takes down anything matching the keywords you select in their panel.
It’s not typical to see DMCA takedown notifications for sites publicly. One site, where it is possible, is Google. Let us start with some examples there. CamModelProtect filed 202 DMCA takedown notices for Saruei in total to Google, most of which seem correct at a glance.
https://lumendatabase.org/notices/51284005 filed on on April 25, 2025
The highlighted section shows the url targeted and removed from Google, for the website is required by law , to be considered before sending a DMCA takedown.
We have countered the takedown notice for this query multiple times, but upon the content being restored by Google and various search engines, the same takedown gets filed again. This has visible damage to our search ranking:
This image shows how after a DMCA this page is then entirely removed from Google search results, censoring all of Saruei’s fan content from Google. This is the effect of the https://lumendatabase.org/notices/51284005 notice.
In the past we sent counter notifications to Google. As CamModelProtect does not respond to the counter claim, the content gets restored in ten business days.
An email from Google after sending a counter notification, indicating that since CamModelProtect did not respond the search query is restored. On Oct 24 2024
At this point, Saruei or CamModelProtect can take legal action against Rule34.xxx , as per the DMCA law. They, however, instead choose to file the same takedown to Google. Repeating this song and dance, over and over and over again. This is fraudulent behavior and opens them to liabilities.
“ If a copyright holder knowingly misrepresents that a use is infringing when it is actually a fair use, they can be held liable for damages under Section 512(f) of the DMCA.”
Take this example of a takedown to her Fandom wiki page below:
https://lumendatabase.org/notices/51284005 filed on August 1 2024 targeting her own fandom page
In an attempt to explain the ramifications of your actions, having unmoderated bots scan and submit these takedowns in your name * will* cause damage to your brand and reputation. By removing your name from the internet, no one will be able to find you and destroy any chance of new interest being developed by new people.
There are countless sites receiving the same treatment. This screenshot is cropped, but contained thousands of urls.
A DMCA to Google targeting safebooru for all of Saruei’s fan work filed on Oct 28 2024
If you search “saruei_(vtuber)” or “saruei” on Google you will see the following on the bottom of each page:
It means the result was removed from Google.
Moving to direct DMCA takedown notices. It’s impossible to know how many sites are impacted, but Danbooru received the same complaint and removed all fan work from the website. This means DMCA takedown notices are being filed for both SFW and NSFW fan art. The same complaint was also sent to Gelbooru, but they are not complying and are currently in the process of suing the individuals responsible for this illegal behavior. We do not have any part in that.
Screenshot from Danbooru’s Discord indicating danbooru also received the DMCA for all fan art. https://discord.com/invite/eSVKkUF, Evazion is the owner.
Screenshot from Danbooru’s website on Aug 4 2025 for saruei’s tag, these images will likely be DMCA’ed soon. 4 pages with no content.
Rule34.xxx receiving DMCA takedown notices for Saruei from CamModelProtect on the following dates:
[ Apr 8 2024, Jun 24 2024, Jul 8 2024, Sep 9 2024, Sep 26 2024, Sep 30 2024, Oct 28 2024, Nov 18 2024, Nov 20 2024, Jan 24 2025, Jan 25 2025, Mar 31 2025, Apr 7 2025, Apr 20 2025, Apr 21 2025, Apr 28 2025, Jun 2 2024, Jun 21 2025, Jul 24 2025, Jul 25 2025, Jul 31 2025 ]
Provided is a list of urls that they demanded to be taken down via the DMCA process, most of which they did not create themselves: https://docs.Google.com/document/d/1cPROdREb5L37RSIzOHubcAhpcL0kSUrQZ-thUwYlCNM/edit?tab=t.0
You can find more and some of our replies here: https://rule34.xxx/index.php?page=forum&s=view&id=31717
DMCA from CamModelProtect, answered within 24H as per our policy
This section needs some explanation. When we stated, “previously on dates this year” should be, due to how time progresses, be inferred as “last year.” We have tried to communicate so many times that we lost track, but we have never received a reply to any of our emails regarding Saruei.
Due to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, I cannot reveal the “who” that CamModelProtect is representing, but I can tell you with 100% certainty the name they provide for Saruei is false. Using a false name on a DMCA notice constitutes perjury, violating 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3)(A)(vi), and, again, can lead to legal consequences.
Sharing X DMs with names is something I do not want to do outright, but I feel that it is incredibly important to include them. So here are their answers to my questions with anonymous names. The following is the question I asked all of them:
The answers:
Twitter DMS to artists
In the case of “ artist #8” , their content was taken down from DeviantArt. When you hire a third party DMCA company that just issues shotgun takedowns without any human review, this happens.
Saruei cannot be directly messaged on Discord, as per their account settings on the platform. I communicated instead through a mod, who in turn communicated the issue with Saruei. Their logic is that since artists don’t upload art directly to Rule34, they somehow have the right to take down all fan works. This, of course, is not true and only serves as a confirmation that they have absolutely no idea what they are doing, have no foresight about how one action can lead to incredibly negative repercussions by the simple fact of how their business is not growing and is actually causing new visitors to her to drop dramatically.
Discord screenshot #1 and #2 at April 9 2024 with Saruei’s mod telling me to contacted the “DMCA team”
After months of attempting to solicit a reply from their “DMCA Team”, I then tried to give Saruei a heads up directly to her email, the screenshot attached to the email is the lumenreport screenshot attached to this doc.
Direct email sent on Aug 11 2024, never got a reply.
Attempting to resolve the constant fan art takedowns with CamModelProtect, Saruei’s mod, or Saruei directly did not resolve the issue at hand, as we went unanswered to our concerns. We decided to reject the DMCA for all the fan work due to no response from the parties involved. This is not something we can take lightly; by doing this, our platform can potentially lose our safe harbor protections afforded to us by the law.
For over a year, we have attempted to get in touch with someone. Any human. We have not succeeded. We needed a high visibility way to get noticed, and it finally worked. This was posted on X. https://x.com/slayerduckie/status/1950165436525314434
The only response I get is this:
https://x.com/Saruei_/status/1951343828511965280
The image in question they claim was infringing, was uploaded after I made my X post , and was already flagged for deletion for being paid content by the community (without any DMCA on Saruei’s part) as can be seen under the options.
Text of the image states: “ A Rule34 user/mod claims I file 'fraudulent DMCA takedown notices', yet many are works I commissioned or my own Fansly animations. They host my content under a Fansly category while calling my takedowns fraudulent, even though AI slops or fan arts from artists I haven’t worked with remain .”
Saruei then proceeds to rile up her Discord, and cheers when the post was falsely flagged with a community note, a note that has since been removed for being false .
The “AI slop” was already deleted weeks ago, even though she does not have copyright over those , and the only reason the fan art remains is because we chose to reject the DMCA with the risk that comes with it. This post isn't the “gotcha” moment she thinks it is. This is her admitting to committing a felony. And then takes a move from the playbook of Pirate Software, doubling down.
I had personally hoped we could finally resolve the whole DMCA issue as I indicated in a reply to her post: https://x.com/slayerduckie/status/1951453745423737000 but after my reply I was met with silence.
She acknowledges she saw my replies on her latest stream and said, quote: “I don’t want to lose my time on it because it’s fucking useless, I said what I have to say” and to “Talk to the DMCA people.” She then proceeds to slander the platform for being a “piracy website” in a 6-minute rant.
It’s an absolute joke that we’re being labeled by Saruei as a piracy website, considering we do not allow paid content on our platform and ban users for uploading it.
Rule34.xxx is a platform with the intent to be an archive, index, and search engine for art that falls within the scope of the fictitious “internet rule” #34. We enable users to share works they have produced, showcasing their favorite characters, interests, and whatever else they want to focus on, that fall within the scope of our terms of service and uploading guidelines. Our goal is to drive as much exposure and traffic to artists as possible, either through the source field or artist banners, or simply by giving them a platform to host their content that may not be allowed on other services. Banners are provided freely by meeting a basic threshold of qualifications of “not using AI”, and “uploading a minimum amount of illustrations”, and “following our upload guidelines”.
Our moderation team is only able to review uploads for potentially harmful illegal content , and we rely on valid DMCA takedowns to terminate repeated offenders accounts who upload paid content. Any copyright claim is handled within 24 hours, and we don’t need your address or real name.
See https://rule34.xxx/index.php?page=forum&s=view&id=4255 for the procedure.
We have thousands of new uploads every day and 5 million people visiting and will uphold standards of human review, unlike other large platforms.
We did everything in its power to attempt to remedy the situation in private. We attempted to communicate through Discord, direct email to Saruei, emails to CamModelProtect, and official counter notifications, and were met with no response.
At this point, we will abide by Saruei’s legal demands and censor all her fan art on Rule34, which is, of course, what her end goal always was. She does not care about your fan art, and it WILL be hit with a notice if you use her name on it. She likely sees other people making content with her character as competition to her own business. Which it obviously is not.
