Gentoo Package Accused of Violating DMCA

cshields2 writes "A recent post to the Gentoo mirrors mailing list passes along a DMCA violation claim that one of the mirror admins recieved. Supposively their bot saw the words "Pac" and "Man" in the filename INFMapPacks123FULL-MAN.zip and assumed it was an illegal copy of PAC-MAN. The file is actually for Unreal Tournament Infiltration. This is comical in one sense, but to be read by a hosting company who does not know any better can be frightening. Has anyone else ran into this with good (or even bad) outcomes?"

Comments

That's a big Pac Man

[TexTex]

161MB for Pac Man, eh? Must be all fancy and stuff...

Re:That's a big Pac Man

[KillerHamster]

Maybe it's based on the leaked Doom 3 alpha engine. I bet the ghosts look way cool.

excellent!

[lance_link]

i strongly support this kind of idiocy: there's no better way to discredit the DMCA than to let it do the work for you. in fact, developers should start naming their software after their favorite songs, movies, books -- the sky's the limit! any suggestions? :)

RPM users beware

[DeathPenguin]

Does this mean that the Redhat Package Manager violates the DMCA? If so, I'm glad I use Portage :)

I kid because I love...

Re:RPM users beware

[I start fires]

Dear Gentoo User

We have a good faith beleif that your Portage file is infringing on copyright for our member Rage Against the Machine.
We ask that you immediately delete all copies of Portage or you will be assumed guilty without a trial and sentenced to a term of no less than 5 years in a federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison.

Have a nice day! :-) :-) :-)
RIAA

Re:RPM users beware

[DeathPenguin]

Dear Slashdot,

We believe that one or more of your users is violating Microsoft(C) copyright by using the word "start" in his name. This is obviously an IP infringement on the Microsoft(C) Windows(C) Start Menu(C). We ask that you remove the word "start(C)" from all user accounts, webpages, and files hosted on any domain owned by the Open Source Developers Network. Failure to comply will result in fines of up to $75,000 per infraction and possible jailtime and / or vaporization.

--Microsoft(C) DMCANazi(C) Deptartment(C)

Automated law?

[Control-Z]

You know, if they want to use computers to help search for copyrighted material, I guess that's fine. But a *person* should actually *look* at the material before they start sending violation notices. What's next, computer lawyers, computer judges? It's the end of the world, I tells ya.

This reminds me of the Simpsons. Homer's car has been impounded by the city of NYC (at the World Trade Center actually), and he's on a pay phone with an automated system:

Pleasant Female Voice: Thank you for calling the Parking Violations Bureau. To plead 'Not Guilty' press one now.
(Homer presses one)
Pleasant Female Voice: Thank You. Your call has been...
Gruff Male Voice: Rejected.
Pleasant Female Voice: You will be assessed the full fine, plus a small...
Gruff Male Voice: Large lateness penalty.
Pleasant Female Voice: Please wait by your vehicle between the hours of nine A.M. and five P.M. for Parking Officer Steve...
Gruff Male Voice: Grabowski.

Re:new trouble

[henrik]

It is not a signed contract so it is not valid in court. At least not in countries with a valid legal system.

Sounds like a script.

[MongooseCN]

It sounds like someone has a script checking filenames for certain words. How else would someone think that file contains Pac Man the game? What is the world coming to? Automated lawsuits?

Good Morning. Law Bot has found 2431 possible lawsuits today. Would you like to proceed with 2431 litigations? (Y/N)

Y

Thank you. Law Bot will now attempt to find an open relay to distribute litigations by email.

Got me on this one

[Bazman]

I run a web site for substance hardness testing. We make kit that does standard dent and scratch tests for a variety of materials. One of our directories is called:

MetallicAlloysDentersAndManuals

Baz

PS no i dont really

Re:Got me on this one

[stwrtpj]

Dear Bazman:

The RIAA wishes to inform you that you are violating our copyrights. Our patented DMCAbots(tm) have seen through your thin attempt at obfuscation. You would like us to think you have fake copies of Metallic in this directory, but we know you were far more clever than this:

MetallicAlloysDentersAndManuals

We will now proceed to sue you on behalf of Madonna for amounts of money so vast, modern mathematics has no way to depict them.

Signed, the RIAA.

DMCA

[Catskul]

Can we get them with the DMCA since they are circumventing that guys SPAM protection?

Maybe we can go after all spammers that way.

Re:Action Plan

[pestilence4hr]

So who wants to spearhead this?

I nominate Al Gore. He's the one who invented this whole intrenat thingy anyways.

Re:This is stupid

[Gortbusters.org]

Yeah! What do they think this is, some sort of end user license agreement?!

Now portage has everything!

[Blaze74]

emerge dmca

Re:Damnit, pacman has become BIG all the sudden

[Hatta]

They must have over 3000 copies of pacman! Damn, are they in trouble.

Re:new trouble

[Nodatadj]

Of course not.
But those weren't "appropriate copymark markings" in that disclaimer

And hey, if the spelling in your book is as bad as that post, I don't think you've got anything to worry about really.

Re:This is stupid

[CatPieMan]

I personally want to know what they hell they put in that pac man game to make it 161 MB

>Infringement Detail:
>Infringing Work: Pac Man
>Filepath: /mount/3/gentoo/distfiles/
>Filename: INFMapPacks123FULL-MAN.zip
>First Found: 8 Aug 2003 09:38:44 EDT (GMT -0400)
>Last Found: 8 Aug 2003 10:42:12 EDT (GMT -0400)
>Filesize: 161,212k
>IP Address: 12.165.49.28
>IP Port: 21
>Network: FTP
>Protocol: FTP

This must be some new Uber pac man with cool 3-d graphics that require a Radeon 179002038487483 or an nVidia gForce 405 to run. I mean seriously, how much bloat can you put into pac man to make it 161,212k, the old Atari version could not have been more than 100k at most (I don't know the limit of an Atari from that time).

-CPM

In other news

[ianjk]

SCO files a infringement suit against gentoo claiming both 'Pac' and 'Man' are their intellectual property. All Unreal users must purchase a license or face prosecution under the DMCA. Licenses are availible at their website www.extortion.sco.com

Penn State Astronomy, the House of Usher

[mph]

Yes, things like this have happened before. A few weeks ago, it was widely reported that the RIAA complained to the Penn State astronomy department about what they thought were mp3's of young, black R&B star Usher.

In fact, they were mp3's of original a capella music about astronomy. On the same web page, there were references to Prof. Emeritus Peter Usher, an elderly, white, generally unhip astronomer whose recent contributions to the field include an analysis of the astronomical context of Hamlet .

The good folks of the department were kind enough to issue widely-distributed press releases mocking the RIAA, who later apologized for the error.

Oh well...

[te amo]

I guess I'll have to find a new name for my latest project: BritneySpearsAVIMP3WarezSuperMarioBrosWindowsXPEpi sodeIII. (It turns Caps Lock on when you sneeze)

Cease and Desist to the extreme

[Punk Walrus]

Many years ago at a well-known ISP, we had a pretty funny and cool guy who worked with us who had the e-mail godzilla@[our_ISPcompany_email.com]. He got a cease and desist order in 1998 from Toho Co., Ltd, stating Godzilla was a copyright of Toho Co., Ltd, and that if he did not give up his e-mail account name, Toho Co., Ltd would sue him and our company for international copyright infringment of Toho Co., Ltd. Then they wanted to take over the e-mail account for the upcoming Godzilla 2000 movie.

This letter was hysterical because apart from being in slightly broken English, it mentioned the name "Toho Co., Ltd" about every sentence, and was full of self-praise about how great and honorable Toho Co., Ltd was.

At first, he ignored it. Then the company came down on him because they got a letter from Toho Co., Ltd's lawyers. There was some debate, and the company decided that it wasn't worth their time to try and deal with this, so they dropped the issue.

The coworker *was* a Godzilla fan, so he wrote back to Toho Co., Ltd that "Godzilla" was not a trademark, but "Gojirra," the proper kanakata spelling was a trademark, and he did not have an account with that name, nor did he have the ability to open an account with that name unless they paid or company for the e-mail address.

They never replied. He had the letter posted on his door for a while, with a photoshop of Godzilla attacking our building. Then Godzilla 2000 ("Ferris Beuller vs. Godzilla") came out, and I think Toho Co., Ltd probably never wanted to deal with Americans again.

__________________________________________________ _
www.punkwalrus.com - As seen on "The Gong Show"

but what if...

[Anonymous Coward]

What if it was really a PacMan ROM? Are we really sure that Gentoo isn't a conspiracy to deprive the developers of PacMan out of $$?

Funny funny.

[Upright Joe]

I wish I would get one of these. I think everybody should pick their favorite arcade game, zip up some random binary data, name the zip file after their favorite game, then put it up on their website with a hidden link such as a 1 pixel transparent gif or such.

Re:Suggestion - DMCAbot honeypot

[Anonymous Coward]

use iso files of endlessly looped mp3's:
the RIAA sucks.
the DMCA sucks.
SCO sucks (I had to throw this in)
I would not let Hilary R. suck

Make sure all files are multi-part encrypted zipped iso files of at least 650 to 700 meg.
limit the download speed of these files to 2.8 kbps! ....

do not allow restarts on the file downloads!

name the files:
MetalLicka
Madumbass
decss
Unicwarez 11.0

Re:Suggestion - DMCAbot honeypot

[mopslik]

...intentionally misrepresenting yourself as something you're not in the digisphere...

People do that? Who'd have thought? Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to my chat with this hot, 18-year-old blonde and her two girlfriends...

Re:Got a few of these, told them to go to hell.

[vegetablespork]

As a Speakeasy customer, please allow me to tell you that you are the wind beneath my wings.

Re:This is insane

[Anonymous Coward]

Man, I wish I could hex bitches into sleeping with me...

Re:Let's Have Some Fun!

[mickwd]

Yeah, because we all know Linux needs more PACkage MANagement ;)

Re:This is stupid

[xoff00]

Isn't this the SCO argument?

Re:Oh, come on...

[twifkak]

Heh, I envision a future where automated ESA/RIAA bots will send out e-mails to alleged infringers with "X-Copyright-Infringement" tags, and mailservers at the ISP will detect those tags and automatically close the account of recipients of such e-mails. :P

Re:This is insane

[cybercuzco]

Most of the time, the accusations were made by women, or people looking to clear their "good name" by accusing others of "hexing" them into doing evil deeds.

H3x0rs?

Re:Fighting back?

[Xerithane]

You can't sue for emotional damage in small claims, only for financial distress.

You can for Tort, which covers that though. I would just assume most people here think Torts are something you put in a toaster with frosted sprinkles and strawberry filling, though.

Re:Slow Down DMCAbot!

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey, if enough people generate PacMan.gz with /dev/urandom, do you think at some point we will actually end up with a proper gzip file of PacMan?

My infringed files....

[scovetta]

I always name my files with the prefix 'NotPirated_' so everyone knows. It's the file-system equivalent of setting the Evil bit off. So now I just have
NotPirated_MetallicaEnterSandman.mp3
NotPir ated_SpaceQuestV.zip

I suggest you all do the same.

Re:Suggestion - DMCAbot honeypot

[red floyd]

It would be interesting to know whether (say) the ESA had been trawling through my sites.

Why are you worried abou the European Space Agency? Do you have bootleg blueprints of the Ariane 5?

Can those emails be submitted as spam?

[dacarr]

No, really, think of it. They send you a letter saying that you must remove the file or settle, and it's not a legitimate claim. Can you have their provider remove them from the 'net for sending you an unsolicited threat of suit?

Idiots out there

[Stonent1]

I was forced by the forum admin to change the name of the link to my website Stonent's Dell Laptop Hack and FAQ on the DellTalk forums. A user complained that hacking is illegal and the forum admin said I needed to change the name in the link. Apparently the user had never even visited my website as it has info on how to upgrade Dell laptops.

Re:Let's Have Some Fun!

[quantum bit]

and it should have a "Reasonably Ostensible Manual" for documentation purposes. It can be distributed in a file called "PACkage-MANagement-ROM.zip"

Re:Dualling Notices

[MntlChaos]

great. now we not only have spam flying around, but bots talking to eachother "I want to speak to a real person." "You can speak to a real person if you are a real person" "Hey! I told you! you better let me speak to a real person" " You can speak to a real person if you are a real person" ad infinutum

Please patent this bot

[artwells]

Wouldn't it be great if you had a patent on the process of trolling the internet for possibly infringing filenames?

You could create a honeypot of warezy names, create a boilerplate Cease and Desist email and wait for the fun to start.

Ah, if only I had thought of that earlier...

Re:Seriously?

[Noren]

Just a small post to notify you of a misuse of the word "me" for the word "I".

From english.purdue.edu,

2. In comparisons. Comparisons usually follow than or as:[snip]

He is taller than I (am tall).[snip]

NOT: He is taller than me.
(Would you say, "than me am tall"?)

The sentence, "Paul loves pizza more than me (do)." is incorrect, it should be:

"Paul loves pizza more than I (do)." The word "do" may be omitted.

Hope this helps. Have a nice day.