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Warner Brothers: Automated Takedown Notices Hit Files That Weren't Ours
itwbennett writes "In a court case between Hotfile.com and Hollywood studios, Warner Brothers admitted they sent takedown orders for thousands of files they didn't own or control. Using an automated takedown tool provided by Hotfile, Warner Brothers used automated software crawlers based on keywords to generate legal takedown orders. This is akin to not holding the Post Office liable for what people mail, or the phone companies liable for what people say. But the flip side is that hosters must remove files when receiving a legal takedown notice from the copyright holder — even when the copyright holders themselves don't know what material they actually own."
If someone sends you a takedown notice for something that they don't own, that doesn't sound even remotely like a legal takedown notice.
"This is akin to not holding the Post Office liable for what people mail, or the phone companies liable for what people say."
No this is akin to FRAUD. It'd be like me saying I'm Warner Brothers and going and cleaning out their bank accounts.
PS: Maybe if the DMCA included fines and penalties for takedown notices that are illegitimate they might not be as prone to using automated tools that work on a 'spray and pray' philosophy... Also if any of these people were unfairly targeted by DMCA notices should sue Warner Bros for damages and such.
09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0
+2 Troll is Slashdot's way of saying groupthink is confused
If you carefully review the elements of the DMCA takedown and put-back notices, you'll note that for the put-back notice, you must provider
a statement under penalty of perjury that [you have] a good faith belief the material was mistakenly taken down
Fair enough. But check the takedown notice:
a statement that [evil RIAA goon lawyer] has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
a statement that, under penalty of perjury, [evil RIAA goon lawyer] is authorized to act for the copyright holder
That's right -- it's a crime (perjury) to submit a take down notice if (and only if) you're not authorized by the copyright holder. It's not a crime to submit bad-fath take down notices. But disputing a bad-faith take down notice potentially is a crime and exposes you to criminal liability.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
Under the law, this action is refered to as "depraved indifference" - an action, deliberate or unintentional, displaying reckless disregard and wanton carelessness. A suitable penalty would include the removal of the ability to issue takedown notices for a year (or more...).
Chaos maximizes locally around me.
Yes, it is. However, if one submits such a false take down notice, the according to the DMCA they can be charged with perjury. It's too bad that (to my knowledge) no-one has taken advantage of this...
Good faith requires that you have reasonable grounds to believe that something is true, or that you have the claim or right, or legal right to do so. That isn't the case here. They're simply doing it because they 'feel' or 'think it might be' something based on assumptions, and guesswork. It would be the same as a cop going along and busting down someone door randomly and saying "I reasonably believed that they were smuggling 250lbs of coke" based on their gut. Doesn't fly there, it shouldn't fly here.
There is a clause in the DMCA for filing claims that are false, perhaps people should start using it?
Om, nomnomnom...
It doesn't seem to be mentioned anywhere in the article, but does anyone know which "Open Source software" was removed? They claim that the software sped up infringing downloads, so I wondered if it was a file sharing program or download accelerator or something along those lines. This company would happily claim that the entire internet in general is bad because it helps people download infringing content.
If, as the rights owners claim, unauthorised copying is 'copyright theft, then surely claiming to own the copyright of something which they do not. is a much more serious case of copyright theft.
Especially since they were repeatedly warned that they were misreporting files and refused to stop and it just so happens they had a financial motive in acting improperly given that the page generated by using the removal tool had links to purchase the alleged infringing work legally--free page views on free advertisements, effectively.
We need "-1 goatse" mod...